Search the interweb for images of a “haunted house” and almost every picture you’ll see will be a mansard-topped, cast-iron-cresting-wearing, Second Empire style house. Mosey down the Halloween aisle at any big box emporium and you can get any number of decorations adorned with spooky mansard-roofed buildings. Grab any generic scary storybook off the shelf and chances are that the cover has a cobwebbed Second Empire style house circled by bats. Second Empire is the king of scary. But there’s much more to the style than just that.
Just a few spooky Second Empires found at your local Halloween supply spots. Including (top image) Halloween shelves topped with cardboard mansards. Credit: Christiana Limniatis, Preservation Maryland.
Most traditional American architectural styles are revival styles or rather reinterpretations of previous design theories from long ago and around the world. But the Second Empire, popular nationally from 1855 till about 1890, is one of the few examples of a very modern, organic trend of an architectural style. Instead of mimicking building designs from 200 years earlier, it mimicked the newest, most fashionable French buildings. In the 1850s France saw the rise of Napoleon III, initially serving as the first President of France, he later seized power creating the Second French Empire and proclaiming himself Emperor of France. During his twenty-year reign, Napoleon III commissioned a massive public works project to transform Paris from an overgrown, medieval city of patchwork neighborhoods to a modern city, influencing planning projects in cities around the world for decades.
Illustrations of the different shapes mansard roofs may have. Credit: A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia Savage McAlester.
During this construction blitz, the major trend was the revival of the mansard roof shape which was named after 17th-century architect, Francois Mansart. All of these new buildings were on display during the Exposition Universelle of 1855, an International Exhibition that was held on the newly spruced up Avenue des Champs-Elysees. Mansard roofs started popping up all over England and soon the Second Empire style made its way to America. For about twenty years, the style was so popular that almost every American building plan pattern book includes at least one example.
It was also the go-to style used for the dozens of federal and other municipal buildings constructed during the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant, much of which replaced infrastructure lost during the Civil War. The style was used so often that it was jokingly referred to as “General Grant” style. Like most good things, it didn’t last and fell out of fashion sharply in the 1870s, in part due to the panic of 1873 and the subsequent extended economic depression. The mansard roof did have a bit of a reprieve in the modern era, popular from about the 1950s-1985 and usually referred to as either NeoMansard or just Mansard style. This includes the iconic 1970s McDonald’s new restaurant design that featured a brown double mansard roof brick faced building, replacing the company’s original little red, white, and yellow hamburger stands.
December 22, 1970, advertisement in The [Frederick] News. Sadly, the mansard McDonald’s has been updated yet again to a more modern fast-food typology.
Aigburth Vale, was built in 1868 as the country home of one of America’s best known and wealthiest actors of the 19th century, John E. Owens. Built in Towson, Aigburth Vale is attributed to Niernsee & Neilson, one of Baltimore’s most preeminent architectural firms of their time. It was the Owens family home until 1886 when John passed away. The estate was then subdivided, one of the first suburban developments in the Towson area, and then the house served as an inn, a private hospital, and finally as the main office of the Baltimore County Board of Education. Presently it is part of a senior living community.
Littleton T. Clarke House (left) in Pocomoke City, as photographed in its 1996 National Register of Historic Places nomination. Credit: Maryland Historical Trust. Aigburth Vale (right) on Aigburth Road in Towson is now known as the Aigburth Vale Senior Community. Credit: Currottodesign.com.
The Littleton T. Clarke House in Pocomoke City is a fine example of a Second Empire style frame residence. Built in 1860, it features a concave-curved mansard roof, with a central tower and multiple dormers. It stands as one of the best surviving examples of Second Empire in Worcester County. The Clarke House was individually listed in the National Register in 1996, and then again listed as a contributing resource in the Pocomoke City Historic District in 2004. One of the oldest municipal examples of Second Empire is Baltimore City Hall. Completed in 1875, it was designed by George A. Frederick and features a central block tower with four corner pavilions and a tall mansard roof with dormers. Baltimore City Hall is also double listed in the National Register. First individually listed in 1972 and then as part of the Business and Government Historic District in 1987. Located on Washington Street in Cumberland, the Walsh House, later known as the Board of Education Building, was built c. 1866 by William Walsh an Irish immigrant and prominent citizen of his day. The building is listed in the National Register as a contributing resource in the Washington Street Historic District.
Baltimore City Hall completed in 1875 (left). Credit: Johns Hopkins University. The Board of Education Building on Washington Street, Cumberland (right.) Credit: Christiana Limniatis, Preservation Maryland.
So why is the Second Empire so committed to all things scary? By the 1920s and 1930s, the style was very much out of fashion, and as the Great Depression raged on, many home and business owners simply abandoned their grand Victorian era homes, and many Second Empire styled buildings sat vacant and underutilized. The association of the style with decrepitness is firmly secured in 1938 when the New Yorker magazine premiered a new cartoon series where the titular Addams Family, a macabre cast of characters who live in a spooky, cobweb covered, mansard roofed, Second Empire style mansion. The Addamses are soon not alone, with a long line of scary and spooky Second Empire homes including the home of the Munsters, the Psycho house, the murderous neighbors in the movie The ‘Burbs, the location of many a crime in Scooby Doo, the Owens women of the book and movie Practical Magic, Leti Lewis of Lovecraft Country, the Locke family in Locke and Key, Dani & Max in Hocus Pocus, and Count Olaf from A Series of Unfortunate Events. But there’s also non scary Second Empire pop culture out there, Edward Hopper painted Second Empire style homes in Mansard Roof and House by the Railroad, and Vampire Weekend’s song “Mansard Roof.” I’m sure there’s more, right?
“Boiling Oil,” The New Yorker, December 21, 1946. The ledge of their mansard roof provides the perfect oil pour spot. Credit: npr.org.
The major character-defining feature of the Second Empire style is having a mansard roof: a dual-pitched hipped roof. Or more simply, it’s a roof that has two slopes on every side, and where the lower slope is considerably steeper than the upper. Very often there will be dormer windows on the steep lower slope and molded cornice lines above and below the lower roof slope. Brackets usually accent moderate-to-low overhanging eaves. Roofs are often further accented by cupolas, towers, and cast-iron cresting along roof lines. The slate shingles on the mansard roof often also have patterns work either because of the use of different colored slates or different shaped shingles. Overall, Second Empire style residences are usually two or three stories tall, with tall narrow, usually arched, windows sometimes accented with window crowns or hoods, and include both wood frame and masonry examples. Sharing many characteristics with the Italianate style, Second Empire was a popular choice for well-to-do Victorian families in towns across Maryland.
Do you have a great example of Second Empire in your community? Share it to social media with the hashtag #PMSecondEmpire.