The Queen anne style was the dominate style of architecture in America's southeast region from around 1880 through the early 1900's decade. Queen Anne house plans were popularized by a group of 19th-century English architects led by Richard Norman Shaw. Oddly enough, this style name had little to do with Queen Anne or the renaissance architecture that was dominate during her reign in the early 1700's. Rather, Queen Anne style architecture drew mainly from the preceeding Elizabethan and Jacobean tudor era where the half-timber and stone masonry American subtypes are more inline with the works of Shaw. The spindleworks and gingerbread type designs were naturally evolving element in this interpentation of the victorian era.

Queen Anne victorian style architecture is identified by several features that include the following: Steep pitched roofs usually irregular in shape and with a dominate front-facing gable, pattern shingles, cut-away bays (roof gables that overhang bay windows), one story porches that extent across the front and/or side walls, and a tower that is usually placed at the front facade corner. Door and window surrounds are generally simple and window sashes usually have a single pane of glass. Doors are traditionally engraved with decorative detailing and a single pane of glass in the upper portion. The gables are decorated with patterned shingles with a triangular section in top of the gable that extend forward. Wall surfaces are used as decorative elements in the Queen Anne style as is in the Stick style victorian. Examples of this technique includes the use of bays, towers, and wall projections to eliminate plain flat walls and mixing wall materials of different texture. Queen Anne house plans include some or all of these features in its design.