The railroad entered the San Luis Valley by the early 1880s and opened the door for migrating Anglo-Americans.  Many emigrants from the East Coast and Midwest brought with them the central passage plan.

Jacal construction typifies the earliest residential structures in the southern San Luis Valley.  The single or dual room jacal had an interior corner fireplace, an exterior door, and one or two windows.  As owners enlarged their jacales to accommodate extended families, a series of side-by-side single file rooms with separate entryways and privacy walls developed, creating a single file linear configuration.

Early settlers in the forested parts of the state built pioneer log structures from 1858 through the 1930s.

Sod structures date from the early days of settlement in the 1860s through the Depression-era of the 1930s.  It was generally considered an inexpensive and very effective method of construction in a plains environment.

Territorial Adobe buildings are most common in southern Colorado and date from approximately 1880 through the 1940s.

Art Deco is characterized by an angular, linear composition, stepped or set-back facade, and polychromatic materials.  Popular during the 1930s and 1940s, apartment buildings, school, and commercial buildings all over Colorado exhibit elements of this style.

Popular from 1880-1930, Beaux-Arts style buildings are some of the most opulent in American architecture.

The Carpenter Gothic applies the Gothic Revival style to wood-framed and sided buildings.  The picturesque and decorative style is evident on both churches and houses.

The steeply pitched gable or hip roof and multiple towers with conical roofs define the Châteauesque style.  Dormers with shaped gabled and paired windows divided by mullions and transoms are also common characteristics.

Classical Revival signaled a return to the classical forms of Greece and Rome following the elaborately decorated and picturesque styles of the Victorian period. 

Collegiate Gothic is most evident on large institutional and educational buildings around Colorado.  It combines elements of the Gothic Revival style with the Jacobean/Elizabethan Style.

There are three types of Colonial Revival buildings in Colorado: "historically accurate" reproductions of the 17th century Georgian and Federal style; Colonial or Classical elements applied to basically Victorian or Post-Victorian buildings; and very simple houses with a few Colonial details.

The Craftsman style structure emerged from the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 20th century, a philosophy which stressed comfort and utility through the use of natural materials and a lack of pretension.

The gambrel roof is the distinguishing feature of the Dutch Colonial Revival.  Primarily a residential style, it was popular in Colorado between 1900 and 1925. 

Edwardian buildings are basically post-Victorian residences similar to the Queen Anne style in form and massing but lacking ornamentation.

The English or Norman Cottage is the modest, very simplified version of the Tudor or Jacobean/Elizabethan styles of residential architecture.

The Exotic Revival is primarily represented by Oriental or Middle Eastern elements and covers the period of 1900 to the 1940s.

Car-oriented restaurant architecture that developed in California, especially in Los Angeles after World War I, served as the forerunner of the Googie style, also called Doo Wop or Coffee Shop Modern.  Simple roadside drive-in stands evolved into more complex facilities designed to attract and serve large numbers of car-driving customers.

Gothic Revival is best characterized by the pointed-arched window, steeply pitched roof, and picturesque composition.

Greek Revival is very rare in Colorado and the few examples that exist date from between 1860 and the mid-1870s.

The Jacobean/Elizabethan style is characterized by a steeply pitched roof with intersecting gables or dormers, round arched entrance, and decorative brickwork.  Generally, residential structures were built between 1920 and 1940 and are of brick, stone or stucco.

The key to distinguishing the Mediterranean Revival style is the tile roof and restrained ornamentation.

The numerous Spanish missions constructed throughout California between 1769 and 1823 provided the inspiration for a new architectural style that emerged at the end of the 19th century.

Moderne, also called Art Moderne or Streamline Moderne, saw popularity in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Humor, amusement and whimsy define Novelty architecture.

The Prairie style, developed and popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright, sought to reflect the rolling Midwestern prairie.  What emerged was a style characterized by an emphasis on horizontality, particularly exemplified by low, flat rooflines and extended overhangs.

Pueblo Revival, popular between 1905 and 1940, basically imitates the Native American pueblos of the Southwest.  The key distinguishing elements are the projecting roof rafters called vigas.

Queen Anne is perhaps the most ornate style of the Victorian period evident in Colorado. Popular between 1880 and 1910, the style varies from the highly decorative to a more restrained version found in many residential neighborhoods.

Renaissance Revival, also known as Italian Renaissance, is best identified by the horizontal divisions, usually defined by belt or string courses, and the different treatment in each division.

The chief characteristic of the Romanesque Revival style is the semicircular arch, used for window and door openings as well as a decorative element along the corbel table.

Rustic style architecture is characterized by its natural setting and its use of log and stone for building materials.  Designed to blend in with the natural environment, these structures are usually vacation homes, hunting lodges, dude ranches, or tourist-related facilities.

The mansard roof with either concave or straight sides is the key to distinguishing the Second Empire style.

Like Queen Anne, the Shingle style was influenced by English architect Richard Norman Shaw.

Spanish Colonial Revival, popular during the 1920s and 1930s, is characterized by elaborately carved decorations surrounding windows, entrances and cornices.

Andrew Jackson Downing introduced the Swiss Chalet style to American architecture in his 1850 stylebook The Architecture of Country Houses.

The most dominant features of the Tudor Revival style are the false or ornamental half-timbering, which covers the upper story, and the steeply pitched roof.

Typically associated with modern architecture of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, Usonia as a concept actually goes back to the turn of the twentieth century.

The primary goal of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), one of many 1930s New Deal relief and recovery programs, was to put people to work.

Modernist WPA designs reflect an attempt to keep building forms simple more than an expression of an overall design philosophy

The primary goal of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), one of many 1930s New Deal relief and recovery programs, was to put people to work.

Rustic architecture is typically associated with mountain-area tourist lodges and the buildings and structures constructed by the National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS).

The A-Frame form achieved popularity in the 1960s as vacation homes, ski huts, and other simple residential buildings.

The basement or half-house dates predominantly from the period immediately after World War II.

The Bi-Level came into popularity in the early 1960s as a variation of the ranch type.  The raised or garden level basement makes the lower level more livable by allowing the lower windows to be larger and above grade.

Following closely the philosophy of utility and simplicity which characterized the Arts and Crafts movement, the Bungalow became its physical manifestation.

Reverend Timothy Dwight coined the term Cape Cod in 1800 while on tour in New England

The central passage double-pile type features a rectangular footprint and linear plan.

The Classic Cottage is basically a one-story version of the Foursquare.

One of the most commonly found forms in Colorado residential buildings after 1900, the Foursquare is easily recognized by its square plan, two-story height and overall simplicity.

The term I-House was first popularized in the 1930s following cultural historian Fred Kniffen’s notation of the common recurrence of this building type in the “I” states (Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois).

The Swedish-born Chicago engineer Carl Standlund (1899-1974) founded the Lustron Corporation in 1946 in response to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) support of pre-fabricated, high-volume home construction.

These simple homes were built in large numbers immediately preceding and following World War II; this form represented an economical choice for large tract-housing developments because they were inexpensive to construct.

Named for its characteristic roof form, the style bears little resemblance to the Second Empire style of the 1870s.

The low horizontal silhouette and rambling floor plan of the ranch reflected the fascination with the informal lifestyle of the West Coast.

Often referred to as a tri-level, a split-level is more of a building type than a style. 

These buildings are basically one or two story brick structures with flat roofs and corbeled cornices.

The Bank Barn derives its name from being built into the side of hill, thus permitting direct entry on two levels.

The popularity of the Round-Roof barn dates from the 1920s, with most being built in the period between the world wars.

With the advent of dimensional lumber, the transverse frame barn became a popular form in the America Midwest and West in the late nineteenth century.

Timber has been used for bridge construction in Colorado for as long as there have been bridges.

Most nineteenth-century commercial structures are usually considered Italianate in style.

Early Twentieth-Century Commercial structures are generally one to five stories, with flat or slightly pitched roofs. 

The false front commercial building type is an icon of the urban pioneer West.  When movie directors or theme park designers erect a typical western town, the false front commercial building usually plays a prominent role.

When major residential streets become heavy with automobile traffic, development pressure may result in the transformation of these corridors into commercial strips.  Such development most often cause the demolition of the existing housing stock.  However, in some cases, the housing is adapted to meet commercial and retail needs through the construction of commercial storefront additions. 

The house with canopy became the most prevalent form of gas station in the 1910s and 1920s.

The Cottage type station represents efforts by gasoline companies to build stations compatible with residential neighborhoods. 

The operational shift from “gas station” to “service station” marks an important corporate, consumer, and architectural milestone in the marketing of gasoline. 

While the Work Projects Administration is known for a wide variety of public architecture, one of their more prolific programs was a health-related campaign to provide sanitary privies, particularly in rural areas.