Mystery of the Reclusive Rafter Tails

Our American Foursquare house the day we purchased

In my second blog post, The American Foursquare, I mentioned that Foursquare homes usually have a colonial or craftsman influence. I've even seen some with Spanish colonial elements. Foursquares vary a great deal even in one neighborhood! I am hoping do do a future post about Foursquares in Ghent. But, I digress ...

Back to the mystery at hand!  I said that our house has some Craftsman elements like exposed rafter tails on the dormers.  In the photos above, if you look at the dormer windows on the third floor you can barely see the ends of the rafter tails under the roof eaves. They look like little white decorative blocks from the front.

Well, when we were planning the renovations of our house, we discussed the possibility of there being exposed rafter tails hiding under the vinyl that is covering the soffitt (underneath portion) of the main roof. You can see (above) on the right side that the roof overhangs quite a bit. We were sooooo hoping that we would uncover and restore a treasure under there!

 

And there they are! When the crew began removing the siding we could see that, indeed, there are exposed rafter tails on our house. At least, they exist in the back of the house?

 

 

Then we got a peek at the side overhang and, yes! Mystery solved in the affirmative! Turns out they are in pretty good condition. I think we have to replace one or two on the whole 91 year old house! But, what you might be able to see below is roofing nails that come all the way through the soffit boards - UG-LEE! After some considerable back and forth between owners, contractor and painters here is what we decided.

 

 

 

The nail tips would be snipped off as best they could be. Then the remaining wood would be scraped and sanded, primed and painted, the best it could be. Everyone promised it would look amazing!

 

 And it does! So far, anyway.  This is the right side after scraping, painting, priming and two coats of paint - finished! Now, imagine THAT all the way around against blue-gray siding and pristine white trim. Perfection ... keep viewing Mission: Foursquare to see!

 



 



The American Foursquare

Our new/old house is an American Foursquare. The Foursquare was a popular architectural style in American communities in the early 1900s. It marked a return to functional and simplistic architecture following the elaborate and asymmetrical styles of the Victorian Era.  This more practical movement in domestic architecture was inspired by the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Foursquare was particularly popular in communities that were near railroads, including the predecessors to today's Norfolk and Southern Railway. This was largely due to the pattern books and mail-order catalog companies which delivered kits by railroad directly to homeowners. Here is a page from the Sears Catalog of a home similar to ours:

The Foursquare popularized the basic 2x2 construction--2 rooms wide by 2 rooms deep. It was box-shaped in order to maximize the space on a small urban lot. These homes typically had a craftsman or colonial revival influence. Ours has more craftsman features including the shape of the columns on the front porch and the exposed rafter tails under the eaves. (Translation: Rafter tails are the exposed portion of the rafter or roof structure, that overhangs the exterior wall. They look like decorative brackets but aren't simply decorative.) 

The 3rd floor dormer shows the original rafter tails with beaded board between them.  We are hoping to find the same details on the 2nd floor too which is currently covered with vinyl soffits. (Translation:  Soffits are the underside of the overhanging roof.)  

Mission: Solve the mystery of the rafter tails 

Tapered columns are one of the most distinctive characteristics of Craftsman homes and we have them  too on our new/old Foursquare. Craftsman columns support the porch roof and are typically short and sit on big brick or stone piers. We have three big brick piers but, oops! only two tapered columns! 

Mission: Investigate the existence of the third column

Image Source: City of Roanoke website, our new/old home
Information Sources: City of Roanoke website, Houzz.com Elements of Craftsman Style

Searshomes.org has interesting information and examples of different Sears homes.