ROOFLINE ADDITIONS: DORMERS & SKYLIGHTS
Most Village residents - especially owners of small cottages - try to put each square inch of their homes to good use. They have found that dormers and skylights can add light, ventilation, and space.

Although some small cottages originally had dormers, most are additions designed to make slope-ceilinged upper floors more useful and habitable. Typically, dormers are a single window wide. Even though they do not add appreciably to floor space, they do add light and ventilation.

Village residences have two types of dormers: roof and wall. When small cottages have dormers, they are most commonly roof dormers. Structurally separate, roof dormers are part of the roof; typically they fall below the roof ridge and are set back from the eaves. Sometimes they are placed symmetrically, but often their placement appears random, dictated by light and space needs.

Wall dormers are a continuation of the wall above the roof eaves. Occasionally, small earlier buildings have wall dormers. More commonly, later structures feature wall dormers as an important part of the eclectic assembly of elements that make up the Queen Anne style.

An effective alternative to dormers, skylights provide light and ventilation. They are less expensive and less intrusive, but still must be designed and placed carefully. Appropriate skylights are flat and extend no more than six inches above the roof's surface.

Recommendations
1. Surviving historic dormers should be preserved intact as much as possible.

2. Dormers added to a roof should be narrow, preferably only one window wide like historic dormers. Every effort should be made to accommodate space and light needs with traditional gable-roofed dormers before considering shed-roofed (flat) dormers.

3. If dormers are to be added, they should have the following features:
a. Dormer design should be kept in scale with the original building and should not be overwhelming in size.
b. Maximum dormer length should never be more than one-half the roof's length.
c. New dormers should be roof dormers, not wall dormers. Their walls should be held back from the roof eave at least one foot. Dormer roofs should join main house roofs below the ridge.
d. New dormers should be placed to the rear of the house as much as possible, to minimize their visibility from the street.
e. Dormers should be used for their original purpose, instead of as a means to add an extra floor to a building. Extremely large dormers should not be installed; a ground-level addition should be considered if more floor space is desired.
f. Dormer windows should be traditional windows; avoid full-height windows, all-glass walls, or windows out of proportion to the dormer.
g. Use horizontal wood siding or roofing material on dormer sides.

4. Skylights should be carefully placed to minimize their visibility from the street. Use as few as possible, and avoid placing them on main roof slopes; set them as far back from the front of the building as possible, preferably only on secondary (rear) elevations.

5.Skylights must be flat in design, and they should not be clustered in a row, side by side.