In 1890 they were not into crown; the era of huge ornate plaster cornices was "so over" and the colonial revival with its reintroduction of pure classicism has not yet started. They were really into defining the walls into horizontal bands using many elaborate wallpaper schemes. The area below the chair rail line (no, there was not usually a molding there, either) was called the dado, at the top of the wall (6" to 18" in width) was the frieze, and in the middle, where it would be mostly covered by art, was the "field" The wallcoverings were as elaborate a paper as one could afford, and the ceilings were decorated as well with intricate motifs worked out to compliment the walls, but usually an outer border, a line of decorative banding that would follow the breaks an jogs in the walls, and a field usually crowned by a large central motif surrounding the light fixture.
Molding would have been an unwelcome interruption to the multiplex patterns they wished to display, between the baseboards and chandelier. The only molding that was tolerated besides base, windows and doors, was the gilded picture-hanging molding, often place between the frieze and field papers, but later made its way right to the top of the wall, in place of crown
Casey

You've received excellent historical information from sombreuil_mongrel. Let me just add that for whatever reason crown molding is a cuurent fad. Following such fads is never a good idea, imho. 10 or 20 years from now it may be as desireable to you or a potential buyer as avocado colored appliances. Especially for a house with many original features, historically erroneous "improvements" like crown moulding will stick out like a sore thumb.

I just have to say it: I love Casey's architectural history lessons. They're amazing.

Thanks, makes me feel better about my otherwise-worthless degree.
Casey

The only thing I've ever seen in some houses of the era is a tiny cove moulding at the ceiling line, often combined with a picture rail, probably originally combined with the bands of paper, the frieze, at the top.

I am not sure that these small pieces of millwork were there so much for ornament as to give a distinct edge to paper against.

If you didn't want to paper you could probably use a small moulding at the top and at picture rail, frieze level in order to use different bands of paint color to reference the bands of wallpaper.

I have an 1890 home and did the following. There was a picture rail originally and all we did was add the crown and then paint the frieze area to add dimension to the room. We have 12 ft ceilings. We did this in 2 rooms of the house and love the way it looks and it gives the rooms a lovely spacious quality.

{{gwi:2135867}}

I would be glad to measure for you to give you some idea if you are interested in copying this idea. c

Pretty much out of style between 1876 and 1893. These are the dates of two tectonic style-setting World Expositions where the latest fads were introduced to the public nationwide via extensive media coverage which was discussed widely and followed intently.
No doubt that some bucked the trend and would have continued to use crown throughout the period.
In other cases, some wealthy individual wanting a complete historic setting would have used crown in that period as demanded by the decorative effect he was after.
But the mass market was lots of patterns of wall and ceiling papers and very little molding beyond the base and windows/doors.
Casey

I live in an 1890 row house we don't have crown moulding but we do have picture rail moulding. Most of the homes in the row have removed them.

I did add medalions because i like them and I find the ceilings big and empty. Some rooms i painted medalions. When we sell well the new owners can do what they want and repaint.

My 1890 had picture rail mounted at the ceiling like palimpsest mentioned. not sure if it was moved there over the past 130 years as the picture rail was gone, we replaced the picture rail and did something similar to trailrunner all great info thanks guys!