Four Square

American Four Square

Not to be confused with Box Ball or King's Corner, American Four Squares (or Four-squares) are more likely to be the recreation of 47 year-olds than 7 year-olds.

A housing style which emerged as part of a new era of post-Victorian vernacular architectural styles, with details that range from ornate neoclassical to proto-Prairie. Typically two stories in height, the four walls of the house are roughly of equal dimension, thus creating a square. The fenestration is generally balanced and symmetrical, with full-length porches, and pyramidal or near-pyramidal hipped roofs with a single, centered, dormer.

The Emard House, despite the atypical partial-width porch, showcases these features, including details associated with the Craftsman style such as decorative rafter tails and beam ends. Most of Los Angeles' Four-squares were built between 1899 - 1919 (the Emard House dates from 1904).