 | This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points.(September 2021) |
First Period is an American architecture style originating between approximately 1626 and 1725, used primarily by British colonists during the settlement of the British colonies of North America, particularly in Massachusetts and Virginia. Among U.S. counties, Essex County, Massachusetts has the highest number of preserved First Period architecture buildings. [1]
The harsh winter weather in the colonies proved to be dangerous. To adapt to the conditions, First Period houses are built facing south to optimize sunlight and allow the house to be heated better. First Period houses are often constructed with a central chimney, to allow multiple rooms on multiple floors to have a fireplace and further maximize heat during the winter. [2]
A gabled, asymmetrical rooftop helps prevent snow from accumulating on the roof during snowy winters. It also provides extra light for the attics through small casement windows. [3] A still standing example of a First Period house in the British colonies is the Ross Tavern in Ipswich, Massachusetts, built in 1680. [4]
Inside, walls were furnished with clay and twigs to act as insulation. Staircases are often built in an L or U shape around the central chimney. A heavy oak frame and thick wooden beams are used to maintain the house structure. [5]
Wooden frames of First Period houses were smoothed by planes, whereas timber frames of later colonial architecture styles were roughly adzed and incomplete. [6] Due to the lack of an architect, the frame was often left exposed.
First Period houses were constructed with less variable floor plans. The most common plan is two-room central-chimney, found in Massachusetts Bay. [7] Another variation of floor plan was a one-room-deep linear plan, which featured a small porch or hall immediately after the main entrance with large rooms on either side. The rooms would be separated by the central chimney and the staircase leading to the second floor. The second floor was usually a similar layout, but with the addition of sleeping quarters. [8]
First Period architecture could be divided into three periods of time, the earliest immigrants constitute this age category from settlement to the 1660s. Ten existing houses in Massachusetts have been proved that they were built before 1660 based on structural evidences. [9]
While houses built before 1660 were designed by colonists with no architectural background, houses built from 1660 to 1700 were constructed by experienced carpenters, with heavy timber frame to support the structure and more complex design. [10] One iconic characteristic about it is chamfers with massive amount of decorative "stops" to carry the wooden frame. [11]
Houses built after 1700 are less decorative and quarter-round or wide decorative bevels replaced the older, bold version of chamfers, sophisticated design are no longer favored. With growing populace of Georgian architecture style in New England, timber frames had a tendency to be hidden and decorated, instead of being shown to people. [12] The joiners substituted the carpenters as main contributors to interior design.
First Period concepts were developed from English post-medieval styles, there are dominant three types of roof structures in New England which adopt architectural characteristics from the west of England, the principal and common rafter system, the principal rafter and purlin system, and the principal rafter system. [13] These roof design systems were maintained to the later eighteenth century along with exposed and decorated timber frames. The main multiple purlins span the principal rafters at the level of the outer face of the rafters, which are placed above the bay posts, and support vertically laid roofing boards. [14] This style had gained prevalence in the seventeenth century, especially in Essex County, where English colonists firstly settled down.
Meanwhile, English settlers innovated the principal rafter system in New England with adjustments to local conditions. In the West of England, thatch rooftops were widely used, so thick collar beams were demanded, but in New England, thatch roofs were superseded by wooden shingles which significantly reduced the weight and hence collar beams disappeared after modernization. [15]
New settlers found adequate amount of wood and mud in New England, but few materials to mix them. They decided to design their homes with solid wooden structures and natural resources to acclimatize themselves to the long and cold winter and the short time suitable for agricultural work. Hence, wooden English cottages emerged in large numbers with thick clapboards nailed to the outside.
However, houses in New England are not unified. The Puritans dislodged some people to Rhode Island and Connecticut River valley and later more untrammeled colonists from other part of England. Compared with former architectures erected by the Puritans, their style is more laissez-faire, mixed with individual personality. [16]
Another English architecture style is brought to New England in the First Period is façade gable, its purpose is to direct the rainwater away and introduce light to the attics, which is abandoned in the later Georgian style, an advanced version of First Period styles but more modern, demands highly symmetrical design.
The Williams–Barker House is a heritage house, its foundation finished in 1634 by house owner, John Williams, who was one of the earliest English immigrants in New England. From the outside, it could be seen that the timber frame supports the shape of the house and there is a central chimney to ventilate, few casement windows and a steep roof. Inside of the house, the ceiling is fairly low and wood beams are visible, fireplace is centered to ensure it heat up the house evenly and dining tables are placed surround it, due to its new use as a restaurant.
In colonial British America, jails are one of the earliest appeared public buildings, they did not serve the role of imprisonment, but a pre-trial accommodation for defendants. In Massachusetts Bay Colony, colonists established regulations that immigrants should not breach the laws in England and then erected houses of correction for penalty. [17] At that time, recognizance is well accepted by colonial judges, so only few amount of criminals went to the jail, the scale is much smaller compared with contemporary jail in United States.
The structure is also different; the culprits live in cages or cabinets. A familial model is adopted in colonial jail system, jailers and perhaps their family live in the same building as the culprits. The jails imitates First Period residential places, built in wood structure and tight arranged planks. [18]
The Old Jail established in Barnstable, Massachusetts was used for 130 years since 1690; the maximum capacity of whole jail is 6–8 people. Cells are small and windows are reinforced with rectangle metals, there is one door in the front which is small as well with heavy bar locks, and clapboards are interlocked at the joints with massive amount of nails.
Christianity was brought to the United States by early English colonists; the oldest First Period church was built in New Mexico in 1629, named San Estevan del Rey Mission Church, is still in use as a museum. And later in Virginia, Maryland, and Massachusetts, few churches were constructed by Puritans following English medieval architecture styles in the 17th century. [19]
Unlike Boston, cities like Plymouth and Hingham have not been restored to attract tourism, churches are well-maintained in original medieval architecture styling with centered fireplaces near the staircases. [20]
Old Ship Church is one of the oldest church built by puritans in Hingham, Massachusetts, and a well-preserved example of First Period architecture style. It is named after the shape of ceiling, which was inspired by its architects, carpenters from the early arrived English colonists. The wooden timber frame of the church and walls were constructed in 1681, and later in the 1740s, galleries on the side were added. [21]
It is not surprising that First Period houses are damaged as time goes by, but it is not noticeable before 1876 as the Centennial at Philadelphia focused on the past glories. [22]
Since only a small amount of architecture samples were left after World War II and the Great Depression, house owners could not afford the fees to restore the buildings, and wartime preoccupation distracted people from heritage preservation. [23]
Another reason that first period houses are hard to preserve is erosion. During the 1930s, one of nine First Period houses collapsed due to decay of construction materials, wooden are easily rotten due to moisture and fungi (microscopic organisms). [24] Apart from these two decades, First Period houses are demolishing at a stable rate, this is because the local historical commission scrutinizes the process of erosion regularly and takes actions immediately after finding endangered architectures. [25]
To summarize, among over 250 buildings constructed in First Period, about 50 of them were lost, 15 of them were destroyed by fire, four of them collapsed, for the remaining buildings, 14 percent of them were demolished for better urban planning, such as road widening or school playgrounds. [26] Only a small portion of First Period houses are maintained until now.
Timber framing and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs. If the structural frame of load-bearing timber is left exposed on the exterior of the building it may be referred to as half-timbered, and in many cases the infill between timbers will be used for decorative effect. The country most known for this kind of architecture is Germany, where timber-framed houses are spread all over the country.
American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English (late-medieval), Spanish Colonial, French Colonial, Dutch Colonial, and Georgian. These styles are associated with the houses, churches and government buildings of the period from about 1600 through the 19th century.
A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which support the roof of a building, historically used in England and Wales. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally naturally curved, timber members that lean inwards and form the ridge of the roof. These posts are then generally secured by a horizontal beam which then forms an "A" shape. Several of these "crooks" are constructed on the ground and then lifted into position. They are then joined together by either solid walls or cross beams which aid in preventing 'racking'.
A Cape Cod house is a low, broad, single or double-story frame building with a moderately-steep-pitched gabled roof, a large central chimney, and very little ornamentation. Originating in New England in the 17th century, the simple symmetrical design was constructed of local materials to withstand the stormy weather of Cape Cod. It features a central front door flanked by multipaned windows. The space above the first floor was often left as unfinished attic space, with or without windows on the gable ends.
The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James VI and I, with whose reign it is associated. At the start of James' reign, there was little stylistic break in architecture, as Elizabethan trends continued their development. However, his death in 1625 came as a decisive change towards more classical architecture, with Italian influence, was in progress, led by Inigo Jones. The style this began is sometimes called Stuart architecture, or English Baroque.
A saltbox house is a gable-roofed residential structure that is typically two stories in the front and one in the rear. It is a traditional New England style of home, originally timber framed, which takes its name from its resemblance to a wooden lidded box in which salt was once kept.
Tudor Revival architecture, also known as mock Tudor in the UK, first manifested in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture, in reality it usually took the style of English vernacular architecture of the Middle Ages that had survived into the Tudor period.
The Fairbanks House in Dedham, Massachusetts is a historic house built c. 1637, making it the oldest surviving timber-frame house in North America that has been verified by dendrochronology testing. Puritan settler Jonathan Fairbanks constructed the farm house for his wife Grace and their family. The house was occupied and then passed down through eight generations of the family until the early 20th century. Over several centuries the original portion was expanded as architectural styles changed and the family grew.
Domestic roof construction is the framing and roof covering which is found on most detached houses in cold and temperate climates. Such roofs are built with mostly timber, take a number of different shapes, and are covered with a variety of materials.
The Old Ship Church is a Puritan church built in 1681 in Hingham, Massachusetts. It is the only surviving 17th-century Puritan meetinghouse in the United States. Its congregation, gathered in 1635 and officially known as First Parish in Hingham, occupies the oldest church building in continuous ecclesiastical use in the country. On October 9, 1960, it was designated a National Historic Landmark, and on November 15, 1966, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The John Whipple House is a historic colonial house at 1 South Green in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Built in the seventeenth century, the house has been open to the public as a museum since 1899 and was the subject of some of the earliest attempts at the preservation of colonial houses. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960, one of the earliest properties to receive that honor.
The Larkin House is a historic house at 464 Calle Principal in Monterey, California. Built in 1835 by Thomas O. Larkin, it is claimed to be the first two-story house in all of California, with a design combining Spanish Colonial building methods with New England architectural features to create the popular Monterey Colonial style of architecture. The Larkin House is both a National and a California Historical Landmark, and is a featured property of Monterey State Historic Park.
The Abbot-Stinson House is a historic house in Andover, Massachusetts. The house is estimated to have been built in the early 1720s, in the transitional period between First Period and Georgian styles of construction. It was originally one room deep with a central chimney, but was extended by additions to the rear in the 20th century. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The Adams–Clarke House is a historic late First Period house in Georgetown, Massachusetts. Built about 1725, it retains a number of features transitional between the First and Second periods of colonial architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The John Boardman House is a historic First Period house in Boxford, Massachusetts. Its oldest portion dates to about 1740, but has stylistically older elements. It was moved to its current location from Saugus in 1956, before which it had undergone restoration. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The Brown House is a historic First Period house in Hamilton, Massachusetts. Built in the 1660s or 1670s, it is one of the oldest surviving houses in Essex County. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The Prentis House, built in 1773 in Hadley, Massachusetts, by the Dickinson family, is typical of the indigenous style of saltbox architecture that developed in New England during the Colonial period and remained in use, particularly in rural areas, through the American Revolution. The Prentis House was relocated to the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont, and furnished with 17th and 18th century period furniture and decorative arts.
A timber roof truss is a structural framework of timbers designed to bridge the space above a room and to provide support for a roof. Trusses usually occur at regular intervals, linked by longitudinal timbers such as purlins. The space between each truss is known as a bay.
The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples were built in stone.
American historic carpentry is 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.