I have a series with six English brothers on holiday in America who wind up helping a small town after tragedy has struck. They’re helping by fixing things in and around some of the townsfolk’s houses and buildings. This had me doing a little research which of course led me down the rabbit hole.
When we think of the old west, we think of cowboys, cattle, ranches, chuckwagons, Indians, settlers, pioneers, frontiersmen, horses, forts, and of course, old west towns including boomtowns. It’s from the boomtowns that many of the old west towns come from. But have you ever wondered why they all look alike?
For those of you that don’t know, I’m an architectural freak. I collect house plans and building plans of the past and
have a large collection of books, plans, magazines and other bits of paraphanelia involving Victorian and pre-war architecture. When a building is described as pre-war, its talking about WW2.
When a boom town got slapped together, the owners of businesses wanted their establishments to look decent, so used false fronts. A false front is a decorative, non-load-bearing front wall that lacks its own structural support but may be an important part of the building in which it is built. It is a common feature of Western architecture and was used for commercial buildings in the Old West of the United States. Let’s face it, as soon as we spy that familiar false front, we think, Old West!
The false front is used to extend the appearance of a building while not adding significant width to it. Sometimes it’s designed to look like a Colonial Revival or Victorian style building with columns or blind arches and serves only to give the building elegance and character at street level. It was important to look like your neighbors, so most of the street’s buildings had these false fronts.
There are, of course, some defining characteristics. Most front façades of buildings rose to form a parapet (upper wall), which hides most or nearly all of the roof. Considering some of those roofs were questionable at first, this was a good thing. Who knows what folks used to put a building together in a hurry?
That said, the roof is almost always a front gable, though gambrel and bowed roofs were occasionally found.
They also used the better materials for the facade than on the sides or rear of the structure. The facade exhibits greater ornamentation than do the other sides of the building too. He who had the best facade, got the customers. Even when buildings became more permanent and were made of brick, the false front facade was still in style. Signs on the front of some facades could get pretty fancy too.
Nowadays when we see a building with a western facade, we are hit with a sense of nostalgia and charm. It’s one of the reasons we love visiting towns with an old west look and feel.
Does your town have that old west feel from the buildings that line its main street? If you live in a more modern area, do you like visiting small towns and places that do have the old west architecture? I’m giving away one free e-copy of Courting the Rancher, the first book in my Love in Apple Blossom Series. (If you already have the book, then you can pick one of the others in the series.)
Here’s a little more about the book:
Six English Gentlemen with a Secret
A Town with a Tragic Past
And One Lunatic Sea Captain
Letty Henderson wasn’t looking for love. She was looking for more people to sell her milk and beef to. After a tragedy took the lives of her father and brother, it’s all she can do to keep her little ranch running. And she wasn’t the only one. The same tragedy took the lives of an entire posse, and with a town population of less than thirty, that’s a lot. So is it any wonder when six English gents pass through town and offer assistance, that her head is turned in their direction? Can she stop staring at the oldest long enough to tell him what sort of help she needs? Unfortunately, the kind of help the town really needs no one can give and even if the six men were capable of that kind of help, they weren’t sticking around long enough to do any good. Or were they?
Toss in an unlikely matchmaker and find out in this hilarious new series that delivers pure fun and romance! 
USA Today bestselling author Kit Morgan is the author of over 180 books of historical and contemporary western romance! Her stories are fun, sweet stories full of love, laughter, and just a little bit of mayhem! Kit creates her stories in her little log cabin in the woods in the Pacific Northwest. An avid reader and knitter, when not writing, she can be found with either a book or a pair of knitting needles in her hands! Oh, and the occasional smidge of chocolate!
I have visited towns which have similar architecture. I love the false facades.
Me too! Always makes me wish I still owned a horse! Lol!
I love visiting old western towns
I always thought it would be fun to take an old west town road trip!
I grew up in a southern town in Live Oak, FL. Live Oak was named from the old live oak tree. It still has some of the old original buildings. Live Oak was established in 1878. The town grew due to the train railways. I also love that old western, small town, feeling. You can almost imagine the past and walk those old streets.
Which is why so many of us love them!
I really enjoy seeing old churches from a different era. I would like to visit an old west town though.
That’s fun too, Kathleen. You should see some of the ones in New York City. Wow!
gosh, I have never visited an old west town, though I would like to so much. I live in Stratford-upon-Avon in England, and we don’t really have modern looking houses lining any street let alone the main one, in my area haha. Your book sounds so sweet. It’s my birthday today and seeing this post, I know I just have to read this book! My mom’s name is Letty too, so that might also be my motivation, along with your writing of course! (I love the way you write).
England. I want to go. Soooooooo bad. My daughter wants to take me. She’s been there a few times. I love old English houses!
Have you seen the show ‘When calls the heart’? I absolutely adore the western architecture in the series—considering it’s a modern show, I think they’ve given it such a softer touch yet still remaining true to the old west vibe. Given your interests, I would love to know what you think of it! I’ve never been to an old west town but in my fantasies it’s the show’s cinematic façade that I imagine!
You know, Rose, I have never seen that show. I’ll have to watch it sometime.
My town does not have the old west look. It does have several old buildings though with no businesses in them. I like visiting old western looking towns.
My little town has a few old timey buildings that give it that charming feel, but I do love a town with a lot more old west or old time architecture that makes the place “Mayberryish”.
I enjoy looking at the old architecture, but never knew it might be hiding the roof for a purpose. I have wondered why the architecture had such tall fronts and now I know. Thank you for that tid-bit of history.
Yeah, I’d always wondered the made thing then ran across that tidbit of information while researching.
our small town of Russellville, IN has the metal awnings over the buildings and looks like a wild west town!
Cool, Teresa, now I’ll have to look up your town.
It is my dream to live in an old west-esque town someday! I visited Tombstone in Arizona last year around my 21st birthday, and I have no words to describe my experience. I still can’t get it out of my head, I felt like I had stepped inside a book! <3
I would love to see Tombstone! One of my favorite old west towns is in California. It’s now a state park. Columbia is it’s name and it’s located in the California gold country.
Fun post today, Kit! One thing I love about driving through small towns in Texas is seeing their courthouse squares. Even small towns have elaborate, 19th century courthouses as showpieces in the center of their towns. It’s like stepping back in time for a few minutes each time I drive through.
One more thing to inspire us to write!
welcome and thanks for sharing your post today. I have been through some very small towns. One was an old ghost town with only a few residents still living there. I love the old elaborate homes. This is such a pretty cover. I would love to read this book. Sounds like a lot of fun. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net
I’d love to come across a tiny little town like Apple Blossom. Can you imagine a itty bitty gown surrounded by apple orchards?
this would be so cool
I love visiting historic towns but western towns are my favorite!
I’m going to have to take a little road trip and take pictures of some of the cool little old west towns around here in Northern California. I’m not far from “gold country” as they call it.
I have never had the opportunity to visit an old west town. I would really love to. I have been to some small towns, but they didn’t have the buildings or the feel of the old west.
Yeah, your comment cinches it. I’m going to take a road trip and take a bunch of pictures for the blog so you can see some of the cool little towns here. Columbia is the best. I’ll have to start with that one.
Our town has some old buildings and they are very interesting. I really love visiting towns that have the feel of an old west town. Thank you for sharing this post, I really enjoyed it. Have a great day and a great week.
I don’t think I would want to live in a place that had nothing but modern architecture. Give me some old buildings, Alicia.
I love to visit old towns with historic buildings. If only the buildings could talk! 🙂
Oh, the stories they would tell!
I love old west towns and any books set in the west. I sometimes think I was born in the wrong era and that I would have loved to have been a part of settling the west. Then I remember I hate camping and need my toilets, showers, and air conditioning.
LOL! I’m with you Nicole! But they sure are fun to visit!
My husband and I have visited many old western towns and always enjoy them. Unfortunately, Deadwood has changed so drastically it is no more recognizable to the town we saw prior to our last visit. Much gambling and slots have come to our old west town and it is no longer full of nostalgia. So sad to see. The only thing that has not changed is the cemetery where Annie Oakley and other greats are buried. I am surprised that has not changed as well. The most unique was an western village, very small, in Montana. I do not recall the name of it. It was designed like a fort, with a saloon and a jail as other small buildings.
I’ve been to Deadwood only once and enjoyed it, but have nothing to compare it to as far as what it was like years ago. I guess it’s gotten pretty touristy, huh?
I love old buildings. The decorative fronts on some of the old stores, were almost magical to me, as a youngster. My Grandparents lived in one of those towns, and I was allowed to wander and dream, all over. I loved visiting there. Years later, I visited that town, when my Grandmother was laid to rest. It was doubly sad, because the town had been “modernized” and all the old buildings had been replaced.
Oh, what a tragedy to have wonderful old buildings replaced with modern ones.
Kit, that is fascinating! I don’t know much about architecture, but I do love the look of old buildings. There is an older town here in Oklahoma that has some of the buildings (a bank is one I can think of offhand) that is built like a “V”–and I think that is fascinating! Best of luck with your new series!
Thanks, Cheryl. And I’ve seen buildings like that. There are a lot of them on the east coast.
I love the architecture of older buildings, and the old buildings out west are really amazing. Its cool to think that a building built a couple hundred years ago is still standing today.
Yeah, they sure don’t make them like like they used to, Megan!
Been reading all the comments and will look forward to your pictures from some of the old CA gold towns. I grew up in a small town, founded 1833, which has an old courthouse square and some old shops with interesting architecture. Unfortunately, there might be a newer, more “modern” shop mixed in, before they started realizing the historic look needed to be protected.
Yes, it’s sad how some towns tore down all the old buildings and replaced them with modern ones, changing the town’s original character.
fun to visit
They certainly are!
I always think of an old Western building in Kansas that is on the National Register. They put a new false front over the old original front in the 1660s but the old facade remains. The false front front the 1960s looks weirder and dated than the buildings around it that have the original false front. So, in short, a double false front.
LOL. There’s a magazine, Old House Life, and in the back they’d have pictures of a before “people messed with the house” and “after muddling”. Some were tragic. Your double false front building might look a little weird, but at least it doesn’t sound tragic.
We have always admired old houses. We spend much time on our trips pointing them out to each other and touring them when we can. We looked at serval to buy in the past ( a stone house, a nice Victorian, and a really nice brick house) but being in the military with constant moves prevented us from investing the time to fix them up or invest in them for a short time. There was no way to keep them for years until we retired. I wanted one of the ornate Victorians like the ones on the Barber’s book above. We did get a Victorian, but a simpler farm house. We still have the woodwork, wraparound porch, and gingerbread trim. Our town is the oldest in TN and has many historic houses. They do house tours at Christmas time. It was the capitol of the State of Franklin for a year when it broke from North Carolina in 1784. There were false fronts on some of the early buildings I have seen in pictures. Much of the town burned twice so those are gone. Most of the downtown area has brick buildings from the 1800’s. There is a log cabin in town (moved there for preservation) that dates from Davey Crockett’s time. He was born nearby. A few of the finials do extend past the roof level of the 2 and 3 story buildings. The town looks a bit like the town pictured above.
Thanks for an interesting post that brought back memories.
I grew up in a small Town that’s a county seat either a lovely stone courthouse. The town recently restored/renovated the local movie theater where dance recitals were also preformed in the 60s.. I love visiting the historic homes, landmarks etc. You can get some interesting insights of the times. I also love shows like The Craftsman in Eureka CA and Barnwood Builders who salvage log structures(barns and houses) for repressing..