A Field Guide to American Houses, The Definitive Guide to Identifying and Understanding America's Domestic Architecture by Virginia Savage McAlester
Knopf, 2015 (second edition)
Paperback, 880 pages

My high school offered drafting and architecture classes, something I took for granted at the time but realized later was quite exceptional, especially given the fact that every other year our class would design a house that would be built by the building trades class. Much of the class focused on single-family houses, not surprising given the suburban location outside Chicago.

One class assignment that springs to mind as I hold Virginia Savage McAlester's weighty guide to American houses in hand was a study of a particular style: mine was Colonial Revival (super-abundant in the area), but every student had a different style. To carry out the assignment, I researched the traits of the style ? side-gabled roof, dormers, symmetrical front with central entrance, an off-center chimney, fakes shutters, etc. ? and drove around with my mother (I had yet to gain my driver's license) to photograph houses that fit the criteria, later pasting them onto a presentation board.
All these decades later I have no idea what source(s) I used to research the style, but it wouldn't surprise me if I had used the first edition of A Field Guide to American Houses, authored by Virginia and Lee McAlester and published in 1984, about five years before my architecture class. If I didn't cons...