The Bootleggers by Edward Hopper held only one point of interest for me: “What do you call that kind of roof?” When we built our first home, our builder friend told us that the roof line determines a great deal of the cost. Of course, after that we chose
a basic gabled roof. Angles and pitches add as much practical functionality as style. Here are the basic lines and some more roofs in art, literature, movies, history and more.
Anne of Green Gables house with obviously, a gabled roofline.
The Addams Family House with a Mansard roofline supposedly inspired by Charles Addams’ boyhood home, also with a Mansard roofline.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House in Chicago sports a low slung hipped roofline
The oldest surviving saltbox house in America is Hoxie House in Cape Cod. This is the back side of the saltbox roofline. The house dates back to the 1600’s.
The house of Amityville is basically a Dutch Colonial with a gambrel roofline. Some experts maintain that the gambrel style is a combination of many European styles.
Photo: nothingliving.com
A flat roofline. Not famous but a cool house. Tilt it and you have a shed roofline.