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PRICE HILL ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS
Arcade: A hollowed, arched roof area of a building.
Balustrade: A vase shaped support used in a row topped off by a rail.
A balustrade is a row of repeating balusters -- small posts that support the upper rail of a railing. Staircases and porches often have balustrades.
Bargeboard: A board, often ornately carved or pierced, fixed to the projecting edge of a gable roof
Brackets: Decorative, weight bearing structural unit with two sides that form a right angle. One leg placed against the side of a wall; the other against the projection
Columns: A column is an upright pillar or post. Columns may support a roof or a beam, or they may be purely decorative. The lower portion of a column is called the base. The upper portion of a column is called the capital. The area, which the column supports, is called the entablature. Classical columns are built according to the Classic Orders of Architecture as recorded in the late 1500's by the Renaissance architect, Vignola. The classical column designs are:
Cornice: A horizontal molding projection that crowns a building or a wall. Used to conceal and rods, hooks and other devices.
Cupola: A small structure sitting on top of a dome.
A highly decorative cornice set along the wall 
Dentil: One of a series of a series of closely spaced, rectangular blocks that form a molding. The dentil molding usually projects below the cornice, along the roofline of a building. However, the dentil molding can form a decorative band anywhere on the structure.
Eaves: A thick board with a feathered edge nailed across the rafters or borders of the roof, which over hangs the wall. Its function is to cast off water.
Facade: The front of a building; also: any face of a building given special architectural treatment.
Finial: An ornament, usually foliated, on top of a peak of an arch or arched structure, e.g., a spire, pinnacle or a gable. A finial that points downwards is called a pendant finial.
Gable: A gable is the triangle formed by a sloping roof. A building may be front-gabled or side-gabled. The house shown here is cross-gabled -- It has a gabled wing. Porches, doors, windows, and dormers may also be gabled.
Gargoyle: A sculpture or rainspout carved to resemble a grotesque creature or monster. Gothic cathedrals often have gargoyles.
This ancient "gargoyle" comes from the Acropolis in Greece.
Hipped: A roof sloping on all sides. It has sloped ends instead of gabled.
Hipped roofs are often found on French Inspired and American Foursquare style homes. Although a hipped roof is not gabled, it may have dormers or connecting wings with gables.
This mail-order home from Sears, Roebuck
has a hipped roof and a dormer
Keystone: The voussoir at the top of an arch. In vaulting, it occurs at the intersection of the ribs of a rib vault. It is important structurally since it marks the apex of the vault.
Loggia: The name given to an architectural feature, originally of Italian design, which is often a gallery or corridor generally on the ground level, or sometimes higher, on the facade of a building. It is open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall.
Mansard Roof: A mansard roof has two slopes on each of the four sides. The lower slope is steeper than the upper slope. Dormers are often set in the lower slope. The upper slope is usually not visible from the ground.
The term "mansard" comes from the French architect François Mansart (1598-1666) of the Beaux Arts School of Architecture in Paris, France. Mansart revived interest in this roofing style, which had been characteristic of French Renaissance architecture, and was used for portions of the Louvre.
Another revival of the mansard roof occurred in the 1850s, when Paris was rebuilt by Napoleon III. The style became associated with this era, and the term Second Empire is often used to describe any building with a mansard roof.
Mansard roofs were considered especially practical because they allowed usable living quarters to be placed in the attic. For this reason, older buildings were often remodeled with mansard roofs. In the United States, Second Empire -- or Mansard -- was a Victorian style, popular from the 1860s through the 1880s
Pediment: A low-pitcher triangular gable on the front of some buildings in the Grecian or Greek Revival style of architecture.
Pendant: A suspended ornament attached
to the roof or other overhang.
Pilaster: A pilaster is a rectangular support which resembles a flat column. The pilaster projects only slightly from the wall, and has a base, a shaft, and a capital. Greek Revival homes often have simple pilasters. Italiantate architecture often has ornate pilasters.
Portico: A porch or walkway with a roof supported by columns, often leading to the entrance of a building.
Vault: An arched structure, usually of masonry or concrete, serving to cover a space
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