A hall-and-parlor house is a type of vernacular house found in early-modern to 19th century England, as well as in colonial North America. [1] It is presumed to have been the model on which other North American house types have been developed, such as the Cape Cod house, saltbox, and central-passage house, and in turn influenced the somewhat-later I-house. In England it had been a more modest development from the medieval hall house.
The hall-and-parlor style entails a rectangular, two-room configuration. [2] The style began in early-modern England, where it was often a timber-framed structure. Many could not afford a large house; however, putting up a wall in the only room created a smaller area in the rear of the house called a parlor. This was the private room and usually contained a bed. [3] In early examples, the house is one room wide and two deep. The two adjoining rooms are connected by an interior door. An exterior door leads to the hall, the larger of the two rooms and the one in the front of the house. Behind the hall is the parlor. The hall may have been used for cooking, while the parlor was the general living space and bedroom. [4]
In colonial America, hall-and-parlor houses were two rooms wide and one deep. They were often one and a half stories tall, with a steeply pitched side-gabled roof. The style was at one time so ubiquitous that it was known colloquially as the "Virginia style". In the Southern Colonies, there were usually flush or exterior gable-end chimneys on one or both sides of the house. Northern examples often featured a central chimney. The houses were most often of wood-frame construction on a brick or stone foundation, but sometimes the entire structure was masonry. The windows were often asymmetrically placed. Common dimensions for the entire house were from 16 to 20 feet (5 to 6 m) deep and 20 to 40 feet (6 to 12 m) wide. The larger hall was the general-purpose room and, if a loft existed, contained a stairway or ladder to it. The parlor was the smaller of the two rooms and was more private. It was commonly used for sleeping. [1] [5]
The central-passage house, also known as the hall-passage-parlor house, is believed by architectural historians to have developed from the earlier hall-and-parlor house type. In fact, many examples are known where an earlier hall-and-parlor house had an additional wall added inside the larger hall room to form a central-passage house. [6]
The hall-and-parlor style was common in early-19th-century construction in Williamson County, Tennessee, including the John Pope House, Samuel Crockett House, John Neely House, and John Crafton House. [7]
American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English (late-medieval), French Colonial, Spanish 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 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.
Gunston Hall is an 18th-century Georgian mansion near the Potomac River in Mason Neck, Virginia, United States. Built between 1755 and 1759 as the main residence and headquarters of a 5,500-acre (22 km2) plantation, the house was the home of the United States Founding Father George Mason. The home is located not far from George Washington's home.
A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and expensive architectural works today, though most were more utilitarian, working farmhouses.
Bride's Hill, known also as Sunnybrook, is a historic house near Wheeler, Alabama. It is significant as an example of a Tidewater-type cottage built on a large slave plantation. It was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on April 16, 1985, and to the National Register of Historic Places on July 9, 1986.
The I-house is a vernacular house type, popular in the United States from the colonial period onward. The I-house was so named in the 1930s by Fred Kniffen, a cultural geographer at Louisiana State University who was a specialist in folk architecture. He identified and analyzed the type in his 1936 study of Louisiana house types.
Wentworth–Coolidge Mansion is a 40-room clapboard house which was built as the home, offices and working farm of colonial Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire. It is located on the water at 375 Little Harbor Road, about two miles southeast of the center of Portsmouth. It is one of the few royal governors' residences to survive almost unchanged. The site is a New Hampshire state park, declared a National Historic Landmark in 1968. Today, the New Hampshire Bureau of Historic Sites manages the site with the assistance of the Wentworth-Coolidge Commission, a group of volunteer civic and business leaders appointed by the Governor.
The Rogers-Whitaker-Haywood House, also known as the Fabius Haywood House, is a historic home located near Wake Crossroads, Wake County, North Carolina, an unincorporated community northeast of the state capital Raleigh. The original 1+1⁄2-story house, now the west end, was built in 1771. It has a stone exterior chimney on the west end. Now one large room, it may originally have been arranged as a hall-parlor plan; it formerly had a door between the two south windows and a straight stair with winders in the northeast corner.
Thomas and Esther Smith House is a historic house at 251 North West Street in Agawam, Massachusetts. It is one of the oldest houses in Agawam. The house is situated on 1 acre (0.40 ha) of land about 5 miles (8.0 km) west of the Connecticut River, at the foot of Provin Mountain. It is a vernacular 1+1⁄2-story house with plain Georgian styling. The main block of the house is three bays wide, with a gambrel roof and a central chimney. A 1+1⁄2-story addition on the western side of the house as a gabled roof. The main block's foundation is fieldstone, while that of the addition is brick and concrete block.
Pleasant Hills is a historic home located near Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. It is a large, two-part brick house with Greek Revival detailing. The more recent, main block, was constructed in 1836, and was built by Zaddock Sasscer.
Frascati is an early 19th-century Federal-style plantation house near Somerset in Orange County, Virginia. Frascati was the residence of Philip P. Barbour, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and statesman.
The central-passage house, also known variously as central hall plan house, center-hall house, hall-passage-parlor house, Williamsburg cottage, and Tidewater-type cottage, was a vernacular, or folk form, house type from the colonial period onward into the 19th century in the United States.
Douglass-Reams House is a c. 1828 center-hall house in Franklin, Tennessee.
Lacy Homestead, also known as the William Austin Lacy House, is one of the only surviving remnants of a settlement in northern Lauderdale County, Mississippi known as "Little Georgia". The first settlers of this area came from Jackson County, Georgia and areas of Virginia, bringing their customs and architectural styles with them to the area. The homestead was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
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.
The Thomas Hall House is a historic home located along the 3000 block of Tyler Road in Christiansburg, near Childress, Montgomery County, Virginia.
The Gershom Durgin House is a historic house at 391 Franklin Highway in Andover, New Hampshire. Probably built between 1808 and 1820, it is a well-preserved example of an early 19th-century Cape Cod style house. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
The Mason–Watkins House is a historic house at the northwest corner of Old Walpole Road and Mine Ledge Road in Surry, New Hampshire. Built in 1832, it is an example of the conservative persistence of Federal style architecture well after the Greek Revival had become popular in other parts of New England. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The McWain-Hall House is a historic house on McWain Hill Road in Waterford, Maine. It is a typical vernacular Federal-style farmhouse, which is not only one of the oldest houses in the area, but is also locally significant as the home of David McWain (1752-1825), one of the town's first settlers. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987