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| The Judge Corwin
House, built in Salem in 1675, is an example of the late Medieval
house form, similar to English houses of the 17th century
with its great wall dormers and upper floor overhangs. The
windows are casements with leaded glass. |
The medieval legacy is one of organic building,
natural materials locally found, and design determined by need
rather than by principles of style. Unpainted wood predominates;
most paint, plaster and masonry belongs to 18th century work.
Because these houses were simple, small and crude, very few remain,
and most of these have been restored and preserved as historic
sites. The most humble are of one room with a fireplace and chimney
at one end. More frequent is the two room plan with the chimney
centered behind the entrance and three-run stair leading to a
loft or second story sleeping rooms. Massive fireplaces face into
the first floor rooms. If means allow, a room, or rooms, may later
be added across the back and the rear roof extended to create
the familiar "saltbox" look. This new back room usually became
the kitchen, and a fireplace and flue were added to the center
chimney. Even in the earliest days, the one room plan, the two
room (Cape Cod), lean-to or "saltbox" and full two story plans
were known because all had been developed in England earlier,
but many years were to pass before all these forms appeared in
New England.
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| Built in 1636,
the Fairbanks House is among the earliest houses remaining
from initial English settlement. It is unpainted, with a very
steep roof and massive centered chimney. Note the informal
arrangement of the windows. |
What all these forms have in common is the heavy
oak frame which supports the house. Hand-hewn logs of 8 to 12
inches square were used for posts and beams. These interlocked
at joints and were secured with pegs. Walls were infilled with
wattle (sticks and twigs) and daub (mud and clay) and sheathed
with clapboards or shingles to protect from the severe New England
weather. Because the framing was so substantial, it was visible
in the finished rooms. The heavy braced frame continued to be
used for all types of building from the first settlements until
the 1850s in New England and even longer in agricultural buildings.
17th century houses are generally asymmetrical; size and placement
of windows and doors follow no pattern. Roofs are steep and without
an overhang. The chimney is massive, sometimes with decorated
brickwork. In larger examples, the second floor may overhang the
first by 6 to 18 inches, and the attic may overhang the second
story a bit on the very largest houses. Doors, small by our standards,
are composed of vertical boards on the exterior nailed to horizontal
boards on the inside. Windows are casements, set in pairs or triples,
glazed with diamond-shaped panes (quarels) set in led strips (cames)
and hinged with strips of wrought iron.
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This Colonial Cape Cod house has a gambrel
roof. It is an example of a design developed in England
and built primarily in southern New England.
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In the 18th century, the same house forms were continued,
but houses tended to be a little larger with higher ceilings.
Roofs became less steely pitched, wall overhangs were eliminated,
chimneys made plain, doors paneled, and double-hung sash replaced
casement windows in both new and old houses. The lean-to continued
to be built but as part of the initial construction, not an addition.
Windows and doors were placed in balanced patterns if not exact
symmetry, giving evidence of an awareness of Georgian proportions
even in the plainest buildings. Interior paneling is introduced,
used on the fireplace wall, with plaster used on other walls above
the chair rail, and, later, on the ceilings.
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This model shows the heavy timber framing
used in house construction from earliest settlement until
the 1840s. All joints are pegged; no nails are used
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POBox
1046,
