What do you call this house part?

[Jim Katen]

I'm interested to know what people call this house part.

Are there different names for it in different parts of the country?

Are there local slang terms for it?

If it helps, this is a 1918 foursquare.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

Download Attachment: Whatzitcalled.JPG

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[Bain]

They're called piers in some of the architectural books I've read. I would likely refer to them as balustrades, though, even though they have no balusters and I realize that's a misnomer.

[SonOfSwamp]

Originally posted by Bain

They're called piers in some of the architectural books I've read. I would likely refer to them as balustrades, though, even though they have no balusters and I realize that's a misnomer.

I'd call it an end wall (because it's a wall at the end of the steps); or, I might stretch and call it a return.

But if it's really killin' you, ask Clem Labine. If anybody knows, it'll be him.

http://www.traditional-building.com/7.htm

WJ

[AHI in AR]

I also call it the end wall of the porch step. Of course, I specify whether it is at the right or left side. (I'm not much for E S N W directions since I specify right or left as viewed from the front of the home.)

[Jesse]

I call it light brown. I could understand others might call it gray.

[hausdok]

I've always referred to that as a stair parapet.

OT - OF!!!

M.

[Bill Kibbel]

Very, very common from the teens through the late 20s. The house in Jim's pic is missing its twin. I don't know what the kids are callin' em these days, but the correct term from the period is buttress.

House plan catalogues from that time show a large majority of the homes have them. NONE of the plans ever show railings at the porch steps.

A side note from that period - porches that don't have roofs are always called "platforms".

[Jim Katen]

Thanks everyone.

I've never called these things anything other than end walls and I'll probably continue to use this term because it's easily understandable.

As Bill noticed, the right one is missing. A car, moving at 50 mph, took it out after the left front wheel rode up the step. The car eventually stopped, upside down, in the neighbor's yard.

- Jim in Oregon

[Chad Fabry]

Almost every four square in my area has those things. Buttress..hmmm.

Also, almost all of the four squares in this area are one of these models. I'm pretty sure everyone here will recognize a few.

http://architecture.about.com/library/b ... -index.htm

[StevenT]

Chad,

I think it's a sales gimmick! I just tried to order a dozen of them and they said they were no longer available!!!![:-paperba

[kurt]

Cheek wall in Chicago. At least, that's the term my micro-group uses.

I used to call them buttress', but no one knows what that means.

[Les]

Cheek wall around here in Michigan. Kurt is right, nobody knows that term so most of the time we call it the "wall by the steps".

I have also heard it called a flower wall.

[Bain]

That's why I would have called it a balustrade, even though it's wrong. People will understand, "The right balustrade beside the front-porch steps was taken out by a car and requires reinstallation." Maybe one person in a thousand would catch the error and ask, "What does he mean? The buttress? The cheek wall?"

Sometimes you guys are too smart for your own good. [:-graduat

[Jim Katen]

Originally posted by kurt

Cheek wall in Chicago. At least, that's the term my micro-group uses. . .

Would that be because you can stand on the step and lean your cheeks against these walls?

- Jim in Oregon

[Les]

Naw, it is where you place your cheeks.

[paul burrell]

I call it a nice place to sit and watch the world go by way back when. Of course nowadays are so hectic and complicated they don't build them hardly anymore. No need, no time to sit on them.

Paul B.

[AHI in AR]

Originally posted by Jim Katen

Originally posted by kurt

Cheek wall in Chicago. At least, that's the term my micro-group uses. . .

Would that be because you can stand on the step and lean your cheeks against these walls?

- Jim in Oregon

With the way this discussion is going, one might reasonably conclude that the term buttress is a corruption of butt rest.

[kurt]

Originally posted by Jim Katen

Would that be because you can stand on the step and lean your cheeks against these walls?

- Jim in Oregon

I have no idea, but I'm officially adopting that analysis as the basis for my calling them cheek walls.

Enshrine them in the popular folklore as where you lean/place/rest your cheeks.

History was made here in TIJ today; the meaning of cheek walls has finally been uncovered.

[pete moss]

Originally posted by Chad Fabry

Almost every four square in my area has those things. Buttress..hmmm.

http://architecture.about.com/library/b ... -index.htm

not a buttress. its a butt rest

[SonOfSwamp]

I don't doubt that the contemporary name for these things was "buttress." The problem I have is that it doesn't really buttress anything. It's not as if the little end walls are keeping the stairs from racking or falling down...

If anybody asks me, I'll go with "end wall;" or, "those little walls on either side of the stairs."

I've seen many a bungalow where people -- or flowerpots -- sit on the walls. They make a dandy spot for eating off a paper plate at a family reunion...

WJ