False front buildings

[jerryl]

Sort of RR related. Why do most of the older small western buildings have false fronts? Hardly any in the East are built that way. It really limits the use of false front buildings to Western themed layouts. You can cut the front to conform to the roof pitch, but then the roof will have to be extended over the front. Just curious. Jerry

 

[NYW&B]

Jerry - During the post-civil war era false fronts were employed (mainly in the west) simply for aesthetic purposes. For one thing, it gives a structure a more imposing and dignified appearance. Likewise, for stores along a main street, particularly in a small but growing town, it provided an sense of continuity to the profile of adjacent small buildings, rather than the jagged sawtooth appearance of multiple peaked roofs. Most eastern towns and cities had already been long established by this time, so this design if far less often seen.

NYW&B

 

[UP2CSX]

Very good response, NY. The false front phenomena was also common in the midwest and south, any where that new towns were being established after about 1840. The style was taken from established eastern cities, where the business buildings were generally flat roofed. It was much more expensive to build a flat roofed than a peak roofed building. Another reason of the false front was it acted like kind of a billboard, giving the merchant a place to advertise his name and what he sold.