The Federal style of architecture refers to the buildings designed and constructed in the first few decades of the United States' independence, roughly 1785 to 1815. The Federal style was closely related to the "Regency style" in Britain, which took place under the Regency of the Prince of Wales (later King George IV) during 1811 to 1820. Both styles were developments of Neoclassicism, which borrowed elements from Roman architecture like columns, domes, and white marble.

The term neoclassicism can be broken down into two parts: "Neo" and "Classic." This refers to the fact that is a new ("neo") interpretation of classic architectural and artistic concepts pioneered by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Art Deco and Art Nouveau are movements firmly planted in the twentieth century, and Mannerism and the Renaissance are much too far in the past to even be considered for a question that is about an eighteenth-through-twenty-first-century artistic movement.

The Rococo artistic and architectural movement and style, also known as "Late Baroque," surged in the late 18th century as a more intricate, delicate, light and asymmetrical approach to architecture than the Baroque style that came before it. Neoclassicism, which came as a direct opposition to Rococo, had replaced the asymmetrical, graceful architecture and art of the Rococo with its own focus on symmetry and simplicity by the end of the 18th century.

Thomas Jefferson was the principal designer, architect, and builder of Monticello, but his plans and designs were heavily influenced by the work of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio. Palladio not only built a number of impressive works of his own, but also wrote an influential treatise on architecture, The Four Books of Architecture. Jefferson was self-taught as an architect, largely from the writings of Palladio.

Image accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons. Author: YF12. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monticello_2010-10-29.jpg

The building pictured in the drawing is Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in then rural Virginia, which he began building in the late eighteenth century. The location of Monticello is at the top of a hill, on the relative frontier of the continent, making it a building challenge. Nonetheless, Jefferson largely succeeded at building a European inspired grand home that still fit into the American landscape.

Image accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons. Author: YF12. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monticello_2010-10-29.jpg

The Baroque movement was superseded by the artistic and architectural movement Rococo in the eighteenth century. Rococo was a deviation from the grandeur and strict symmetry of the Baroque movement, which dominated western and central Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Some describe Rococo as delicate and intricate.

Neoclassicism was inspired by both ancient Greek and ancient Roman civilizations. This can be seen in its use of columns and other characteristics commonly associated with Greek and Roman art and architecture. Neoclassical sculptures also greatly resemble ancient Greek and ancient Roman sculptures.

The main building of Monticello, pictured here, sat in the middle of Thomas Jefferson's plantation. As such, it was both a grand house and the administrative center for the plantation, which housed and worked hundreds of slaves in various agricultural projects. The building's remote location from other settlements was key to its size and situation in its surroundings.

Image accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons. Author: YF12. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monticello_2010-10-29.jpg

In the enlightenment era of the eighteenth century, many artists and architects looked to classical Greece and Rome as models, spawning the architectural style known as "Neo-Classicism." Featuring white stone, columns, and extensive use of marble, this style is most famous as being used in many of America's government buildings.

The "mock Tudor" style was a revival of the architectural forms and customs popular during the reigns of the Tudor monarchs of England, who ruled from 1485 to 1603. Developed in the late nineteenth century, a period of nostalgia for England's past, mock Tudor, also known as Tudor revival, featured the half-timbered houses and inventive brickwork common to nice houses in England in the sixteenth century, but done in new methods.