JEFFERSON CO., Pa. (EYT) – Matson Insurance is partnering with Jefferson County History Center to offer exploreJeffersonpa.com readers a look in Jefferson County’s past. Today “Brookville’s Victorian Homes” is being showcased.
Brookville’s Victorian architecture ranges from the early Greek Revival to what became known as “Stick” houses like this one.
WHY VICTORIAN?
The reign of Queen Victoria in England (1837-1901) was characterized by a strong work ethic, family values, religious observance, and institutional faith—beliefs some term “Victorian” or passé today. In the decorative arts, thanks to inventions of the period like the sewing machine and improvements in wood-turning lathes, it was a time of exuberance, complexity, and great detail. Fashionable women were ruffled and bowed and homes were decorated with gingerbread!
As the northeast of the United States moved from its agrarian beginnings to industrialization, a broad middle class emerged—entrepreneurs with money to spend on their homes and their families. Their homes, individually owned and landscaped with trees and shrubs, symbolized progress and family stability – it was the American dream come true.
In Brookville, timber and coal were making men wealthy. They, too, looked to spending their wealth on their homes and families, and just as British industrialization during Victoria’s reign resulted in a variety of architectural styles, a variety of those styles is repeated in and around Brookville, and most buildings erected in Brookville between about 1840 and the twentieth century can accurately be described as “Victorian.”
Throwback Thursday is brought to you by Matson Insurance in Brookville.
Submitted by the Jefferson County History Center.
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