Early Residential Building Types
Cross Wing, 1880-1910
The cross-wing house consists of two wings placed at right angles so that the floor plan resembles either a “T” or an “L.” The side wing often contains the stairway.
The stylistic emphasis of the house is divided equally between the facade of the forward-projecting wing and the porch fronting the main entrance in the side or flanking wing, and it is at these points that decoration is commonly found.
The house itself is usually one and a half stories tall, although some are two stories. Smaller one-story examples, often called simply “T-cottages,” also appear with great frequency.
The cross-wing house initially developed in association with the Gothic Revival and Italianate styles, but during the late-19th century it became a popular plan for Victorian dwellings as well.
Variants of the basic cross-wing form include the “double cross wing,” a house that has two forward projecting wings, and the “cruciform cross-wing,” a house that has side wings projecting to both sides of the principal wing. Sometimes a builder constructed a single section of a cross wing, planning to add the other wing at a later time. Several of these “half cross wings” stand throughout Utah; they have the general appearance of a temple form house, with the narrow, gable end facing the street. However, they are typically more narrow than a temple form and do not have a doorway on the front, but rather on the side, where the later wing was to be added.
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