![]() ![]() The Bassett House, 1698, in Sandwich, Massachusetts. When does one style become another? Exploring the meaning of architectural style can be challenging in a country like the United States with a population of diverse backgrounds. Many of the homes of the past have been modified through architectural details or building additions. But traditions are difficult to keep pure. Like the homes at Plimoth Plantation, the landscape of the traditional Cape Cod home often includes the picket fence or gate. They aren't from a colonial era, but they bring natural light to interiors and enable occupants to see the wolf at the door! #Cape cod house style windows#Entry door sidelights (the narrow windows on either side of the door frame) and fanlights (the fan-shaped window above the door) are great additions for homes today. Pilasters, sidelights, fanlights and other Georgian and Federal or Adam style refinements decorate this historic Cape Cod home in Sandwich, New Hampshire.Ĭape Cod style homes of the 20th century are often more than revivals-they are evolutions of the plainness and lack of ornamentation of Colonial American homes. Like all architecture, it is a derivative of what has come before. The American Cape Cod house style is often considered the first American independent style. When colonists moved, they took architectural design with them. ![]() 1658 by Thomas Moore, who was originally from Salem, Massachusetts. The house originally on this site was built c. The Samuel Landon house shown here was built in 1750 in Southold, New York on Long Island, a boat-ride from Cape Cod. On the colonial East Coast, Cape Cod homes were heated by a single fireplace with a chimney rising from the center of the house. They quickly realized that their own ideal of the English cottage would have to be adapted to the extremes of the New England climate. Settlers used the materials at hand, which meant one-story houses of white pine and dirt floors. The first houses in the New World, like in the settlement at Plimoth, were simple post-and-beam shelters with one opening-a door. European immigrants to the New World brought building skills with them, but their first dwellings were more Primitive Hut than bold, new architectural style. In reality, the history of what we call the Cape Cod style is not a pure and simple revival story, but more of a survival story. Today's mid-century Cape Cod style has evolved from this. The home had to function in the heat of summer and bone-chilling New England winters. Exterior siding was clapboard or shingle. Shutters were made to actually close over the windows. The center chimney warmed the entire house. Remembering that the original colonists of the New World took the journey because of freedom of religion, we should not be surprised at the Puritan-stark nature of America's first homes. ![]() And many of the homes we call Cape Cod style are actually found on Cape Ann, northeast of Boston. Original colonial houses in New England are more often 2 stories than the traditional 1 or 1½ story homes we call Cape Cod. Davis has written, "Being a pioneer is not always as rewarding as nostalgia." As the colonists settled into their new lives in a new land, their dwellings quickly enlarged to accommodate more and more family members. ![]()
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