801 E. Oregon St.
Project Overview
Architect: Joseph Royer Year Built: 1905 Architectural Style: Mission
Architectural Description | |
The structure at 801 E. Oregon Street was designed and built by renowned architect Joseph Royer in 1905 as his own home. The house was built in the Mission architectural style with an Arts and Crafts influence. The main form of the house is asymmetrical and the house has an L-shaped plan. The majority of the walls of the house are constructed of white stucco. The complex shaped roof, made up of intersecting cross gables, is covered in red, clay tiles. The roof ridges are covered with rounded red clay tiles. The roof has overhanging eaves which are supported by exposed rafters underneath.There are a variety of different window shapes and sizes. All of the windows are trimmed with red painted wood. Many of the windows are 9-pane over 9-pane double-hung windows. There are several small multi-paned windows. There are also red wood shingle covered dormer windows whose wall surface breaks the roof line. | |
The front façade of the Royer house is symmetrical and has a steeply sloped gable roof. Exposed rafters protrude out from below the cornice and stick decoration, or decorative trusses, can be found at the apex of the gable. The stick pattern on this house, a characteristic of Arts and Crafts architecture, is known as "King's post," with one vertical element and one horizontal element. There is a small balcony on the second level of the main facade directly above front door. Above the entry, the second floor porch covering is supported by stick brackets. The front door is a rounded arch. The front door is covered by a small overhang which also has a clay tile roof. The house has a brick foundation. A main feature of the Royer house is the side porch, on the east side of the building, which is also white stucco with a red tile roof, has large squat rounded arches as openings to the porch. | |
Historical Description | |
The Mission style is more typically found out west in California or parts of the southwestern United States. It is believed that Royer was inspired to construct the home after seeing a similar type of structure at the 1904 Word's Fair in St. Louis called the "California Building." Joseph Royer and his wife Adelaide finished construction of the home in 1906 and lived their until their deaths in the early 1950s. | |
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801 E. Oregon St
Urbana
, IL