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06 · Arts & Crafts to Art Deco

Spanish Colonial Revival

c. 1915–1940

Romantic white stucco under red clay tile: arcades, patios, carved doorways, and wrought iron balconies.

Look for

Red tile roof Stucco wall Round arch
Santa Barbara County Courthouse, Santa Barbara, California: an example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture
Santa Barbara County Courthouse, Santa Barbara, California. Photo: Konrad Summers from Santa Clarita (Valencia) , California, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0
Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California
Hearst Castle San Simeon, California · King of Hearts, CC BY-SA 3.0
Beverly Hills City Hall, Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills City Hall Beverly Hills, California · Zereshk, CC BY-SA 3.0
Freedom Tower, Miami, Florida
Freedom Tower Miami, Florida · Photograph: Radomianin, Public domain
Adamson House, Malibu, California
Adamson House Malibu, California · Ri5009, CC BY-SA 4.0

what it is

Spanish Colonial Revival buildings have smooth white or cream stucco walls, low-pitched roofs of red clay tile, and asymmetrical plans, often arranged around a courtyard. Common details include arcades of round arches, wrought iron window grilles and balconies, painted tile on stairs and fountains, and carved ornament around the main door. The most elaborate entrances use Churrigueresque ornament, a dense Spanish Baroque style of carved scrolls, columns and figures.

Bertram Goodhue's California Building in San Diego's Balboa Park (1915) has a Churrigueresque entrance, a tower and a tiled dome. In California, other examples include the Santa Barbara County Courthouse (1929), designed by William Mooser III, and Casa del Herrero in Montecito (1926). In Florida, the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables (1926) uses the same vocabulary. The earlier Mission Revival style, about 1890-1915, copied the California missions, with plainer walls and curved gable parapets; Spanish Colonial Revival drew on a wider range of Spanish and Mexican buildings and used more carved and painted ornament.

how to spot one

Red tile roof A roof covered in overlapping rows of half-round clay tiles, called barrel tiles, usually orange-red in color. It is used on Spanish Colonial, Mission Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival and Mediterranean Revival buildings. Stucco wall A wall coated with stucco, a plaster of cement or lime, sand and water, finished smooth or textured. It is common on Spanish Colonial Revival, Mission Revival and Mediterranean Revival buildings. Round arch An arch shaped as a half circle, often built from wedge-shaped blocks called voussoirs. It is used over doors, windows and between columns in Roman, Romanesque, Renaissance and Richardsonian Romanesque buildings.

Also look for

Wrought-iron balconyCourtyardArcade

history

The 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego launched the style. Its buildings were designed by Bertram Goodhue and Carleton Winslow, who drew on the Baroque churches and palaces of Spain and colonial Mexico rather than on the plainer California missions. In the 1920s George Washington Smith became one of the style's leading architects, designing houses in Santa Barbara and Montecito.

The style was most popular from 1915 to 1931, especially in California, Florida and Texas. After an earthquake on June 29, 1925 damaged downtown Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Community Arts Association led a rebuilding of the city center in Spanish Colonial Revival, in place of the Moorish Revival used before the earthquake; the County Courthouse was completed in 1929. In Florida, George Merrick required Mediterranean Revival architecture in Coral Gables, incorporated in 1925, and Spain's King Alfonso XIII honored him for it. Stucco walls and clay tile roofs remain standard on new houses in Southern California and Florida.

where to find it

Santa Barbara, Beverly Hills, and San Clemente in California, Palm Beach and Coral Gables in Florida, and civic buildings across the Southwest.

easy to confuse with

Mission Inn, an example of Mission Revival Mission Revival Curved gable-top walls, white stucco, arcades, and red tile roofs borrowed from Spanish missions. Mission San Xavier del Bac, an example of Spanish Colonial Spanish Colonial White stucco walls, red clay tile roofs, arcades, courtyards, and wrought iron grilles. Oia, an example of Mediterranean Vernacular Mediterranean Vernacular Whitewashed cube-shaped houses with thick walls, shuttered windows, flat or low tile roofs, and courtyards.