The Italianate style was introduced by Andrew Jackson Downing in his 1850 publication, The Architecture of Country Houses. He extolled the virtues of the Gothic Revival, but offered the villa, a version based on Italian country houses that veered more toward classicism and did not have the religious overtones of the Gothic Revival.

Other features include:

• ornate treatment of the eaves, including the use of brackets, modillions and dentil courses

• wood clapboard

• double-hung, narrow windows, often with round arch heads with protruding sills

• window panes are either one-over-one or two-over-two

• low-pitched, hipped roof

• blocked, cube shape, with a side-passage plan, or cross-gable

• bay windows, often rectangular shape in form

• quoins and cresting

• transom, often curved, above the front door ornate porch treatment, with round columns or square posts, and bargeboard ornament