Preservation Guides
Stacked Duplexes
In its purest form, a stacked duplex is a large, gable-fronted, freestanding wooden box containing virtually identical two-room wide, four-room deep, first- and second-story apartments. Typically this building type has a large attic formed by a steeply pitched gable roof, and a two-story front porch.
As a group, stacked duplexes feature a broad range of variations on this basic theme. Some are built of brick, others of concrete block; some have cross-gable roofs, others have gable roofs topped by large intersecting gable dormers; some have narrow projecting side wings or turrets, others have simple rectangular overall plans; some have projecting window bays, others do not; some have feature extensive and elaborate exterior ornamentation, others have exteriors which are very plain.
Historical Background
Though found on scattered sites throughout much of Connecticut, the stacked duplex is essentially an urban house type which began to make its appearance in the early 1800s. Between the early 1800s and the World War I era, it became one of the most popular and dominant house types in rapidly growing industrial centers throughout the state. In large cities such as New Haven, Hartford, Bridgeport, and Waterbury, as well as in smaller urban centers such as Torrington, Winstead, and Naugatuck, stacked duplexes were erected in extensive numbers throughout this period. Usually built by local contractors or developers, identical stacked duplexes often appear in rows of five, six, or more along the same block of a street. In New Haven, such concentrations are found throughout portions of the Dixwell, Newhallville, Fair Haven, East Rock, Edgewood, and Westville neighborhoods.
Several reasons help to account for the popularity of the stacked duplex as a house type around the turn of the twentieth century. For example, because of their multiple living units, contractors and developers who built them were able to realize a greater profit from rentals and sales than they would have by building a single-family house on the same site. By using the same design and construction crew to build a row of five, six, or more along the same block, construction time for many stacked duplexes was reduced dramatically, further helping to reduce costs. Usually built in new developing residential neighborhoods along the fringe of the inner city, and featuring “new” modern amenities such as indoor plumbing and central heating, the roomy, well-lit interiors and affordable prices of most stacked duplexes proved highly attractive to the rising middle-class working families which formed a rapidly growing segment of Connecticut’s turn-of-the-century urban population.
When Was It Built?
Determining the approximate or actual age of a building can be important. If you know your building’s date, a little further research will enable you to determine the physical properties of construction materials commonly used when it was built. This knowledge can prevent you from making costly repairs with inappropriate modern materials.
The first step to determine your building’s construction date should be to call your local library, planning office, or the State Historic Preservation Office. The building’s date may have already been included as a part of the state’s ongoing architectural survey program. If the building has not yet been “surveyed,” the following may help you make your own assessment.
There are three dating methods commonly used by professional researchers. The first involves tracing the history of the property using city directories, land records, tax records, building department records, and similar material kept on file by the city. Another approach is to look through old maps of your city which were compiled in different years and which have buildings drawn on them. For example, assume you have maps for your city from 1895 and 1911. If your building is not on the 1895 map, but is on the 1911 map, it is fair to assume it was built between these two dates. A third method is to date your building on the basis of its architectural style. The three methods may be combined to arrive at the most accurate date.
What Style Is It?
Stylistic terms are used to categorize the basic massing forms and ornamental features which visually distinguish a building as a product of its time. Since stacked duplexes as a group share the same basic forms, their architectural “style” is conveyed primarily through exterior ornamentation. Exterior ornamentation associated with most stacked duplexes usually reflects the influence of one or two of the country’s most popular turn-of-the-century residential architectural styles: Queen Anne and Colonial Revival.
When dating a stacked duplex on the basis of architectural style, the following guidelines can generally be applied.
Predominantly Queen Anne-style ornamentation: late 1880s - 1900
Predominantly Colonial Revival-style ornamentation: 1905 - 1920s
Significant combination of elements from both styles: 1895 - 1910
Queen Anne Style: 1880s to 1900
The Queen Anne style was very popular across the nation between the 1880s and the earliest years of the twentieth century. Typical Queen Anne-style features found on stacked duplexes include the use of differing types of siding materials to create interesting patterns and textures (usually horizontal clapboards, patterned wood shingles, and vertical and horizontal trim boards on wall faces), prominent scroll-sawn brackets under the roof eaves; windows featuring different sizes and glazing patterns; elaborately detailed porches with turned posts and balusters and heavy rails; large arched openings with turned or carved decorative elements; and bargeboards along the gable rakes.
Colonial Revival Style: 1905 to 1920s
Colonial Revival-style features began to appear on the exteriors of stacked duplexes in the mid-1890s. By the 1910s, most new stacked duplexes had become almost entirely dominated by the less fanciful and more refined and “formal” details associated with this style. While the combined use of clapboards and wood shingles on the exterior was often retained, wood shingles no longer tended to feature eye-catching shapes and pattern arrangements; three-part attic windows were sometimes placed in gables; elaborate turned porch posts and railings gave way to plain columns, piers, and plain “picket” or solid porch railings; scroll-sawn eave brackets were eliminated or replaced by simpler, classically derived features such as box-like modillion brackets and dentil moldings; bargeboards on gable rakes gave way to simpler rake moldings ending in full cornice returns on gable ends.
Text and drawings by Paul Loether and Preston Maynard