The James Hicks, Noble Hall, and Lee Hoffman home in the Highlands neighborhood. James Hicks built this American Foursquare style home in 1906. (source: Vern Scott Collection, Talladega Public Library)
The American Foursquare was most popular from 1885 to 1930. It was a post-Victorian style that shared many features with the Prairie architecture pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright. The boxy foursquare shape provided roomy interiors for homes on small city lots. The simple, square shape also made the Foursquare style especially practical for mail order house kits from Sears and other catalog companies.
American Foursquare houses usually have these features:
Simple box shape
Two-and-a-half stories high
Four-room floor plan
Low-hipped roof with deep overhang
Large central dormer
Full-width porch with wide stairs
Brick, stone, stucco, concrete block, or wood siding
Creative builders often dressed up the basic foursquare form. Although foursquare houses are always the same square shape, they can have features borrowed from any of these styles:
Queen Anne – bay windows, small towers, or "gingerbread" trim
Mission – stucco siding and roof parapets
Colonial Revival – pediments or porticos
Craftsman – exposed roof rafters, beamed ceilings, built-in cabinetry, and carefully crafted woodwork
