The Witch Window

Online real estate browsing is a modern-day hobby; and given today’s ease of scrolling through endless pictures of home’s interiors and exteriors we find inspiration, but sometimes images that leave you wondering- what? why?

Unusual architecture can lead to a lesson in how traditions come to be if curious enough to research. One such architectural detail is a window placed at a 45 degree angle in a room. Why would someone ever intentionally choose that and not just opt for a smaller window? With today’s design styles you probably wouldn’t unless the building code required a form of secondary egress, but in older homes and antiques sometimes it was just a means to an end. Enter…the witch window. How apropos with the approaching holiday!

Otherwise known as a Vermont window, this window is usually a double hung sash window that is installed at a gable-end of the house and turned just so it its long side is parallel to the slope of the roof. This allows a full-sized window to fit in between two adjacent rooflines.