The Basic House

The generic, early American house is known by many names, among them the English Medieval House, theCape Cod, the saltbox, and the double-pen log cabin. While each of these differs in detail from one another, they are simple, rather plain houses that collectively represent America’s most enduring house designs.

从英格兰到达的十七世纪的定居者改编了他们在家中所知的中世纪小屋。最早的房屋包括一个房间，天花板上有一个洞，让烟雾从火中逃脱。一种chimneywas soon added on an end wall; the addition of a second room came next. This new configuration was called the “hall-and-parlor house” because the two principal rooms were a “hall” for cooking, eating, and working and a more formal “parlor” used as a master bedroom. Later, larger versions often had a narrow kitchen to the rear of the two front rooms, a one-and-a-half room deep configuration we know as the Cape Cod house. Early log cabins typically followed a similar evolution, with a single unit or “pen” followed by chimney construction and the addition of a second pen.

Building the Basic House was (and is) quite simple, with a shoebox-shaped first floor and a plain gable roof rising from the front and back. As originally laid out, these houses consisted of living areas downstairs and unfinished sleeping or storage spaces above in the tall attic. While these boxy houses have never gone out of favor, the range of variations on the original theme multiplied with the passing decades.

Because of the harsh climate on this side of the Atlantic, the Basic House in New England typically had a central chimney stack that contained two or more fireplaces. This functional design provided a masonry mass that absorbed the heat from the open fireboxes and radiated warmth to the entire house. In Virginia and other southern states, a variation evolved with chimneys in the end walls, in order to dissipate unwanted heat in the warmer southern climate.

Over the centuries, the Basic House assumed still more guises. The earliest Basic House probably wasn’t symmetrical—that is, the entrance was not at the center of the front of the house and the number of windows flanking the door on either side often differed. By the early eighteenth century, however, symmetry had become standard. These houses were originally found in rural settings surrounded by farm buildings. In New England, the bam and the house over time came to be connected by shed buildings, producing a progression of linked structures off the back of the main house.

The roof pitch of the Basic House flattened and, by the late nineteenth century, dormers often poked through, adding light and space to what had become upstairs bedrooms. Another common variation was a shed addition to the rear. Second stories appeared as well. A Basic House with both a second story and a shed addition at the rear became another familiar form of the Basic House, the Saltbox.

改造者的笔记。在改造一个基本的房子时，重要的是，首先，为了确保你的房子实际上并不是一个格鲁吉亚之家，在十八世纪更加精致装饰的风格。例如，我喜欢称为经典殖民地的配置是一个两层，双房间的深层房屋，前面有一个中心入口和五套开口。经典殖民地是格鲁吉亚房子的后代而不是成为一个基本的房子。一些维多利亚风格，也适用于与基本房屋相同的卷的不同细节。

在思考你的房子时，不要忘记谁来的灵感：主要是英国定居者到达美国，需要简单，经济的庇护所。我几年前访问了一所房子，在Cape Cod上。它的主人告诉我，它在十八世纪船长的船长已经开始生活。我不了解船长，但手工钉子，赫沃恩架和其他细节告诉我，这座房子已经建立了美国革命的时候。原始房子的房间很小但舒适，这使得其主人已经建立了所有令人震惊。它基本上是一个很棒的房间，带有一个英俊的粗糙的天花板，大胆的檐口模制品和高大的窗户。这是一个可爱的房间 - 但它没有以任何方式与原来的房子联系。这是一个像沃尔街投资银行家一样不协调，如果他穿着灰色法兰绒运动鞋。

Basic Houses consist of four walls and a pitched roof to shed the rain and snow. Their builders may have added paneling, moldings, or other trim to decorate the house but the enduring appeal of these houses comes not from the way they echo other styles and cultures. These are elemental houses whose simplicity and practicality are to be respected.