Late 19 th century americans were enamored of all things french and they wanted to spend newly minted post civil war.
Queen anne mansurd roof.
The house should have a french hip roof rather than a mansard roof but it can still be flat topped.
You might for example have a queen anne house with a gabled main roof and a mansard roofed tower.
The distinctive steep mansard roof is a distinguishing characteristic of second empire style historic house colors for some reason second empire style 1855 to 1885 became a popular choice for haunted houses in movies and tv including the tv home of the munsters.
Such a house is still a queen anne not a second empire.
And have the iron trim as a mansard roof would have.
And the queen anne turret on the other corner of the mane facade.
It features tow pitches one a shallow pitch atop a steeper slope.
A staple of queen anne victorian architecture these conical towers were topped with dunce cap roofs that are too steep to be walked on.
The mansard roof is also found atop richardson romanesque and beaux arts buildings and it is often used as an accent feature in queen anne or stick style houses where a gabled roof may be accompanied by a mansard roofed tower.
The tall second empire style tower should face the corner.
Following the philadelphia exposition of 1876 and publication of mail order architectural plan books the victorian queen anne style 1880 1910 spread across the country.
In the same way many stick style houses have mansard roofs but they are not second empire because it is the stick style features that dominate the design.