Belvedere roof appendage in Galveston Texas

A widow's walk, also known as a widow's watch or roofwalk, is a railed

roof A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of temp ...

top platform often having an inner

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, fr ...

/ turret frequently found on 19th-century North American coastal houses. The name is said to come from the

wives A wife ( : wives) is a female in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until the marriage is legally dissolved with a divorce judgement. On the death of her partner, a wife is referred to as ...

of mariners, who would watch for their spouses' return, often in vain as the ocean took their lives, leaving the women

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word can ...

s. In other coastal communities, the platforms were called captain's walks, as they topped the homes of the more successful captains; supposedly, ship owners and captains would use them to search the horizon for ships due in port. However, there is little or no evidence that widow's walks were intended or regularly used to observe shipping. Widow's walks are in fact a standard decorative feature of Italianate architecture, which was very popular during the height of the

Age of Sail The Age of Sail is a periodization, period that lasted at the latest from the mid-16th century, 16th (or mid-15th century, 15th) to the mid-19th century, 19th centuries, in which the dominance of sailing ships in globalization, global trade and ...

in many North American coastal communities. The widow's walk is a variation of the Italianate

. The Italianate cupola, its larger instance being an archetypal belvedere, was an important ornate finish to this style, although it was often high maintenance and prone to leaks. Beyond their use as viewing platforms, they are frequently built around the

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are t ...

of the residence, thus creating access to the structure. This allows the residents of the home to pour

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a soil texture, textur ...

down burning chimneys in the event of a chimney fire in the hope of preventing the house from burning down.John Ciardi,
Widow's Walk: Sailor's Friend, or Fire Station?
National Public Radio, October 9, 1984. Image:Widows Walk Gaithersburg.jpg, alt=The roof of a house with a widow's walk on top, consisting of a small room surrounded by railing, A widow's walk in

Gaithersburg, Maryland Gaithersburg ( ), officially the City of Gaithersburg, is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. At the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census, Gaithersburg had a population of 69,657, ...

. File:Widow's Walk.jpg, A widow's walk on a home overlooking Marblehead Harbor in

Marblehead, Massachusetts Marblehead is a coastal New England town in Essex County, Massachusetts, along the North Shore. Its population was 20,441 at the 2020 census. The town lies on a small peninsula that extends into the northern part of Massachusetts Bay. Attache ...

. File:Widowhouse.jpg, A "widow's watch" on a home in

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of K ...

, Canada. Unlike examples in warmer climates, this one is enclosed.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Widow's Walk Roofs Architectural elements Observation decks Widowhood

See also

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