Worker's Cottage (1840's - 1850's)

Cottage residences for "working class" people were promoted by pattern book designers in the 1840's and 1850's.  A.J. Downing's book The Architecture of Country Houses portrayed a genteel lifestyle for the working man in his picturesque cottage nestled in the country landscape.  This vision soon spread in the mid-nineteenth century to meet the needs of the growing class.

Pattern books popularized a variety of revival and Victorian styles for cottage residences, and diversity in design became the mainstay.  The country image was soon shifted to the cities and the picturesque cottages were adapted to narrow urban lots as this house represents.  Designed in a simplified Italianate mode, this cottage residence has the principal stylistic elements which link it to the larger homes of the same style.

[from A Field Guide to the Architecture and History of Allentown, page 43]