What is a Foursquare Style Home in Portland?

Updated 06/2024.

If you live in the Portland area, you have likely passed Foursquare homes dozens of times. You may have even paused to take one in, admiring the dignified simplicity. But whether you are familiar with the style or not, you may be surprised to learn that it is one of America’s most iconic home styles, and our city of Portland is home to some of the country’s best.

Why is it called a Foursquare home? How did the style come about? Why do we still love it? Let’s explore everything there is to know about this unique style.

What Is a Foursquare Style Home?

The name comes from its cubic, boxy shape. This is a pretty straight-forward answer,  but there is more to it. The design manages to blend both modest and grand styling simultaneously. It also carries an equally intriguing history of how this style rose in popularity.

The Foursquare style emerged in the 1890s and remained one of the most commonly used styles for new construction until the 1930s. Architectural historians generally attribute its popularity to a reaction against more ornate Victorian styles that preceded it, particularly the Queen Anne designs. Queen Anne homes were much more elaborate, usually employing an asymmetrical facade and embellished woodworking.

Note the gabled roof, bright colors, bay windows, and striking turret. In the late 1800’s, the decadence and opulence of the Victorian era came to a zenith. But by the turn of the century, a backlash ensued in nearly every art form, architecture included. The response favored the style of the Prairie School and the Craftsman style, both of which prefer cleaner lines and a more “natural” feel.

You can see the contrast in this image of a typical Portland Foursquare home. Sharp, horizontal lines and a fairly unadorned facade eschew what was then perceived as the excess of the Queen Anne style.

If this architectural style seems more approachable to the everyday person, you’re right, and not all of that is due to the Prairie School and Craftsman influences. According to bobvila.com, we can credit Foursquare’s popularity in part to Sears Roebuck, which sold prefabricated, mail-order Foursquare homes through their catalog. The streamlined design made them easy to reproduce and budget-friendly. The middle class could afford the homes without sacrificing beauty. The stacked living spaces also made better use of narrow city lots than other designs, which was one of the biggest reasons for its popularity. In many ways, the American Foursquare was designed to be accessible.

Foursquare homes were popular throughout the US, and many famous people grew up in them:

Ernest Hemingway

President Bill Clinton

President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Shirley Maclaine and Warren Beatty (brother and sister)

Neil Young

Jack Nicklaus

When Did the Foursquare Style Home Come to Portland?

Portland experienced a building boom just after the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exhibition. The Foursquare was a predominant architectural style in Portland, with most built before World War I. Construction of this classic style decreased after that, but they continued to be built to a lesser degree through the 1920s and into the 1930s.

Exterior Characteristics of a Foursquare Style Home

The more you look at a Foursquare home, the more you’ll notice some common characteristics:

• A Wide, Covered Front Porch. One of the most recognizable hallmarks of the Foursquare is the wide porch. It spans the home’s facade, with a roof supported by columns. In Portland, the columns are often large, square, and tapered. On the whole, a Foursquare home prides itself on symmetry, though the entryway is often set to one side of the porch.
• A low-pitched Hipped Roof. A Foursquare roof is not gabled; rather, it’s “hipped,” meaning all four sides slant down to meet the walls. Since these houses are square (more or less), the roof creates a pyramid shape.
• It stands at 2.5 Stories or More. Traditional Foursquares consist of the main level and a bedroom level. The (often unfinished) attic space constitutes the last “half” a floor. A dormer window, a vertical window interrupting the roof’s slant, lights the attic. Typically, the dormer window faces the street, but often, more dormer windows pop up on the sides as well. These days, you may even find Foursquares up to four stories since folks often finish the basement and attic.
• It Has a Clean Aesthetic. We haven’t gotten to mid-century minimalism quite yet. Still, you can see its seeds in the early 19th-century aesthetic. Foursquare exteriors employ clean, simple lines. And while they use wood accents effectively, you won’t typically find much fussy adornment.
• A Simple Front Door. Lack of symmetry on the main-floor front façade. The front door is typically set off to the side to allow room for a large picture window in the living room. In contrast, the second-floor front façade usually has two symmetrically spaced windows with a smaller dormer window just above the attic space and centered.
• A Range of Siding. Across the country, Foursquare exteriors were made of stucco, brick, stone, concrete, cedar shingles, or wood siding. Here in Portland, the most popular Foursquare exterior was horizontal wood siding, sometimes with wood shingles on the second floor and a horizontal belt separating both floors.

Interior Characteristics of a Foursquare Style Home

• Square (ish) 4×4 Room Plan. Just as the architectural exterior of the Foursquare home is, well, square, the interior traditionally follows a four-room per floor plan. The ground floor typically contains the kitchen, living room, dining room, and staircase hall. The upstairs contains the bedrooms and bathroom.
• High Ceilings. A personal favorite feature of mine is the main level, and upstairs floors typically have nine to eleven-foot ceilings. Due to the square nature of the rooms, the end result is open and airy.
• Interior staircases in Foursquares were set off to one side to align with the front door. However, in some cases when the front door is located in the center of the front façade, the interior staircase will mimic that, as well, and run down the center of the structure.
• Finer aesthetic points inside Foursquares include built-ins, arched doorways, and Craftsman-style woodworking. With functionality in mind, these homes were designed with pantries off the kitchen and ample closet space throughout.

Foursquare Variants and Architectural Influences

We gave you a list that seems pretty cut and dry, and yes, many future homeowners bought their Foursquare via catalog. Still, they aren’t exactly the same. As with any architectural style, differences crop up here and there.

The clean, base aesthetic of the Foursquare creates a blank slate that allows folks to elaborate upon it. Many Foursquares adopt Craftsman details such as exposed rafter tails (shown in the example above, peeking out from the underside roof). Others might borrow more aesthetically from the “Prairie School.” Frank Lloyd Wright famously made a significant mark on this movement, which prized working with the landscape instead of against it. Some details that overlap with the Prairie style are geometric ornamentation and horizontal lap siding.

Of course, many owners have altered their Foursquare over the years. Additions and updates commonly reflect an individual owner’s needs and tastes.

In the above photo, you can see this Foursquare appears to have a bay window, a sun deck above the porch, and was possible built out on the side. While it checks many traditional boxes – a dormer, 2.5 stories, basic square shape – it also clearly deviates. We don’t know for sure if these variations are original or were added later, but safe to say that Foursquares in Portland still offer variety.

Foursquare Preservation Efforts

Foursquare homes are a significant part of Portland’s history and culture. Preserving them helps maintain the city’s unique character. Local government and private organizations help ensure the architecture style has a home here for generations to come:

The Portland Historic Resources Program: According to Portland’s official website, more than 15,000 historic resources across Portland have or potentially have historic significance. The city’s Historic Resources Program “manages the City of Portland’s long-range historic preservation policy framework, advances refinements to local historic resource land use regulations, maintains the citywide Historic Resource Inventory, supports a wide range of historic preservation planning projects, and ensures City compliance with National Park Service requirements for Certified Local Governments.”

The Architectural Heritage Center (AHC) promotes the preservation of Portland’s historic buildings through a blend of education, advocacy, and preservation services. It also offers workshops and resources for homeowners looking to restore or maintain a home without losing its historical integrity.

The Bosco-Milligan Foundation operates the AHC and calls itself the “home base” for heritage conservation in the Portland metro area. It raises awareness about the importance of preserving architectural heritage. It offers grants and support to homeowners undertaking restoration projects so that the homes don’t become lost to modern modifications.

Portland Preservation Society (PPS). Here in Portland, homeowners, local historians, and architecture lovers often form neighborhood associations to help preserve local history and charm. One of the most active groups is the PPS. It organizes events, home tours, and workshops to bring together owners of historic homes and foster a sense of community. They provide valuable information and best practices for maintaining and restoring Foursquare homes and provide a space for homeowners to relay their own experiences.

Where to Find Foursquare Style Homes in Portland

Foursquare homes pepper older neighborhoods in Portland. You’ll find them in any established neighborhood, especially those closer to the city like the Buckman and Brooklyn neighborhoods. Many foursquares exist on the west side of the river as well, such as Goose Hollow and Nob Hill

Work with an Experienced Realtor

Interested in finding your own Foursquare to call home? Schedule a tour today and get searching. Our small real estate team has been helping buyers and sellers for over 20 years. Our top 1% buyers’ agents would love to talk with you and find out what kind of home you’re most interested in. And in the meantime, take a walk and see if you can spot a beautiful Portland Foursquare home!