Spanish Colonial Revival Architecture

Spanish Colonial Revival, also called Spanish Revival or Mediterranean Revival, is a term covering a group of revivalist architectural styles based on Spanish colonial architecture and Spanish architecture more broadly, flourishing from the late nineteenth century to the present chiefly across the Americas, in former Spanish colonies stretching from California to Argentina. In the United States it was first adopted in Florida, Texas and California between the 1880s and 1890s, reaching peak popularity between 1915 and 1931; early influential hotels included the Ponce de Leon Hotel, built in 1882, and the Alcazar Hotel, built in 1887, both in St. Augustine, Florida. Bertram Goodhue and Carleton Winslow gained national prominence for the style through the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, and George Washington Smith became renowned for his 1920s residential work in Santa Barbara. Its buildings are marked by stucco walls and smooth plaster finishes, low-pitched clay tile roofs, terracotta ornament, arched fenestration and arcades recalling Roman precedent, interior and exterior courtyards, and wood casement or tall double-hung windows.