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French Colonial Homes: Vive L'élégance

exterior image of a French colonial home in New Orleans
Zillow
Written by|January 15, 2016

All colonial homes resemble homes in the settlers' countries of origin.

Most celebrate English architecture, which during Colonial times was strongly influenced by the columns and symmetry of ancient Greece and Rome. Smaller subsets are Dutch and Spanish colonial, the latter found mostly out West.

French colonial homes are harder to come by, largely because France stopped colonizing the Americas following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

622 Esplanade Ave, NOLA

While French colonial revival homes can be found all over the country, author Virginia Savage McAlester estimates more than half of the original ones are in New Orleans -- and they are now centuries old.

They are typically symmetrical like English-style colonial homes, but tend to be made of stucco with steep roofs and tall, narrow windows and doors -- often French doors. The result is a simple elegance that was considered old-fashioned during the Victorian era that followed but has experienced a major comeback.

Unlike most other colonial architecture, many French colonial buildings were outfitted decades later with elaborate iron balconies and staircases. Some were Victorian-ized to the point of being almost unrecognizable as French colonials.

Americanized iron works, 600 Esplanade Ave, New Orleans

French + Caribbean = Creole homes

Because of their location along the Gulf Coast, French colonial homes often have Caribbean elements and are sometimes called Creole cottages, townhouses and plantations.

Creole townhouse, 910 Orleans Ave NOLA

They tend to have full front porches, high gabled roofs with dormers and rooflines that run parallel to the street. The cottages and townhouses typically have no hallways and are built right up to the front property line.

Interior

Franklin, MS

Carrying the style of their era indoors, some French colonials have a way of looking like Marie Antoinette has been there. They can be even more ornamental inside that out, with a Victorian-like crowded feeling and lots of gold leaf.

French Colonial kitchen, 907 Dauphine St, New Orleans

Some French colonial interiors can seem rustic, almost like a farmhouse, in the vein of the immigrants who built them after growing up in the French countryside.

French colonial revival

If true French colonial homes are hard to come by, then French colonial revival homes are even more rare.

French Colonial revival, 833 Chatham, Glenview, IL

Homes built in the English colonial (Georgian) style abound, but most new homes called French colonial are faint whispers of the true style -- sometimes actually Tudors, with the steep roofs of a French colonial and not much else.

Others that do appear somewhat French are actually closer to chateaux revival.

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