Architectural Styles of Tudor Croft

Tudor Croft homes reflect the Tudor Revival style and the American Craftsman style.  They are designed to aesthetically blend with the natural terrain of the beautiful Black Mountain region as well as accommodate our twenty-first century lifestyle. The Tudor Revival homes imitate the English Medieval cottages or century  houses.  This rustic style has steeply pitched roofs, stonework, half-timbering  within plaster or stucco, dormer windows, and sometimes thatched roofs.  Arched  doors and oriel (protruding) windows are often seen in this style.  The houses are  often referred to as Cotswold (an English shire) cottages or Storybrook cottages.

The influence of Tudor Revival is evidenced in Black Mountain in the Tudor  residence, In The Oaks, built in the early 1920s for the Franklin Terry family. It is presently owned by the Black Mountain campus of Montreat College. The American Craftsman style was developed out of the British Arts and Crafts movement of the 1860s.  This movement emphasized handwork over mass  production and showed the dignity of human labor. The mantra of this movement  was a relationship between art and design and high quality workmanship. The  American Craftsman style distinguished itself in the Bungalow style for middle class American families.  Common architectural features include rustic  overhanging eaves, exposed rafters, stone and woodwork, and mixed material throughout the structure. 

In the late 1800’s, Spanish architect and builder  Raphael Gustavina II built a home in the region. He came to western North Carolina to design and build the domes and vaults in the Biltmore House.  His  work can also be seen in the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Asheville. The exposed rafters and rustic structure echo the arts and craft style in the early twentieth  century.