Curious about the 'Victorian' era in the USA

[HudsonHawk]

Do you know which phrase used to mark a time period really doesn't work for me? The Golden Era.

It goes hand-in-hand with the use of the phrase The Greatest Generation to describe "the generation who grew up in the United States during the deprivation of the Great Depression, and then went on to fight in World War II, as well as those whose productivity within the war's home front made a decisive material contribution to the war effort".

I think the title was a handy hook to hang a book on, but it's wider use seems unfair to those from other periods who made such fantastic contributions to the world.

I think this is true for any such labels. They're ok for marking specific periods of time, but using them to define subjective things is dicey at best.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Look at the fireplaces. The glorious tiled cast iron fireplaces are almost a defining feature of the Victorian-Edwardian transition. It's complicated of course, because people replaced or upgraded their fireplaces in Victorian houses during the Edwardian era. You can usually tell from the upstairs front room fireplace (the dinky small one) which tended not to be replaced and in my 1867 house is distinctly Victorian - bowl shaped and devoid of ornamentation. Were it Edwardian it would tend to be just a smaller version of the elaborate tiled jobs downstairs.

Also depends who the houses were built for. Our row went up first in the area, and were speculative private purchase cottages. The Warners (social housing association) that went up a few years later are much smaller and have very different (and variable, for variety) layout.

The terms Victorian and Edwardian can get confusing when applied to architecture. My house (built 1906) is thus Edwardian, yet is Victorian in its construction and layout etc. The houses opposite mine are Edwardian (in construction and layout) but were built the year before my house. Furthermore, that style continued to be built into the 1920s when the Edwardian era was over.

 

[Two Types]

The fireplace question is a good one. Our house (built for, and inhabited by, a fairly well-off middle class family who occupied the house from 1906 until 1995) had typically ornate Victorian fireplaces, without being over the top. Only two remain although I did find remnants of the main one stuffed into the chimney breast and buried in the garden. However, they are combined with very plain skirting boards, more suited to edwardian homes.
However, the adjoining house had a very grand typically Victorian fireplace in the front room, but a very sleek Edwardian one in the back room. These were real houses in transition between two periods.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Yes, I had the remains of the Victorian one (mid victorian - nothing ornate about it; dour, conservative, functional) in our sitting room replaced with a transitional "massive black" cast iron monster - tiles built in to the cast iron fireplace etc. It dominates, rather, against the pale pink walls, but noy does it cast good heat from a fire! Come on winter, I want another fire!