The Queen Anne style was the flamboyant culmination of the building styles today grouped as Victorian, particularly in San Francisco where any residence built between the Gold Rush of 1849 and the 1906 Earthquake and Fire is commonly called Victorian.

In addition to Queen Anne, these Victorian architectural styles include Second Empire, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Stick, Eastlake.

Distinctive Queen Anne features are:

asymmetrical facade
varied roof shapes with gables and overhanging eaves
dominant front-facing gable, often cantilevered out beyond the plane of the wall below
one or more round, square, or polygonal towers
shaped and Dutch gables
a porch covering part or all of the front facade, including the primary entrance area
a second-story porch or balconies
pedimented porches
a variety of siding types: horizontal board, wood shingles shaped into varying designs such as diamonds and fish scales, terra cotta tiles, patterned relief panels
dentils
classical columns
spindle work: finials atop roof crests, sunbursts decorating window tops and porch frieze, and turned posts and balusters
oriel and bay windows
horizontal bands of leaded windows
monumental chimneys
painted balustrades
wooden or slate roofs