 Cupolas have been installed on buildings for many reasons over the last couple of hundred years. Antique cupolas on the roofs of houses occasionally housed a lamp. Some were big enough that they had stairs up to them so one could look out – an anxious wife awaiting her sea captain husband’s ship. For the most part however, the antique cupolas seen on old barns and carriage houses in this country were installed for ventilation purposes. They were designed with louvered vents that allowed air into the upper regions of the barn or carriage house, where hay was often stored.
There is a fine variety of contemporary products designed to look like antique cupolas that you can mount on your home, your garage or some other out building on your property. They are based on designs taken from originals that were built and installed in the nineteenth century and have all the earmarks of a true antique cupola.
- The cupolas are square and the traditional roof has four curved, sloping sides that terminate in a steep point at the top. Many antique cupolas had a weathervane mounted on that point. You can do that today, with weathervanes that are manufactured to look like antiques.
- Variations in antique cupola design include the Presidential cupola, which is hexagonal. The roof has a similar design to the four sided version, in that the six roof panels terminate in a steep point at the center of the cupola.
- The Manchester cupola has a lower roofline, with much more gradual slope to its four sides. It has a lower profile and is appropriate for buildings that maintain a low profile as well.
- The Richmond cupola has a roof that appears to be a flattened dome. Its four sides have a pronounced outward curve in their middle area before they close together on a flattened top.
- The Hyde Park cupola differs in its louvered sides: they are arched at the top like arched windows in a house. The roof line is the same traditional steep, four sided style that you see in most cupolas.
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