four square and many years ago
recently, i have been searching for stylistic information on the american foursquare building type. you know...what style of interior trim was commonly used, what kind of finishes, etc. mostly i have been googling because there seem to be few published books pertaining to the style itself. even google turns up few results on the building type.
you can, however, find numerous sites dedicated to the game of four square. i'm not sure i ever played it. have any of you? i played a lot of hopscotch in my youth - this seems loosely related, although much more competitive.
like the game, the building type is named for the arrangement of four small rectangles grouped together to make one large square. in foursquare houses, this manifests in four rooms on the first floor and four rooms on the second. in grand center hall four squares, these four rooms are arranged around a central hall and stair, making it more like foursquare and then some. in a more modest foursquare like ours, with the entry hall off the side, the arrangement of the shapes becomes asymmetrical. still four rectangles are grouped together to make a larger single square, but the entry hall and stair become one of the "rooms."
the american foursquare building type is loosely drawn from the prairie style houses built in the early twentieth century. seems the only published sources i find on the prairie style focus on frank lloyd wright. he was great and all, but his work had little impact on the modest foursquare at sixthirtyone booker street. it was built as cheaply as possible and fitted with mass-produced, albeit lovely, interior details. flw's houses were most often dressed with custom made furniture and glass of his own design. our house certainly exhibits none of those niceties.
so far, this website is the best i've found, showing a variety of foursquares and interior details. as the old house web points out, the foursquare was a very common building type in the first third of the twentieth century and is found across the entire united states, modified for each climate and site. [i think it's funny that this website, while containing decent info, states that the "foursquare is what most people think of as 'the all-American family home' on Main Street USA." typically, the all american family did not live on main street, where most commercial activity occured.]
in any case, i'm on the look out for any info i can find on this building type. sadly there is little to be found. perhaps i should write a book?
posted by bls @ 12:51 PM
3 Comments:
You should definitely write a book. All those cute TJU rock boys used to play 4-square inside and outside Peabody hall--Brian what's-his-name and maybe Bridge? They were pretty intense about it.
book book book!
I played 4-square a lot as a kid. My parents used to make fun of it because they couldn't understand all the wacky rules you could throw in...
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