Dutch Colonial Revival Houses

Dutch Colonial Revival, or Neo-Dutch Colonial, homes are a quite distinctive style of North American architecture, popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Asked to describe a Dutch Colonial, the average American without much architectural vocabulary will say it's shaped like a barn. Not nearly as common as other Colonial styles, they typically have gambrel roofs with flared eaves, fireplaces centered on end walls, and larger homes have the formal entrance in the center of one of the long walls. More elaborate homes often have a gambrel-roofed cross-gable as well. As the name suggests, these were a revival of a much earlier style, modernized to suit 19th and early-20th Century tastes.

You can find hundreds of coffee-table books and restoration guides for Craftsman or Victorian or Colonial designs, but Dutch Colonials have been largely ignored since the early 20th Century, when they were written about at length by Aymar Embury, e.g. Building the Dutch Colonial House: Its origin, design, modern plan and construction, illustrated with photographs of old examples and American adaptations of the style.

For someone looking to restore a vintage Dutch Colonial Revival, there are not nearly as many references available as for most other American Colonial styles. Since I happen to be restoring one myself, I have taken many pictures of details on other homes as a way of taking notes, and started this group with some of those photos.

The purpose of this group is to share images of distinctive Dutch Colonial Revival architectural homes, provide examples for people looking to renovate their homes without butchering the style, and document the many variations of this style.