A flounder house has a shed roof and lacks windows and doors on its tallest wall.
A flounder house is a term used in some areas to describe a type of house with a roof with a single slope, rather than the double slope of gabled roof.[1] Some are oriented so that the shed roof runs perpendicular to the facade, in these tallest wall of the house lacks windows and doors.[2] The house may align with a property edge, sit at the back of its lot, or align with other houses on its street.[2][3][4] Others have a different number of apparent stories on the facade and the rear elevation, with the ridge line running parallel the facade.
The motivation for building flounder houses is debated.[7][4][8] Common folklore follow one of three themes: "a result of an early restrictive building ordinance, the original owner's plan for future expansion, or a desire to reduce property taxes."[2] In fact, shed roofed buildings are often simply the cheapest to construct.
Residents of various cities with shed-roofed houses believe that these houses are indigenous to their city.[9][10]
277 flounder houses have been cataloged in St. Louis, Missouri as of July 2015.[11][12] The Cassey House is a flounder house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In 1960, Alexandria, Virginia, may have had 75 flounder houses,[13] dramatically fewer than the 1500 flounder houses estimated to have existed there in the 19th century.[2] A parsonage built in 1787 claims the distinction of oldest flounder house in Alexandria.[14][15]
Legacy
The Cultural Resources Office of St. Louis began a survey in 2015, in order to better preserve the city's flounder houses.[12] Individuals have also taken interest in flounder houses, sometimes incorporating historical houses into modern renovations.[16]
In The Carlisle Chronicles, a 1986 mystery trilogy by Norma Johnston, the protagonists' family lives in a flounder house designed to avoid a glass tax.[17][18]
1 2 3 4 5 6 Martin, Christopher (1986). ""Hope Deferred": The Origin and Development of Alexandria's Flounder House". Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture. 2: 111–119. doi:10.2307/3514322. JSTOR3514322.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.