The earliest residences on Summit Avenue were primarily constructed in a style commonly called the “Italian Villa”. The “Italian Villa” or “
Italianate” style was popular in the 1860s and 1870s and was part of the picturesque movement, which rebelled against the wide usage of classical forms in architecture. Italianate buildings in particular were largely inspired by medieval farmhouses in the Italian countryside. Residences in this style are usually characterized by low-pitched roofs often topped with cupolas,
eaves decorated by brackets, and round-headed windows with decorative moldings. Another popular style in the early years was the opulent
Second Empire style, which derives its name from the reign of
Napoleon III of France (1852-1870). This style, based on Parisian buildings, is very similar to the Italianate but with a distinctly different roof style. This most defining characteristic was the pyramidal
mansard roof, inspired by those of 17th-century French architect
François Mansart. Summit Avenue once had a very fine Second Empire style home, the Kittson Mansion, which occupied the spot of the current
Cathedral of Saint Paul. Before the construction of the
James J. Hill House in 1891, this was the grandest house in Minnesota and was exemplary of the Second Empire style with its opulent details such as scrollwork, stained-glass windows, and mansard-roofed tower. After the Italianate style, the next style to become widespread on Summit Avenue was the
Queen Anne style. Its name is misleading as it bears no real resemblance to
early 18th-century British architecture. Instead, this style is fantastical, featuring columns and pediments, peaked, high-pitched roofs, and profuse decorative elements such as dormer windows, gables, bays, porches, balconies, and turrets. In addition, this style almost always includes a wraparound porch and either a round or polygonal corner tower coming out of the spire-like roof. Such houses were constructed using materials such as stone, slate, brick, wood, shingles, and half-timbering. Summit Avenue’s lost 1882 Barnum House once exhibited a transition from Italianate style to Queen Anne. It had characteristics of both styles such as typically Italianate porch detailing, windows and bracketing but also a roof, balconies, and turrets that adhered more to the newer style. Summit Avenue contains many houses built in the purely Queen Anne style such as the castle-like red brick Driscoll House with its conical turret and high-pitched roof spotted with many dormers and chimneys. The wooden “fairytale” residence at 513 Summit was also constructed in this style and features a large porch and a fanciful turret. One of the best-preserved Queen Anne Style houses on the Avenue is the Shipman-Greve House at 445 Summit. This unique limestone house exhibits half-timbering and decorative Japanese-inspired
latticework on the porch. A variant of the Queen Anne style commonly known as the “
Shingle Style” can be seen in Summit’s 1884 Noyes House. The Shingle Style is similar to the Queen Anne but constructed with wood shingling on every surface, giving these buildings an irregular texture. Another popular style of architecture on Summit Avenue was the “
Romanesque Revival”. This style was characterized by powerful medieval design motifs, particularly inspired by those of the
Romanesque period (800-1150). Such medieval-inspired elements often include corner towers, steeply pitched roofs, and heavy arches around doorways and windows, making these buildings often resemble a medieval fortress. Buildings in this style were always built in brick or stone, usually roughly finished, and massive in construction. The largest and best-known house on Summit Avenue, the
James J. Hill House, is in this style. It was built in 1891 for railroad businessman
James J. Hill, who was key in the development of the American Northwest. Its architecture reflects the distinctive work of architect
Henry Hobson Richardson, whose style, though historically inspired, was very versatile and stressed utilitarianism, coherence, and greater simplicity. Many common features of this uniquely American
Richardsonian Romanesque are featured in the Hill House such as rough red sandstone masonry, heavy round arches, and a slate roof, all built on a massive scale. But the Hill House also exhibits more delicate elements, such as its skylights and
Tiffany stained-glass windows, showing an interesting contrast. The Wilder Mansion that once stood at 226 Summit could similarly be classified as Romanesque Revival in style but it did not resemble the Hill House. It was much more in keeping with the picturesque movement and adhered more to historic European styles than American utilitarianism. The Lightner House at 318 Summit is more similar to the Hill House, with features such as large blocks of rough stone and a strong entrance arch that reflect the distinctive buildings of Richardson. The 1887 Rugg House is also Romanesque but not quite so simple with its horizontal dark-colored brickwork, peaked tile roof, and entrance arch decorated with carved sculptures. Those who built homes on Summit Avenue at the turn of the century wanted to exude a certain sense of culture, and employed the
Beaux-Arts style based on an appreciation of European architecture. On Summit Avenue the most popular form was the Italian Renaissance palazzo style, like the 1894 Scott residence at 340 Summit, which resembles a Renaissance palace. Another example of the Beaux-Arts style on Summit Avenue is the Davidson House at 344 Summit, which features a design based on
Elizabethan English manor houses. Notably, instead of merely copying a 16th-century building, the European tradition has been adapted in this case to suit a modern construction. Perhaps the most prominent example of the Beaux-Arts style on Summit Avenue is not a house but the
Cathedral of Saint Paul. The Cathedral stands at one end of the Avenue, near the Hill House, and was designed by
Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, a former student at the
École des Beaux-Arts. Its design was modeled on the baroque
St. Peter's Basilica in
Vatican City and follows the traditional Greek Cross floor plan with many baroque-inspired flourishes. Its most distinctive characteristic is its 306.5-foot dome, inspired by those of
Donato Bramante and
Michelangelo. In addition to houses inspired by classical and medieval buildings, Summit Avenue also featured residences that drew on historically English styles such as the Georgian and Tudor. Summit’s
Georgian revival houses drew on inspiration from
18th-century English architecture and were characterized by red brick two-story symmetrical facades, with equal numbers of windows on each side and flat roofs decorated with
balustrades. One example of the Georgian style is the Boeckman House at 366 Summit, which features eight decorated chimneys, decorative
cornices, a steeply pitched slate roof, and an entrance pavilion with a segmental arch. Another residence that reflects this style is the former house of James J. Hill’s son, Louis Hill. It is distinguished by a classical style
portico on its front facade with
Ionic columns and decorative carvings reminiscent of
neoclassicism. On Summit Avenue the houses constructed in the
Tudor style were not simply replicas of historical buildings but instead modern buildings featuring
Tudor elements. These often included decorative
half-timbering, gables, prominent chimneys, patterned brickwork, and medieval-inspired steeply pitched roofs. One of the first houses to be built in the Tudor Villa style on Summit Avenue was the 1909 Lindeke House at 345 Summit. It is notable for having a brick first story while the contrasting upper two stories are instead of
stucco-and-beam construction. At 807 Summit stands another Tudor-style residence, this one too with unusual brick and half-timbered stories and a distinctively unbalanced facade, in stark contrast to the symmetry of the Georgian tevival. While other houses continued to draw inspiration from history a comparatively more modern style also took root on Summit Avenue, the Rectilinear Style. In this style, the architectural form moves away from previous irregular and fantastical forms and toward a more rectangular shape. Houses of this style often feature elements such as overhanging eaves and casement windows but have little applied ornamentation and are relatively unpretentious. The Dittenhofer house at 705 Summit exhibits a move toward the Rectilinear style in its symmetry and blockish shape but cannot escape historicism in its medieval-inspired elements such as
Gothic-like arched windows that were once fitted with stained glass. The 1912
Dr. Ward Beebe House is much simpler and thoroughly unpretentious, looking almost insignificant compared to the other grand houses on the avenue. The Beebe House has no ornamentation but includes extended eaves and windows arranged in banked groups, elements also distinctive of the
Prairie School, which was soon to become a variant of the Rectilinear. ==Notable buildings==