Colonialism

noun
1. the control or governing influence of a nation over a dependent country, territory, or
people.
2. the system or policy by which a nation maintains or advocates such control or
influence.
3. the state or condition of being colonial.
4. an idea, custom, or practice peculiar to a colony.
13 Colonies
1. Virginia (1607)

2. New York (1626)

3. Massachusetts (1630)

4. Maryland (1633)

5. Rhode Island (1636)

6. Connecticut (1636)

7. New Hampshire (1638)

8. Delaware (1638)

9. North Carolina (1653)

10. South Carolina (1663)

11. New Jersey (1664)

12. Pennsylvania (1682)

13. Georgia (1732)

▪ Several relatively distinct regional styles of colonial
architecture are recognized in the United States.
▪ Building styles in the 13 colonies were influenced by
techniques and styles from England, as well as
traditions brought by settlers from other parts of
Europe.
CHARACTER
 European influence in In the U.S.A. itself, a conscious
both North and South striving for a truly ‘national’
architecture became evident
America remained strong
soon after the war of
throughout the period, independence, and architecture
although materials, local in that country can be considered
skills, social customs and as passing through three broad
especially climatic and loosely phases:
conditions played their part,
and buildings continued to
posses strong regional a.) Post-Colonial
characteristics. b.) First Eclectic Phase
c.) Second Eclectic Phase
Post Colonial (1790-1820)
Architecture of this period moved away from the English
Georgian idiom which had become established along the
eastern seaboard of the country Neo-classic elements were
introduced.
First Eclectic Phase
During this period the revived Greek style was
predominant receiving a more whole-hearted acceptance that
it did in England and developing specifically American
characteristics. The Gothic and Egyptian styles found some
popularity but compared with the Greek revival, these were
minor streams.
First Eclectic Phase
The type of timber – framing known as the ‘baloon –
frame’ came into use during this period and revolutionized
timber construction. As its name suggest, rather than relying
on an essentially post-and-lintel construction, the ‘baloon-
frame owes its strength to the walls, roofs, etc., acting as
diaphragms. Comparatively light timber sections are
employed which are nailed together, floor, and ceiling joist,
forming ties, the whole stiffened by the external timber
sheathing.
This period saw considerable developments in the use of cast-iron as a
building material.
Second Eclectic Phase
American architecture achieved international
significance during this period and followed two main
streams. The first related to the Gothic revival and initiated as
a Romanesque revival with H.H. Richardson as its first
important exponent, gained considerable momentum and
reached great vigor and vitality in the work of Louis Sullivan.
In some respects the movement in its later stages can be
equated with that of the arts and crafts in Britain and it
culminated in the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Second Eclectic Phase
The second stream was more academic in character.
Influence by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris its architecture
inspired by the great periods of the past, the Italian and
French Renaissance, ancient Greek and Roman and late
Gothic.
Second Eclectic Phase
Two important and The period is noteworthy for
structural experiment and achievement.
influential exhibitions The Skyscraper, often regarded as
belongs to this period; the America’s greatest single contribution
to architectural development, was a
centennial expositions 1876, product of this phase and was closely
Philadelphia and the world’s related to metal frame construction the
Columbian exposition non-load-bearing ‘curtain wall’ and the
lift or elevator. The period saw also the
(Chicago 1893). establishment of many schools of
architecture in the U.S.A., the first at
Massachusetts Institutes of Technology
in 1868, under W.R. Ware.
• The historic methods with which
wooden buildings were built in
what is now the United States
since European settlement.
• A number of methods were used
to form the wooden walls and the
types of structural carpentry are
often defined by the wall, floor,
and roof construction such as log,
timber framed, balloon framed, or
stacked plank.
• Some types of historic houses are
called plank houses but plank
house has several meanings which
are discussed below. Roofs were
almost always framed with wood,
sometimes with timber roof
trusses. Stone and brick buildings
also have some wood framing for
floors, interior walls and roofs.
Wall Types
1. Timber Framing

2. Balloon Framing

3. Log Building

4. Corner Post Construction

5. Plank Framing

6. Palisade Construction

7. Stacked Plank and Stacked Board Construction

8. Box Houses

9. A-Frame Buildings

10. Inside-Out Framing

 Timber Framing
• Timber Framing is a method of
creating structures using heavy
squared-off and carefully fitted and
joined timbers with joints secured
by large wooden pegs
• A simple timber frame is made of
straight vertical and horizontal
pieces with a common rafter roof
without purlins, the term box frame
is not well defined and has been Leckie's barn completed in frame
used for any kind of framing other
than cruck framing. The distinction
presented here is the roof load is
carried by the exterior walls. Purlins
are also in a simple timber frame.
Balloon Framing
• Balloon framing is a method
of wood construction – also
known as "Chicago
construction" in the 19th
century – used primarily in
areas rich in softwood
forests: Scandinavia,
Canada, the United States up
until the mid-1950s, and
around Thetford Forest in
Norfolk, England.
• Balloon Framing is a style of
wood-house building that
uses long, vertical 2" x 4"s Ten men building a balloon frame house, Omaha
for the exterior walls. These Reservation, Nebraska, 1877
long "studs" extend
uninterrupted, from the sill
on top of the foundation, all
the way up to the roof.
Log Building
• Log building is the second most
common type of carpentry in
American history. In some regions
and periods it was more common
than timber framing. There are
many different styles of log
carpentry:
1. Blockhouse; where the logs are
made into squared beams and
fitted tightly. The walls needed to
be thick and strong and not have
gaps in-between
2. Round logs are left spaced apart,
often with the gaps filled with a
material called chinking
3. Planked log buildings have the
wall timbers shaped into
rectangular thus called planks
and plank houses.
Corner Post
Construction
• Corner post construction is
known by many names listed
below, but particularly
as pièce sur pièce and it blurs
the line between timber
framing and log building. This
type of carpentry has a frame
with horizontal beams or logs
tenoned into slots or mortises
in the posts. Pièce sur pièce
en coulisse: Literally piece on
piece in a groove is a
widespread type of carpentry
which blurs the lines between
log, plankwall and framing
techniques
Plank Framing
• Plank-frame house
construction has a timber
frame with the walls made
of vertical planks attached to
the frame. These houses
may simply be called plank
houses.
• Plank-frame houses are
known from the 17th century Kwakiutl House in 1905 from the Kwakiutl Village.
with concentrations in
the Massachusetts Bay
Colony and Colony of Rhode
Island and Providence
Plantations.
• The carpentry consists of a
timber frame with vertical
planks extending from sill to
plate.
 Palisade
Construction
• A palisade is a series of vertical
pales (stakes) driven or set into the
ground to form a fence or barrier.
Palisade construction is a palisade
or the similar use of timbers set on
a sill.
• It was common for Native
Americans and Europeans to build
a palisade as part of a fort or to Palisades Presbyterian Church back in the 19th Century
protect a village. Palisade
construction is alluded to as a
method of building of early
dwellings.
• The French method of poteaux en
terre was different than palisade
construction in that the timbers
were hewn two sides and spaced
slightly apart with the gaps filled
with a material called bousillage.
An architectural drawing of poteaux-eEn-terre in the Vital St. Gemme
Beavais House at 20 South Main St. in Ste. Genevieve Missouri.
It was built in 1785 by Joseph V. Beauvais
 Stacked Plank and
Stacked Board
Construction
• Another carpentry method which
is sometimes called plank
wall, board wall, plank-on-
plank, horizontal plank frame is
the stacking of horizontal planks
or boards to form a wall of solid
lumber.
• Sometimes the planks were
staggered or spaced apart to
form keys for a coat of plaster.
This method was recommended
by Orson Squire
Fowler for octagon houses in his
book The Octagon House: A
Home for All in 1848.
Over 5,000 relief cottages after the 1906 San Francisco
earthquake were built using single-wall construction
Box Houses
• Box Houses have minimal
framing in the corners and
widely spaced in the exterior
walls, but like the vertical plank
wall houses, the vertical boards
are structural.
• The origins of boxed
construction is unknown. The
term box-frame was used in a
reconstruction manuel in 1868
after the American Civil War.
• Box house may also be a
nickname for Classic
Box or American
Foursquare architectural styles
in North America, and is also
Winter quarters; soldiers in front of their wooden hut, Pine Cottage
not to be confused with a During the Civil War in 1868
general type of timber framing
called a box frame.
A-Frame Building
• An A-frame building has
framing with little or no
walls, the rafters join at the
ridge forming an A shape.
This is the simplest type of
framing but has historically
been used for inexpensive
cottages and farm shelters
until the A-Frame House was
popularized in the 1950s as
a style of vacation home in
the United States.
Inside-Out
Framing
• Inside-out framing has
the sheathing boards or
planks on the inside of
the framing. This type
of structure was used
for structures intended
to contain bulk
materials like ore, grain
or coal.
There were several design types that
were developed during the Colonialism
Period in America and those periods
were named after the colonizers. These
periods were the French Colonial,
Spanish, Georgian, Dutch, Cape Cod,
New England, Colonial Revival, German
Colonial and Garrison.
French Colonial
▪ have stucco-sided homes with expansive two-story
porches and narrow wooden pillars tucked under the
roof line. The porch was an important passageway
because traditional French Colonial homes did not
have interior halls.
French Colonial
▪ The French were primarily focused on what is now Canada, parts of the
Caribbean, and of course, New Orleans. This Southern port city is where
we see most surviving French colonial styles to this day.
▪ So, what defines French colonial architecture? French buildings tended to
be made of a wood frame and brick or bousillage, a compound made of
mud, moss, and animal hair. The buildings themselves were generally
rectangular, and sometimes built on a slightly elevated platform. This was
especially common in Louisiana and was meant to counteract the
swampy soils. These buildings were also interesting in their design
because most French colonial buildings did not have interior hallways.
Rooms connected to each other by outside walkways around the building,
not through it.
French Colonial
Also known as "Creole" Characteristics include:
architecture, this style of building ▪ Instead of interior hallways, the
combines French, Caribbean, porches were used to access rooms
West Indies, and other influences
and is designed for hot, wet ▪ Made with a timber frame and brick
or bousillage (a mixture of mud,
climates. Located in the Southern moss, and animal hair)
United States, especially in
Louisiana and Mississippi, the ▪ Wide porches called “galleries” that
French Colonial architecture surround the house
provides a colorful addition to the ▪ Hipped roof that extends over the
Colonial style in America. porches
▪ French Doors – doors with panes
Defining Traits
▪ In terms of the visual elements, French colonial architecture is really
noticeable by the roof and porch. French colonial roofs tend to be
hipped, or shaped like a pyramid, with very large overhanging eaves.
These eaves covered a sizeable porch that often wrapped around the
building, called the gallery. This was how people got around the house
without interior hallways. You'd leave your room and walk along the
gallery to whichever room you needed. In the warm climate of
Louisiana, a brief stroll around the gallery was a pleasantry.
Defining Traits
▪ Besides the hipped roof, dominant eaves, and gallery, there
are a few other common traits we may see in French
colonial architecture. The eaves were often supported by
thin wooden columns, exterior stairs were common as many
buildings had two stories, and most rooms had French
doors, or doors with windows made of multiple small panes.
Put all of this together and you've got a nice piece of French
colonial architecture.
Main Features
▪ timber frame with brick or "bousillage" (mud combined with moss and animal hair)

▪ wide hipped roof extends over porches

▪ thin wooden columns

▪ living quarters raised above ground level

▪ wide porches, called "galleries"

▪ no interior hallways

▪ porches used as passageway between rooms

▪ french doors (doors with many small panes of glass)

French colonial house in Missouri
 The Destrehan Plantation
House near New Orleans
Erected in 1787 by Charles
Paquet, Destrehan Plantation was
purchased by indigo planter Robert
Antointe Robin DeLogny and his family.
While under the ownership of the
Destrehan family, both the house and
grounds went through considerable
periods of change.
In the 19th century the major
cash crop at Destrehan became
sugarcane rather than indigo and the
house went through two further phases
of construction. The original gallery
columns were replaced in the 1830s or
40s with massive Greek Revival Doric
columns of plastered brick and the
cornice was altered accordingly. Its
original colonial appearance was altered
with the post-colonial addition of semi-
detached wings.
 The Destrehan Plantation
House near New Orleans
In the 20th century, the use of
the grounds and house underwent yet
another change. The house served as a
facility of a major oil company, when
Louisiana made the transition from an
agricultural to an industrial economy.
Destrehan Plantation House consists
of a central, two-story house with open
galleries on three sides and flanking
two-story wings separated from the
main body of the house by the side
galleries. The central unit, the oldest
part of the house, is composed of
masonry columns on the ground floor
and wood columns on the upper. At
one time a colonnade had surrounded
the central unit. The roof is double-
pitched all around.
 Parlange Plantation
House
Parlange Plantation was built in
1754 by the Marquis Vincent de Ternant on
land that was granted by the French crown
and is still owned by his descendants today.
The plantation became known as Parlange
for Charles Parlange, a French nobleman,
who married Marie Virginie Ternant, the
second wife of Claude Vincent de Ternant.
Exemplifying the style of the
semitropical Louisiana country house, the
Parlange Plantation House is a two-story
raised cottage. The main floor is set on a
brick basement with brick pillars to support
the veranda of the second story. The raised
basement is of brick, manufactured by
slaves on the plantation. These walls, both
inside and out, were plastered with a native
mixture of mud, sand, Spanish moss and
animal hair, then painted. The ground story
and second floor contain seven service
rooms.
 Parlange Plantation
House
Today 1500 acres
surround Parlange, which is still
used as a cattle and sugarcane
plantation.
During the early 1700s,
French colonists settled in the
Mississippi Valley, especially in
Louisiana. They learned building
practices from the Caribbean
and the West Indies to design
practical dwellings for a territory
prone to flooding.
Spanish Colonial
▪ Set in the time of 1600s – 1900s, the Spanish in the
North American territory made use of rocks, adobe
and bricks as material to build a low simple home. It
featured the use of rocks to make thick walls, a flat
roof and is only a story high. Later, the improved
style of the Spanish colonial made use of wood, got
an interior courtyard and made use of a second
story.
Spanish Colonial
▪ were most commonly sided in adobe or stucco. The roofs were
flat or slightly pitched and finished with red clay tiles. Some
Spanish Colonial homes featured a Monterey-style, second-
story porch.
▪ Settlers in the Spanish territories of North America built
simple, low homes made using rocks, adobe brick, coquina, or
stucco.
▪ Settling in Florida, California, and the American Southwest,
settlers from Spain and Mexico built homes with many of
these features –
Spanish Colonial
▪ Although they mainly colonized and Characteristics include:
gained profit from Mexico, Central
America, and South America, the ▪ One story, originally
Spanish occupation of modern day
Florida, the American Southwest, ▪ Flat or low pitch roof covered with
California, and other areas in the thatch, Earth, or clay tile
southern United States led to the
▪ Thick walls made of rocks, coquina, or
development of the Spanish Colonial
adobe brick and covered in stucco in
architecture in those areas.
order to keep out the heat
▪ Several exterior doors and small
windows with interior shutters
Main Features
▪ Flat roof, or roof with a low pitch

▪ Earth, thatch, or clay tile roof covering

▪ Thick walls made with rocks, coquina, or adobe brick coated with stucco

▪ Several exterior doors

▪ Small windows, originally without glass

▪ Wooden or wrought iron bars across the windows

▪ Interior shutters

▪ Later Spanish Colonial homes had more elaborate features, such as:

▪ Second story with recessed porches and balconies

▪ Interior courtyards

▪ Carved wooden brackets and balustrades

▪ Double hung sash windows

 Kelso Depot, Restaurant
and Employees
Hotel or Kelso Depot
In early 1923 the railroad began
construction of the new "Kelso Clubhouse &
Restaurant" which opened the next year. The
Kelso Depot was built to provide services to
passengers and railroad employees, and a water
stop for the steam locomotives..
It was designed by the firm of John
and Donald Parkinson. The facility served
interstate passenger and shipping traffic and the
transport of ore from local mines, especially the
Vulcan Mine. The Union Pacific proposed the
demolition of the then unused depot in 1985.
Efforts to preserve the building culminated in its
1992 transfer to the Bureau of Land and
Management and its East Mojave National
Scenic Area. In 1994 the Mojave National
Preserve was established, and the depot was
transferred to the National Park Service. A
historical restoration and adaptive reuse project
followed in 2002. The Kelso Depot now serves,
since 2005, as the main Visitor Center of the
Mojave National Preserve.
Georgian Colonial
▪ Set in the time of 1690s – 1830s, it featured spacious
and comfortable houses. It is symmetrical and had a
pair of chimneys. The windows, five in count, across its
façade is also evident.
▪ Georgian architecture gets its name from the
succession of English kings named George (beginning in
1715). In the United States the style included
innumerable variations on a simple English theme: two-
story house with center-entry façade, combined with the
two-room-deep center-passage floor plan.
Georgian Colonial
▪ Georgian Colonial became the rave in New England and the Southern
colonies during the 1700's. Stately and symmetrical, these homes
imitated the larger, more elaborate Georgian homes which were being
built in England. But the genesis of the style goes back much farther.
During the reign of King George I in the early 1700's, and King George
III later in the century, Britons drew inspiration from the Italian
Renaissance and from ancient Greece and Rome.
▪ Georgian ideals came to New England via pattern books, and Georgian
styling became a favorite of well-to-do colonists. More humble
dwellings also took on characteristics of the Georgian style. America's
Georgian homes tend to be less ornate than those found in Britain.
Georgian Colonial
Characteristics include:
▪ Coming about mainly in the
1700s, Georgian Colonial ▪ Spacious and comfortable floor plan with
distinguished living, dining, and family rooms
architecture swept the New
▪ Bedrooms on the second floor
England and Mid-Atlantic
regions where it displayed the ▪ Square and symmetrical façade

rising ambition of America as it ▪ Decorative crown over the front door and
flattened columns on each side
focused more on
ornamentation and grandeur ▪ Matching chimneys on either side of the house

than the other types of colonial ▪ Stone walls two feet wide
architecture. ▪ Medium pitched roof with minimal overhang
and square cuts along the eaves
Typical Features
▪ Symmetry, centered façade entry with windows aligned horizontally and vertically,square

▪ One or two-story box, two rooms deep

▪ Commonly side-gabled and sometimes with a gambrel or hipped roof

▪ Raised foundation

▪ Paneled front doors, capped with a decorative crown (entablature); often supported by decorative
pilasters; and with a rectangular transom above (later high-style examples may have fanlight
transoms)
▪ Cornice emphasized by decorative moldings, commonly dentils

▪ Double-hung sash windows with small lights (nine or twelve panes) separated by thick wooden
muntins
▪ Five-bay façade (less commonly three or seven)

▪ Center chimneys are found in examples before 1750; later examples have paired chimneys

▪ Wood-frame with shingle or clapboard walls (upper windows touch cornice in most two-story
examples)
Interior Features
▪ Central hall plan
▪ High ceilings (10-11 feet) smoothly plastered, painted and
decorated with molded or carved ornament (high-style)
▪ Elaborate mantelpieces, paneling, stairways and arched
openings copied from pattern books (high-style)
High Style Elaborations
▪ Pigmented windows and dormers
▪ Belt course between stories (masonry examples)
▪ Quoins of stone or wood imitating stone
▪ Roof balustrades (after 1750)
▪ Centered front gable (pediment) or shallow projecting
central gable (after 1750)
▪ Two-story pilasters (after 1750)
Main Features
▪ Paneled front door at center

▪ Decorative crown over front door

▪ Flattened columns on each side of door

▪ Five windows across front

▪ Medium pitched roof

▪ Minimal roof overhang

▪ Nine or twelve small window panes in each window sash

▪ Dentil molding (square, tooth-like cuts) along the eaves

Garrison Colonial
▪ Homes imitated the houses of medieval England. Many of these homes
had steep gabled roofs, small diamond paned windows, and a second
story overhang across the front facade. Garrison Colonials usually were
sided in unpainted clapboard or wood shingles.
▪ Like the Cape Cod, the Garrison Colonial is a variation of the Colonial
Revival style, which enjoyed enormous popularity during the 20th century.
▪ It shares with the Colonial Revival many of the same characteristics
including symmetry, roof pitch, and decorative detailing in such classical
elements as double-hung six-over-six windows, pilasters, and traditional
entries with broken pediments, side lights, or transoms.
 ▪ Often symmetrical like other traditional Colonial Revivals

▪ Jetted second story over the first (the overhang is fairly narrow

Garrison Colonial and not usually more than a couple feet)

▪ Pendant ornaments may be seen at the corners or spaced

along the second story overhang
▪ Though Colonial Revival was ▪ Two-story
hugely popular during the first
quarter of the 20th century, ▪ Rectangular, side-gabled mass

middle-class Garrisons are ▪ Narrow eaves

almost never seen until the late ▪ Medium pitched roof (usually composition) may be gabled or
1920s. During the 1930s, the hipped
style peaks in popularity, ▪ Colonial-style multi-light (six-over-six or six-over-one lights are
becoming much more common), double-hung windows. Shutters and bay windows
are favorite details
common. It remains a popular
style just after the War and into ▪ Colonial-style paneled entry door. Decorative elements are
generally restrained but may include a columned porch,
the 1950s when more modern pilasters, or pediment; fanlight or transom, or sidelights
styles begin to emerge. ▪ Lapped wood siding is most common, but brick or shingle
siding are also common cladding for the first story
Main Features
▪ Often symmetrical like other traditional Colonial Revivals

▪ Jet tied second story over the first (the overhang is narrow and not usually more than a couple feet)

▪ Pendant ornaments may be seen at the corners or spaced along the second story overhang

▪ Two-story

▪ Rectangular, side-gabled mass

▪ Narrow eaves

▪ Medium pitched roof (usually composition) may be gabled or hipped

▪ Colonial-style multi-light (six-over-six or six-over-one lights are common), double-hung windows.

Shutters and bay windows are favorite details
▪ Colonial-style paneled entry door. Decorative elements are generally restrained but may include a
columned porch, pilasters, or pediment; fanlight or transom, or sidelights
▪ Lapped wood siding is most common, but brick or shingle siding are also common cladding for the
first story
New England Colonial
▪ Set in the time of 1600s – 1740s, the first British
settlers made use of the usual style they made at
home. Simple timber-framed houses were evident
featuring little exterior ornament and are wood
framed with shingles.
▪ homes were two stories high with gables on the side
and an entry door at the center. To conserve heat, a
massive chimney ran through the center and sidings
were not painted.
New England Colonial
Characteristics include:
▪ Located mainly in the
Northeastern area of the ▪ Symmetrical front and rectangular shape

country, modern day ▪ Two stories

Massachusetts, Vermont, ▪ A lean-to addition with a saltbox roof (basically

where the roof in the back of the house extends
Connecticut, New Hampshire, almost all the way down to the ground- the shape
of saltboxes in the time)
and New York, the original
settlers were mostly English ▪ Side gabled, steep roof with narrow eaves

and so, they started to build ▪ Little exterior ornamentation

homes in the styles from their ▪ Casement windows

native England. ▪ Massive central chimney

▪ Made of wood and covered with clapboard or

shingles
Main Features
▪ Steep roof with side gables

▪ Lean-to addition with saltbox roof

▪ Narrow eaves

▪ Large chimney at the center

▪ Two stories

▪ In some cases, the second story slightly protrudes over the lower floor

▪ Wood framed with clapboard or shingles

▪ Small casement windows, some with diamond-shaped panes

▪ Little exterior ornamentation

Colonial Cape Cod
▪ Set in the time of 1600s – 1950s, this style was mainly
from the colonial New England. It featured a simple
house, one story with a single chimney located at its
center. It is symmetrical in appearance and the door
located at its center. With its steep roof, central chimney
and rectangular shape, the game piece is a good, albeit
tiny, example of a classic Cape Cod home.
▪ Houses had one-story or one-and-a-half stories with no
dormers. They usually were sided with shingles or
unpainted clapboards.
Colonial Cape Cod
▪ Though the style is quintessentially American, the
first Cape Cods were developed by early settlers
from England in the 1600s. Partially inspired by the
simple, thatched cottages common in Britain, the
settlers adapted the style to keep out the harsh New
England winter.
Colonial Cape Cod
▪ The big, central chimney was literally the heart of
the home: It provided heat to all the rooms clustered
around it, as well as light and, of course, dinner.
Cedar shingles on the exterior and the roof also
helped cut the cold. A steep roof quickly shed rain
and snow. Everything about the Cape Cod style was
adopted for its function rather than its form.
Key Elements
▪ Large, central chimney. The large, central chimney is located directly behind the front
door, with the rooms clustered around it in a rectangular shape.
▪ Steep roof. Cape Cods have steep roofs to quickly shed rain and snow, and a shallow roof
overhang.
▪ Windows and dormers. A full Cape has two windows on each side of the door, and often
has a dormer on each side of the chimney to open up the attic.
▪ Captain's stairway. "The second floor, often kept for boarders or 'seafaring' men, was
accessed by a narrow stair, or 'captain's stairway,' which has incredibly steep risers and
shallow treads to minimize the use of the first-floor space," explains David Karam, an
architect and builder from Brewster, Mass.
▪ Shingle siding. Weathered gray shingles are one of the most recognizable elements of a
classic Cape Cod, but newer homes are built of brick, stucco and stone.
Main Features
▪ Steeply pitched roof with side gables

▪ Narrow roof overhang

▪ Constructed of wood and sided in wide clapboard or shingles

▪ Exterior siding originally left unpainted

▪ Large central chimney linked to a fireplace in each room

▪ Rectangular shape

▪ Front door placed at the center or, in some cases, at the side

▪ Center-hall floor plan

▪ Multi-paned, double-hung windows

▪ Shutters

▪ Hardwood floors

▪ Little exterior ornamentation

▪ Interior trim painted white

Dutch Colonial
▪ Set in the time of 1625s – mid 1800s, Dutch settlers
used bricks and stones to build their homes near the
Hudson River. It features Dutch style doors, gambrel
roofs, matching chimneys on each side and of course
the bricks and stones for the main structure.
▪ Often built brick or stone homes with roofs that
reflected their Flemish culture. Sometimes the eaves
were flared and sometimes the roofs were slightly
rounded into barn-like gambrel shapes.
Dutch Colonial
▪ The Dutch influenced American Characteristics include:
Colonial architecture in New ▪ Made with stone or brick
York and along the Hudson
River. ▪ Matching chimneys on both ends of
the house
▪ Built in 1740, the Dutch
▪ Symmetrical façade
Colonial Home shown here has
a gambrel roof and a salt-box ▪ Gambrel roof with wide, flared eaves
shaped lean-to addition. Later
▪ Saltbox lean-to added
Dutch style buildings became
known for their elaborately ▪ Dutch doors (where the door is split
shaped gables, dormers, horizontally in the middle and each
and parapets. half can be opened independently)
Main Features
▪ Stone or brick construction

▪ Dutch doors (upper and lower halves can be opened independently)

▪ Matching chimneys on each side, a massive wishbone-shaped chimney at the front

▪ Wide, slightly flared eaves,

▪ Gambrel Rood
Colonial Revival
▪ After the Centennial International Exposition in 1876,
the citizens of the United States of America experienced
a renewal of interest in their own history and the
Colonial Revival architecture spread throughout the
nation.
▪ Colonial Revival mainly focuses on revitalizing the more
ornate Georgian Colonial, however Cape Cod Houses,
Dutch Colonial, and Spanish Colonial all experienced
revivals that brought the architecture into modern
society.
Colonial Revival
▪ In particular, Cape Cod houses came back into style
in the 1930s with additional rooms, strictly
decorative shutters, and chimneys on the side of the
house rather than in the center. The Dutch Colonial
Revival kept the original design while updating and
varying the materials, details, and sizes used.
Colonial Revival
▪ Set in the time of 1876s – 1955s, Characteristics include:
it made use of the patriotism as ▪ Symmetrical facade, gable roof, and
an inspiration and returned to the rectangular shape (like originals)
classical style. It became a ▪ Two to three stories
standard style in 20th century. It
▪ Brick or wood siding with simple and
features a symmetrical façade, is classical detailing (Not as plain as
rectangular, two to three stories before)
high and are in brick or wood ▪ Elaborate entrances, pillars, columns,
siding with a gable roof. dormers, and decorative shutters
▪ Center entry hall floor plan with living
spaces on the first floor and
bedrooms upstairs
Main Features
▪ Accentuated front door with decorative pediment supported by pilasters or extended
forward and supported by slender columns to form entry porch
▪ Fanlights and sidelights common; Palladian windows common

▪ Façade symmetry; centered door; aligned windows

▪ Double-hung sash windows usually with multi-pane glazing; frequently in adjacent

pairs; multi-pane upper sash with single pane lower sash and bay windows (not
historically accurate) were popular
▪ One-story wings, usually with a flat roof and commonly embellished with a
balustrade
▪ Broken pediments, rare on original colonial structures popular in Colonial Revival
examples
Main Features
▪ Door surrounds tend to be shallow (less deep) than originals and exhibit machine-
planed smoothness
▪ Dormers, often with exaggerated, eclectic pediments

▪ Masonry cladding grew in popularity as technology for using brick or stone veneer
improved after 1920
▪ Gable, Hipped, or Gambrel roofs

▪ Details tend to be exaggerated with larger proportions than original elements

▪ Details from two or more types of Colonial styles often combined so pure replicas of
a particular style are far less common than eclectic mixtures
▪ Interior floor plans are not symmetrical and are more open than historic examples
German Colonial
Characteristics Include
▪ Architecture attributed to German-
speaking immigrants to America ▪ a symmetrical façade,
primarily in the years from about ▪ thick stone walls,
1680 to 1780. Many of these
▪ a steeply pitched end-gabled roof usually
early settlers first built a log covered with wood shingles or clay tiles;
house of hewn square timbers as ▪ an attic story with windows at the gable
a temporary home until they ends and shed dormers on the roof,
could construct more substantial ▪ a porch at the gable end of the house or at
housing. If it was built into a the front of the house;
hillside, it was called a bank ▪ small casement windows with battened
house. shutters, later replaced by double-hung
windows.
INFLUENCES
 With the colonization of the Only in New Orleans, where the
North American continent. Settlers from French government sent skilled architects
and engineers, was anything produced that
various European countries brought with approached the sophistication of
them the building techniques and architecture in France. The comparatively
prevailing forms of their respective short Spanish domination of Florida also
homelands. Colonial architecture was produced highly complex structures,
including the fort at St. Augustine (begun
subsequently adapted to the topography 1672). The Spanish impress was more
and climate of the chosen site, the permanent in the American Southwest,
availability of building materials, the where settlers borrowed extensively from the
dearth of trained builders and artisans, Native American techniques of construction
in adobe. Mexican baroque details and
and the general poverty of the settlers. church forms appeared in a new and simpler
guise, as in the Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
and California missions. The Dutch, who
settled in New Amsterdam (now New York
City), were traders for the most part, and
examples of their residential work can be
seen throughout the Hudson River Valley.
 The English settlements were of
two basic types: the small town in the
North and the large plantation in the
South. In New England settlers erected
many-gabled houses of wood with
prominent brick chimney stacks of late
Gothic inspiration, such as the Parson
Capen House in Topsfield, Mass. (1683).
The Parson Capen House in Topsfield, Mass.
In the South, brick rapidly superseded
wood as the chief building material, as
for example, in St. Luke's Church in
Smithfield, Va. (1632). The formality
and classicism of 18th-century English
architecture was almost immediately St. Luke's Church in Smithfield, Va
reflected in the colonies, as in the
official buildings of Williamsburg, Va. or
the Pennsylvania Statehouse in
Philadelphia (begun 1731).
the Pennsylvania Statehouse in Philadelphia
 The first residential
buildings were Medieval in style
because that is all the settlers
knew. Houses in England, since at
least the 13th century had been
timber framed, because there was
an abundance of oak. The timber
frame was made from halved, or
cleft, timbers rather than complete
logs. The gaps between timbers
were infilled with panels, saplings
woven into flat mats and covered in
clay, called "wattle and dob."
Roofs were made of thatch.
Colonist brought this method to
America: a timber frame with a
skin made of local materials, in The Stimson-Green Mansion in Minor Ave, Seattle, Washington,USA
New England, wood, and in
Virginia, brick.
 The first basic house, in
the 1600s, was a one story two
room (hall and parlor) house with a
central chimney. This evolved into a
two story, four room building. By
1700, the salt-box evolved with a
shed-like addition on the back. By
1740, the shed had become a full
story, or a four-on-four room house.
This, with a central hall with stair
case, is the basic plan outline. The
standard Colonial design, with a Early Century Frame Hall And Parlor House Montgomery City
symmetrical front -- with a central
door and two windows on either
side, and five windows across
the second floor -- remains the
most popular architectural plan in
the United States today. It traveled
west with the pioneers.
 In New England, there was
usually one chimney in the middle. In
Virginia and the Southern colonies,
there were often two chimneys -- one
at either end of the house -- to direct
the heat outwards. Today, a standard
Colonial design has one chimney
located conveniently to provide for
the hearth in the living room and the
furnace beneath it in the basement.
As settlers had began to
think about aesthetics over basic
shelter, and their houses were
evolving from one and two room
shelters, they looked to England for
new ideas. England was ablaze with
exciting architectural development.
London had burned in 1666, and
Christopher Wren was instrumental
in its rebuilding. The style he and his
predecessor, Indigo Jones, introduced
is now called Baroque.
An old house around the 1800s with two chimneys
 There were three
known famous
influences: Dutch
Colonial, French Colonial
& Spanish Colonial
 The Dutch influence on American In the Louisiana territory, houses were built
colonial architecture can be found in New in the French style. Surviving structures can
York City and surrounding areas in New be best seen in New Orleans and in rural
Jersey, on Long Island and along the Hudson Louisiana along the Mississippi River. The
River. plantation houses are timber framed
structures featuring tall and steeply pitched
hipped roofs characteristic of rural French
manor houses. They are adapted to the sub-
tropical Louisiana in two ways: the main
living area, built of heavy interlocked
Dutch Colonial timbers, was built on a very tall brick
foundation to protect the house from the
periodical river flooding; and, the houses
were usually surrounded by wide porches, or
galleries, to provide refreshingly cool yet
sheltered outdoor living during the summer
months. Characteristic are extensive porches
and no halls. They are graced with French
doors from every room to the porch.
French Colonial
 Florida and the Southwest offered few of the
riches to the Spanish Empire as Mexico and Peru and
were sparsely settled by missionaries and military men to
serve as buffers to French and English expansion.
However, by the time settlers arrived in Virginia and
Massachusetts in the early 1600s, the Spanish Empire
had been thriving for more than a century. Today few
buildings from this era survive, except for the mission
chapels in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.
Most colonial houses were modest structures of adobe
and stone. The Governors palaces in Santa Fe, New
Mexico and San Antonio, Texas, however, offer brief
glimpses into the original Spanish colonial architecture.
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