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04 · Classical & Gothic Revivals

Second Empire

c. 1855–1885

Steep boxy mansard roofs with dormer windows, over heavily bracketed cornices and paired columns.

Look for

Mansard roof Dormer Bracketed eaves
Philadelphia City Hall, Philadelphia: an example of Second Empire architecture
Philadelphia City Hall, Philadelphia. Photo: Toniklemm, CC BY-SA 4.0
Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Washington, D.C.
Eisenhower Executive Office Building Washington, D.C. · takomabibelot, CC BY 2.0
Old City Hall, Boston
Old City Hall Boston · Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY 4.0
Baltimore City Hall, Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore City Hall Baltimore, Maryland · Jonmallard, CC BY 4.0
Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Renwick Gallery Washington, D.C. · ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0

what it is

Second Empire buildings are defined by the mansard roof: a roof with two slopes on each side, the lower slope steep and pierced by dormer windows, the upper one nearly flat. The mansard turns the top story into a full floor of rooms. Below it, facades have heavy cornices, often on brackets, paired columns, windows with molded surrounds, and pavilions (sections of the facade that project forward), sometimes topped by their own square domes.

In Paris, Hector Lefuel completed the New Louvre (1852-1857) for Napoleon III. In Washington, James Renwick Jr.'s art gallery for William Wilson Corcoran (begun 1859), now the Renwick Gallery, was modeled on the Louvre's additions. Alfred B. Mullett's State, War, and Navy Building in Washington (1871-1888), now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and John McArthur Jr.'s Philadelphia City Hall (1871-1901) are large American examples; Philadelphia's was the world's tallest habitable building from 1894 to 1908. Italianate houses of the same years share the brackets but have low, shallow roofs.

how to spot one

Mansard roof A four-sided roof with a nearly flat top and a steep, almost vertical lower slope, usually set with windows. It adds a full floor under the roof and defines Second Empire buildings. Dormer A window in a small roofed structure projecting from a sloping roof. Dormers add light and headroom to attic rooms on Cape Cod, Georgian and Second Empire houses. Bracketed eaves Brackets, projecting supports often set in pairs, placed at regular intervals under a wide roof overhang. They are the defining feature of Italianate houses of about 1840 to 1885.

Also look for

QuoinsBalustradeClassical columnKeystone

history

The style is named for the Second French Empire of Napoleon III (1852-1870). The mansard roof is older: it is named for the French architect François Mansart (1598-1666), and Pierre Lescot used one on part of the Louvre around 1550. Paris building rules from 1783 limited height measured to the cornice, so a mansard added a floor of rooms without breaking the limit. Napoleon III's new Louvre wings and the buildings along Haussmann's new Paris boulevards made the roof the standard for the city.

Detlef Lienau, who had trained in Paris, built the first Second Empire house in the United States, the Hart M. Schiff house in New York, in 1850. Construction in the style increased after the Civil War, from 1865, in both the United States and Canada. Mullett, supervising architect of the Treasury Department from 1866 to 1874, used it for federal buildings across the country, and cities built Second Empire city halls in Boston (1862-1865), Baltimore (1867-1875) and Philadelphia. Napoleon III fell in 1870, and by the mid-1880s American builders had moved to Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival designs.

where to find it

The Louvre's newer wings in Paris, Philadelphia City Hall, and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington.

easy to confuse with

Palais Garnier, an example of Beaux-Arts Beaux-Arts Gilded Age grandeur: paired giant columns, rough-cut stone bases, rooftop sculpture, and monumental stairs. Osborne House, an example of Italianate Italianate Low roofs on deep eaves with ornamental brackets, tall round-topped windows with heavy hoods, and square cupolas.