Colonial Revival

An architectural mode that reuses selected aspects of earlier colonial prototypes, especially from around 1870 onward. In the United States, when this term is used without reference to a country of origin (simply as Colonial Revival), it usually refers to American Colonial Revival, based on prototypes in the English colonies in America. Of these prototypes, the Georgian and the Federal style (Adam style) are the most widely imitated, giving rise to the terms Georgian Revival and Federal Revival (Adam Revival). Colonial Revival houses are usually the result of a rather free interpretation of their prototypes; they tend to be larger than, and may differ significantly from, the houses they seek to emulate, often exaggerating architectural details. For descriptions of other types of colonial revival architecture, see Dutch Colonial Revival, Chateauesque

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