Italianate architecture is a classical revival movement that focused on the Italian Renaissance. Inspired by the picturesque designs of Italian villas and country houses, it was popular across the world as early as the 1800s and as late as the 1890s. Italianate buildings employ common classical features with later Renaissance ones.
The term "Italianate" obviously comes from the Italian Renaissance architecture it looks backwards to.
Italianate architecture traces its roots to England at the turn of the 19th century. John Nash's designs for Sandridge Park and Cronkhill are considered the earliest examples of the style, as they turned away from the symmetry and austerity of Regency-era architecture. Many Italianate houses of the time were largely Renaissance/Palladian in design, but included a tower. However, by the 1850s, the style was losing popularity in favor of Gothic Revival, Tudor Revival, and Elizabethan architecture.
In the United States, Italianate architecture was championed by Alexander Jackson Davis in the 1840s as an alternative to Gothic and Greek Revival architecture. America's oldest existing Italianate building is Blandwood, the 1844 design for North Carolina's governor. Italianate architecture's popularity surpassed the Greek Revival by the beginning of the Civil War, and it flourished through the Victorian era.
Italianate architecture is characterized by its picturesque aesthetics derived from the Italian Renaissance. An important feature distinguishing it from other classical revival styles is its inclusion of towers, which stem from Italian campaniles and belvederes. Italianate houses are frequently asymmetrical and eclectic in plan, while commercial buildings tend to be more regular. Verticality is an emphasis in elevation. Expression includes common classical features such as columns and the orders, vaulting, pedimented or hood-molded windows and doors, and loggias. Italianate commercial buildings are known for their massive bracketed cornices, while houses often have overhanging roofs supported by corbels. The roofs themselves are hipped and low-pitched, occasionally crowned by a cupola.
The Italianate style fell out of favor for residences in the 1870s, being surpassed by Queen Anne, Folk Victorian, and Stick houses. It survived a little longer in commercial buildings, though Romanesque Revival and similar styles replaced it.