>It's a matter of labor cost. Those ornate details look nice, but they're expensive to create, and expensive to maintain. When those details were popular, there

>It's a matter of labor cost. Those ornate details look nice, but they're expensive to create, and expensive to maintain. When those details were popular, there existed a surfeit of skilled manual labor. Yes. The lower class used to be much poorer than it is today, and the middle class much richer. Remember, through the late 19th century, most upper middle class families could afford to have a live-in maid.