What’s a Dible Tudor?

A Tudor, or Tudor Revival, is an architectural style of residential home, built in the early 1900s (mostly the 20s through the 40s) in the United States. The architectural details that set these homes apart are the stucco exteriors, decorative half-timbering, massive chimneys, and steep gabled roofs. This tudor style that we know here in the United States was based on the medieval homes of England, thereby becoming known as Tudor Revival.

Tudors come in many shapes and sizes and they area also called many different things… a cottage, tudor, tudor revival, dible tudor, and my favorite that I hear sometimes – a gingerbread house. While most of those names are pretty self-explanatory, the one that I always got stuck on was the Dible Tudor. I wasn’t sure why some were called Dible Tudors, and others just plain Tudors.

There was a builder named Napoleon William Dible who built many of the Tudors in Kansas City. Most were constructed in the 1920s, but building continued through the 1950s. Those homes that he built became known as Dible Tudors. The term doesn’t refer to an architectural style, just the builder. The Dible brand denotes quality, and sometimes can even garner a higher price because they are thought of as high-quality, well-built homes. Just a quick drive around Brookside will show you that they are holding up beautifully, and there is still quite a demand for them.

Resources:

The Rockhill Gardens Homeowners Association

Another Tudor Link