Key Elements of Adelaide French Colonial Style

1. Steep pitched hipped roofs, usually broken by a shallower pitch over the galleries.

2. Deep porches and galleries most often recessed under one roof form.

3. One story & two story massing with large classic influenced columns on 1st floor and slender colonnettes on 2nd floor.

4. Massing and column spacing is symmetrical. Window and door openings are typically centered in bay.

5. West Indian Creole/Colonial influences seen in the detailing.

French Colonial Elements

Wall Materials: Brick or stucco on the first floor, smooth finish wood or fiber cement lap siding with 6" exposure on the second floor. Doors: Multi-pane french doors are often used in lieu of windows on the first floor under the porch. Entry doors may or may not include a transom. Windows: Typically large openings of casement or double hung with more elaborate muntin patterns. Shutters: Slatted panel, or plank (batten), louvered, or solid panel. Roof: Asphalt shingle, 5-V metal roof, standing seam mtl. roof, wood shake shingle.

History of French Colonial Style

Colonial dwellings in Louisiana in the late seventeenth century were heavily influenced by French Canadian explorers (Acadians), European French, and the French, West Indian Creoles by way of ships from France via the Haitian Creole community on the north coast of Haiti to the Louisiana colonies. Architectural influences from these three peoples are the roots of the French Colonial Style. In general, the Haitian Creole style is the least refined, the French Canadian style resembles architecture of early French Quebec and Normandy, and the European French style was a simplified French Renaissance style in basic form, strongly influenced by neoclassical principles.

Early buildings were rectangular with high pitched hipped roofs and European French embellishments such as French segmental arches over doors and windows. They were symmetrically designed, built low to the ground, and included shutters, French doors, casement windows, and fireplaces with chimneys. Creoles were much better prepared for the weather conditions in Louisiana than the European French, and therefore the European French style adapted with raised construction and added galleries to the basic rectangular forms. Porch roof forms evolved from simple lean-to roofs over porches to the double-pitched roof form we commonly recognize as French Colonial, and eventually to the single-pitched "umbrella roof", covering the main body and the galleries.

Adelaide French Colonial inherits the early tradition of the more refined neoclassical, Greek Revival, and French Renaissance roots, as well as the environmentally adapted elements of galleries, roof forms, and the more ornate and refined aspects of the Caribbean and Creole influenced columns. What seems to be a straightforward style, is really the evolution of Spanish, French, and English styles originated in Europe, evolved in the West Indies, and served up in southern Louisiana.