What Is a Mansion? Everything You Should Know
Beautiful, massive homes catch our eyes in movies and real estate listings, but what exactly makes a property a mansion? While size is certainly a factor, a mansion isn’t just about having tons of floor space and extra rooms.
In this post, we’ll examine mansions’ unique features and characteristics and how their popularity has shifted over time. While we’re at it, why not dip our toes into the world of McMansions?
Ready to dive into the details and discover what is a mansion? Let’s learn how these properties earned such a special status in the world of real estate.
What is a mansion?
As William Shakespeare famously wrote, “What’s in a name?” The name itself, “mansion,” has a myriad of connotations and is evocative, perhaps, of times past or of the mega-mansions now being erected in cities like Los Angeles and Singapore. Precisely, what is a mansion?
Earl Wilson, a principal at San Francisco’s highly regarded BAR Architects, says it’s a word that’s not in the lexicon right now. “I don’t use it, and my clients don’t use it. Yet, everyone has an association with that word. I don’t think of it as an architectural term. We use words like “villa” or “palazzo” as those conjure real architecture images, but mansions are more of a lifestyle thing from a past period.”
Niall Washburn, architect at Hart Howerton, further clarifies that now and in times past, the word mansion wasn’t much used by their owners. “Mansion is an odd word, everyone knows what it means, but the people who live in the houses themselves don’t often use the term. The enormous houses in Newport, Rhode Island, were all referred to as ‘cottages’ even though they are among the grandest and most extravagant group of large houses ever built in one place in the U.S.”
Thus, while the term mansion may or may not be used to describe a home, it still may unmistakably be a mansion. The term mansion has changed over time, yet we all still can picture what a mansion is when we hear the word. Let’s get to work further defining what a mansion is.
