Foursquare

Foursquare homes were very popular in Edmonton in the 1910s. There are many surviving examples that provide wonderful character to some of the city’s older neighbourhoods.

The Foursquare style was popular in the 1910s and 1920s among all socio-economic classes, and was a vernacular form of the Prairie style. The style was named for the typical house layout, which was a square footprint with equally divided interior spaces. The main floor had a foyer, kitchen, dining room, and living room, and the upper floor had three bedrooms and a bathroom. Upper-class homes were larger, used brick rather than wood, and utilized more decorations. Although two storey examples dominated, the foursquare style was also occasionally applied to single storey homes.

Characteristics

Usually two stories high
Exterior clad in brick, clapboard, or wooden shingles
Symmetrical design
Low pitched hipped roof
Square footprint
Full length front porch with square or tapered columns
Dormer windows

Details

Character Defining Elements

Balcony, Balloon framed, Bay window, Boxed eaves, Brackets, Brick cladding, Brick structure, Cast stone, Cedar shingle, Chimney, Clapboard siding, Columns, Concrete block structure, Cornice, Dentil, Duplex, Eaves, Enclosed eaves, Exposed rafters, Flared eaves, Frieze, Gable roof, Hipped dormers, Hipped roof, Intersecting gable roof, Intersecting hipped roof, Irregular footprint, Lintel, Nailed frame structure, Pier or Pillar, Pillars, Porch, Pyramidal roof, Quoins, Rectangular footprint, Round headed dormer, Sash windows, Sills, Square footprint, Stone cladding, Timber clapboard cladding, Two & a half storeys, Two storeys, Veranda, Wooden shingles, Wooden strucutre