Swiss-inspired architecture never became very popular during the Victorian period (though the style may have influenced the Craftsman cottages of the early 1900's); but from the mid to late 1800's house plan books featured designs in the Swiss style.
William Ranlett wrote a couple of pages on architecture found in Switzerland and included a couple of designs in the Swiss style that were very ornately ornamented (one of which is pictured above) in The Architect: A Series of Original Designs, for Domestic and Ornamental Cottages and Villas, Connected with Landscape Gardening, Adapted to the United States, Illustrated by Drawings of Grouund Plots, Plans, Perspective Views, Elevations, Sections and Details, in Two Volumes, Dewitt & Davenport, New York, 1849. Andrew Jackson Downing included a relatively plain "Farm-house in the Swiss manner" in Andrew Jackson Downing, The Architecture of Country Houses, 1850; it was surrounded on all four sides by a simple porch.
In general, the lines of Swiss homes were very horizontal, with expansive roofs that were designed to shed snow. Porches were frequently employed. As mentioned before, the amount of ornamentation varied from very little to almost comically crowded.
Victorian architect Alexander Jackson Davis designed one of the rare Swiss cottages that was actually constructed; it was built around 1867 for workers at the Montgomery Place estate in Dutchess County, New York.
The Swiss Cottage at Montgomery Place.
Notes: Photograph and information on the Swiss Cottage at Montgomery Place from The Library Of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS, NY,14-BARTO.V,3B-. House plan at top of page from The Architect: A Series of Original Designs, for Domestic and Ornamental Cottages and Villas, Connected with Landscape Gardening, Adapted to the United States, Illustrated by Drawings of Grouund Plots, Plans, Perspective Views, Elevations, Sections and Details, in Two Volumes, Dewitt & Davenport, New York, 1849, Design XII, Plate 38, A Villa In the Swiss Style, Entrance Front.
Copyright © 2003 Sarah E. Mitchell