The Swiss Chalet, 1885–1910
Widely considered to be rare in the United States, the Swiss Chalet deserves more credit for its influence on bungalows.
Those picturesque wood details people tend to call “Craftsman” are actually chalet details: the wide, overhanging eaves, big brackets and knee braces, whimsical balustrades, exposed rafter tails, corbels and banding.
Hallmarks
- Alpine Swiss Chalets and Swiss Chalet houses in America are typically squarish and two-and-a-half storeys high. (Chalet bungalows are one-and-a-half storeys.)
- All have a style-defining low-pitched, front-gabled roof with wide eaves, supported by decorative brackets or exposed rafter tails. The houses often look as though the galleried second floor is the main floor, the ground floor secondary (and sometimes of a different material, especially stone or stucco). This mimics the chalets in Germany and Switzerland, which were often tucked into hilly slopes with only a partial first floor.
- Balconies and balustrades are, along with the roof, the identifying characteristics of the Swiss Chalet. In the Alps, a wide gallery above the ground storey was typical. In this country, the balustrade morphed into a second-storey porch, a balcony, or simply a decorative effect.
- Some American chalets were built entirely of wood. Others are brick, stone, or stucco with wood above. Earlier chalets might have ornate carving and even polychrome paint decoration. Decorative work appears to have structural use: gable ornament looks like a truss, brackets are oversized, and diagonal boards evoke framing timbers.
A Brief History of Chalet
ALPINE An Alpine (German, Swiss, Austrian, etc.) dwelling built for snow-covered mountain areas, usually in wood with a sloping gabled roof and widely overhanging eaves. Stucco and occasionally brick are also used, but decorative wood trim remains prominent. Generally a 19th-century type, based on ancient vernacular forms.
AMERICAN Swiss architecture was promoted along with other Romantic styles by Downing in the mid-19th century. “Swiss” cottages were popular in 19th-century England. The style was not widely built here, but did have brief periods of popularity during the 1850s, during the late Victorian era (when it was related to the Stick Style), and during the bungalow years of the early 20th-century. As a residential style, it is particularly associated with Cincinnati and seaside resorts in New Jersey.
RESORT Overscaled chalets with whimsical or bold wood details—decoratively cut rafter tails and vertical cladding, balconies, vergeboards, roof trusses, brackets—have long been built in ski areas and mountain resorts, for use as inns, restaurants, and lodges. In the hotel industry today, “chalet” is used interchangeably with “cottage” or “bungalow” to mean a small, discrete housekeeping unit.
VERGE & TRUSS European chalets generally have only a scalloped vergeboard at the eaves, and exposed (sometimes carved) rafters or knee braces as gable details. In this country, fanciful, non-structural trusses, brackets, and gable ornament were more common.
Patricia Poore is Editor-in-chief of Old House Journal and Arts & Crafts Homes, as well as editorial director at Active Interest Media’s Home Group, overseeing New Old House, Traditional Building, and special-interest publications.
Poore joined Old House Journal when it was a Brooklyn-brownstoner newsletter in the late 1970s. She became owner and publisher and, except for the years 2002–2013, has been its editor. Poore founded the magazines Old-House Interiors (1995–2013) and Early Homes (2004–2017); their content is now available online and folded into Old-House Journal’s wider coverage. Poore also created GARBAGE magazine (1989–1994), the first unaffiliated environmental consumer magazine.
Poore has participated, hands-on, in several restorations, including her own homes: a 1911 brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and a 1904 Tudor–Shingle Style house in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she brought up her boys and their wonderful dogs.
