Georgian Style House: Symmetry, Brick and Classic Details

Stand across the street from a georgian style house and fold the facade in half along the front door: the two sides should match almost window for window. That strict balance is the single most reliable way to identify the style, and it is why so many homeowners confuse Georgian homes with every other rectangular two-story house built since. The difference lives in the details: the count of window bays, the proportions of the windows, the cornice, and the way the entry is framed.

Georgian architecture took its name from the four British kings named George who reigned from 1714 to 1830. In the American colonies, the style dominated well-to-do building from roughly 1700 to the Revolution, then shaded into the lighter Federal style. A later wave, usually called Georgian Revival or Colonial Revival, brought the look back from the 1880s through the mid-20th century, and builders still draw on it today. Most Georgian homes you see in American suburbs are revival houses, not colonial originals.

If you own one, want to buy one, or are planning an addition or exterior update, knowing the rules of the style helps you avoid changes that make the house look off-balance. Here is how to read the facade, what the floor plan usually looks like, and how to maintain or update the classic elements without losing character.

How to Identify a Georgian Style House

Start with the front wall. A classic georgian style house is a simple box, usually two full stories, sometimes with a third half-story under the roof. The facade is divided into an odd number of vertical bays, most often five, with the door in the center bay. Three-bay and seven-bay versions exist, but five is the textbook count. Windows line up vertically from floor to floor and horizontally across each story.

Look for these markers together, since any one alone can show up on other styles:

• Strict symmetry: equal windows on both sides of a centered entrance, and often matching chimneys at each end or paired chimneys rising from the roof.
• Double-hung sash windows with many small panes, traditionally nine-over-nine or twelve-over-twelve on originals and six-over-six on many revival homes.
• A paneled front door topped by a rectangular transom of glass panes, often flanked by flat pilasters and capped by a pediment or a flat entablature.
• A decorative cornice along the eaves, frequently with toothlike dentil molding.
• Side-gabled, hipped or gambrel roofs, with a hipped roof common on grander examples.
• Brick or wood walls, with brick dominant in the middle and southern colonies and clapboard more common in New England.

Many originals also have a belt course, a horizontal band of brick or stone between the first and second floors, and quoins, which are stacked stone or brick blocks emphasizing the corners. Windows on the first floor are sometimes taller than those on the second, a subtle detail that gives the facade its stately proportion.

Georgian Colonial Home vs Other Colonial Styles

The phrase georgian colonial home usually means a Georgian house built during the colonial period or a revival house built to look like one. It sits within the larger colonial family, and the neighbors are easy to confuse.

Georgian vs Federal

Federal homes (roughly 1780 to 1830) keep the symmetry but slim everything down. Look for a semicircular or elliptical fanlight over the door instead of a rectangular transom, narrow sidelights beside the door, thinner window muntins and more delicate trim. Georgian detailing is heavier and more robust.

Georgian vs Center Hall Colonial

Center hall colonial is a real estate term more than a historical one. It describes a two-story symmetrical house with a central stair hall, which is exactly the Georgian layout. Many center hall colonials built from the 1920s through the 1990s are simplified Georgian Revival houses with vinyl or aluminum siding, shutters and a basic door surround. The bones match; the detailing is thinner.

Georgian vs Dutch and Saltbox

A Dutch colonial has a gambrel roof whose lower slope flares out at the eaves and often a less formal entry. A saltbox has a long rear roof sweeping nearly to the ground. Neither follows the strict five-bay symmetry of the Georgian approach.

The Classic Floor Plan Inside

Georgian house plans are as orderly as the facade. The front door opens into a central hall that runs front to back and holds the main staircase. Two rooms sit on each side of the hall on the first floor, giving the classic four-over-four plan: four rooms down, four rooms up. Fireplaces are usually placed on the end walls or on interior walls shared between paired rooms, which explains the chimney placement you see outside.

In revival versions, those four rooms became a living room, dining room, kitchen and family room or study, with bedrooms upstairs. Kitchens were often pushed to a rear wing or ell in older homes. If you are planning an open concept renovation, know that removing walls in a center hall plan changes how the house reads from the front door, and interior walls may be carrying floor loads. A structural engineer should review any wall removal before work starts.

Original floors are typically wide pine or oak boards on colonial-era homes and narrower oak strip flooring in revival homes from the 1920s onward. Refinishing those floors with a satin or low-sheen finish keeps the period feel better than a high-gloss coat.

Georgian Brick House Exteriors: Materials and Care

A georgian brick house usually uses Flemish bond on the finest examples, where each course alternates the long face and short end of the brick, sometimes with darker glazed headers making a checkerboard pattern. Common bond and running bond are more typical on revival homes and brick veneer construction.

Brick is durable but not maintenance free. Practical care points:

1. Repoint with the right mortar. Pre-1900 brick is often softer than modern brick and was laid in lime mortar. Hard portland cement mortar can trap moisture and cause the brick faces to spall. Match the original mortar strength, color and joint profile.
2. Clean gently. Low-pressure water and a soft brush with a masonry cleaner suited to the brick type are safer than pressure washing or sandblasting, which strip the hard outer face.
3. Manage water. Keep gutters clear, downspouts discharging away from the foundation, and soil sloped away from the walls.
4. Avoid sealers on historic brick unless a masonry pro recommends a breathable product, since film-forming sealers can trap moisture inside the wall.

Wood-sided Georgian homes need the usual paint cycle, typically every 7 to 10 years on clapboard, with attention to the cornice and window sills where water sits longest. Older homes may have lead paint, so test before scraping or sanding exterior trim on any house built before 1978 and follow lead-safe practices.

Updating a Georgian Colonial Style Home Without Losing Character

The fastest way to spoil a Georgian facade is to break the symmetry. A single oversized picture window, an off-center door replacement or a garage bolted onto the front reads as wrong immediately. Good updates respect the grid.

• Windows: when replacing, keep the same opening size and a divided-lite pattern, either true divided lites or simulated divided lites with exterior grilles. Flat grilles between the glass look thin from the street.
• Shutters: size them so each one equals half the window width and the full height, so they look like they could actually close. Mount them on hinges with shutter dogs rather than screwing them flat to the siding.
• Front door: a six-panel door painted a deep color such as black, oxblood, navy or dark green suits the style. Keep or restore the transom.
• Lighting: a matched pair of traditional lanterns on either side of the door reinforces the symmetry. A brass carriage lantern style fixture is a classic choice, scaled to roughly one quarter to one third of the door height.
• Color: red brick with white or cream trim is the traditional pairing. Painted brick in soft white or gray works on revival homes, but it is hard to reverse, so think carefully before painting older brick.
• Additions: place them at the rear or as a set-back side wing with a lower roofline, so the main block still reads as the dominant mass.

Landscaping matters too. A straight front walk to the centered door, low clipped hedges or matching planters at each side of the steps, and a pair of identical trees framing the house all echo the formal geometry.

Georgian Colonial Mansion vs Everyday Georgian Homes

The georgian colonial mansion is the version most people picture: a large hipped-roof brick house with a projecting pavilion in the center bay, topped by a pediment, sometimes with flanking wings connected by hyphens. These high-style homes were built for wealthy merchants and planters, and many survive as house museums.

Everyday Georgian architecture homes were much plainer. Many were wood-framed clapboard houses with a simple door surround, modest cornice and no quoins. Revival builders in the 20th century produced thousands of compact versions on suburban lots, some only three bays wide. All of them share the same core grammar of symmetry, a central entrance and a rectangular massing, which is why the georgian architecture style remains one of the most adaptable traditional looks for new construction.

If you are reviewing plans for a new build in the style, check that window heights, door placement and rooflines follow the grid on every elevation, not only the front. Side elevations with random window sizes are a common shortcut that makes new Georgian homes look less convincing.

Common Problems in Older Georgian Homes

Original and early revival homes tend to share a predictable list of issues. Knowing them helps when you inspect a house before purchase or plan a restoration budget.

• Chimney deterioration: crumbling crowns, loose bricks and missing flue liners. Have chimneys inspected before using any fireplace.
• Cornice rot: built-in gutters hidden behind the cornice can leak into the trim and rafter tails.
• Window sash wear: rotted sills and failed glazing putty, usually repairable by a window restorer for less than full replacement.
• Settling floors: sagging near the central stair where the hall framing carries extra load.
• Old wiring and plumbing: knob-and-tube wiring or galvanized pipes in homes that have not been updated. Any rewiring or repiping is work for licensed trades with permits.

Costs vary widely. Repointing a full brick facade can run several thousand dollars to well over ten thousand depending on size and access, while restoring a set of original wood windows often costs less per window than quality replacements. Get at least two quotes from contractors who have worked on historic masonry.

If the house sits in a local historic district, exterior changes such as window replacement, paint on unpainted brick, or new additions may need approval from a review board before you pull a permit. Check with your city or county first, because unapproved work can lead to orders to undo it.