Norfolk Arts & Crafts houses emerged from the traditions of craftsman design found throughout the eastern region of Virginia. During the early twentieth century, many local builders picked up elements of the style from house plan publications and mail order houses. The Arts & Crafts movement espoused a simple decorative expression of structural elements and built-in furniture that builders found suitable for estate and cottage homes. While the region is home to many small craftsman cottages, it also features a variety of larger estate houses designed and built during this period.
    The Norfolk Arts & Crafts style is characterized by broad, open porches; roofs with deep overhangs and exposed rafter tails or decorative brackets; asymmetric compositions; grouped windows with a variety of upper muntin patterns; expressive trim; rafters; and porches with brackets. One unique trait of many of the Arts & Crafts houses in this region is the use of Classically derived columns in lieu of the more common tapered or square columns used in other regions.
    In this section of the pattern book you will find the following detailed information about the Norfolk Colonial style house: