Home Styles

The early 1900s historic neighborhood boasts a variety of housing styles ranging from Folk Victorian and Colonial Revival to Craftsmen bungalow and American Foursquare.

From territorial days until the 1920's Brady Heights was an important part of the then fashionable north side of Tulsa. Young professional businessmen and oil men, such as G.Y. Vandever, I.S. Minks and "Diamond Joe" Wilson, owned homes here. The area derives its name from W. Tate Brady, a pioneer Tulsa developer and entrepreneur, who built the distinctive mansion reminiscent of Robert E. Lee's Arlington home and gave the housing addition the "Brady Heights" name (right). Most of the homes in Brady Heights were built between 1904 and 1930. The houses of Brady Heights are of a larger scale and of a more complex design than those of the adjacent neighborhoods. Bay windows with leaded glass, carriage houses and broad porches suggest the elegance of earlier days.

Colonial Revival

The identifying features of the Colonial Revival style, popular from 1910 until 1955, include an accentuated front door, a symmetrical facade, and a side-gabled roof with dormers. About ten percent have gambrel roofs. These houses are one story, but the steeply pitched gambrels contain almost a full second story. These may have separate dormer windows or a continuous shed dormer with several windows.

Folk Queen Anne

Popular between 1880 and 1910, typical two-story examples of the Queen Anne houses are difficult to find in Tulsa. Characteristics of this style include an asymmetrical facade, a steeply-pitched hipped roof with cross-gables, patterned shingles, bay windows, and a wrap-around porch.

Bungalow/Craftsman

The Bungalow/Craftsman Style was popular between 1905 and 1930. This style was nationally fashionable as a middle-class, single-family dwelling. Most commonly interpreted in wood, the Bungalow had a low-pitched roof with wide, unenclosed eave overhangs. Exposed roof rafters and triangular knee brackets are present on most examples. A full or partial-width porch supported by tapered square columns and brick or stucco piers is also a hallmark of the style.

Folk Victorian

Popular between 1870 and 1910, these houses are generally defined by the Victorian decorative detailing on simple frame houses. This detailing includes decorative wooden shingles, gingerbread woodwork, and turned porch columns. The one-story gable front- and-wing and the pyramidal house are the most common types.

Italian Renaissance Revival

The Italian Renaissance Revival style of architecture was popular between 1910 and 1935. Features of this style include a low-pitched roof, wide, overhanging boxed eaves with decorative brackets and arched doorways or windows.

Prairie School

The Prairie School, one of the few American architectural styles, can be found in some of the additions platted prior to 1925. Generally two stories, examples of this style include a low-pitched, hipped roof, with widely overhanging boxed eaves and a one-story porch. A subtype, known as the American Foursquare or the Prairie Box, has a simple square or rectangular plan, low-pitched hipped room, and symmetrical facade. This style is common to several of the Tulsa residential areas.