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Creole House
The Creole House is a historic residence in the village of Prairie du Rocher, an old French settlement in present-day Randolph County, Illinois, United States. Built at the end of the eighteenth century and later expanded, the Creole House is the last survivor in Illinois of its type of vernacular architecture, and it forms an important part of the built environment of a portion of the Upper Mississippi Valley that possesses an unparalleled connection to the French settlement period. History French settlers founded Prairie du Rocher circa 1722. At least twelve surviving houses in the village were built in the eighteenth century, including the Meilliere House, which was constructed in 1735.Brown, Margaret K. National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: French Colonial Historic District'. National Park Service, n.d. One of these is the Creole House, built around 1800,Gilster, Ruth, and A. Hahn. National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Creole ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Colonial Historic District
The French Colonial Historic District is a historic district that encompasses a major region of 18th-century French colonization in southwestern Illinois. The district is anchored by Fort de Chartres and Fort Kaskaskia, two important French settlements and military posts in what was then the Illinois Country. The Kaskaskia village site is also included within the district; it includes the Pierre Menard House, the only surviving building from Illinois' first state capital. Over a dozen French houses in Prairie du Rocher are also part of the district, including the poteaux-sur-sol Creole House and the 1735 Meilliere House. In addition to the French sites, the district also includes several Native American archaeological sites, such as the Modoc Rock Shelter, the Kolmer Site, the Waterman Site, and the Henke Site. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's officia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. The Senate is composed of senators, each of whom represents a single state in its entirety. Each of the 50 states is equally represented by two senators who serve staggered terms of six years, for a total of 100 senators. The vice president of the United States serves as presiding officer and president of the Senate by virtue of that office, despite not being a senator, and has a vote only if the Senate is equally divided. In the vice president's absence, the president pro tempore, who is traditionally the senior member of the party holding a majority of seats, presides over the Senate. As the upper chamber of Congress, the Senate has several powers o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesthetic concerns. The term gable wall or gable end more commonly refers to the entire wall, including the gable and the wall below it. Some types of roof do not have a gable (for example hip roofs do not). One common type of roof with gables, the gable roof, is named after its prominent gables. A parapet made of a series of curves (Dutch gable) or horizontal steps (crow-stepped gable) may hide the diagonal lines of the roof. Gable ends of more recent buildings are often treated in the same way as the Classic pediment form. But unlike Classical structures, which operate through trabeation, the gable ends of many buildings are actually bearing-wall structures. Gable style is also used in the design of fabric structures, with varying degree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clapboard (architecture)
Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'' in modern American usage is a word for long, thin boards used to cover walls and (formerly) roofs of buildings. Historically, it has also been called ''clawboard'' and ''cloboard''. In the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, the term ''weatherboard'' is always used. An older meaning of "clapboard" is small split pieces of oak imported from Germany for use as barrel staves, and the name is a partial translation (from , "to fit") of Middle Dutch and related to German . Types Riven Clapboards were originally riven radially producing triangular or "feather-edged" sections, attached thin side up and overlapped thick over thin to shed water. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duplex (building)
A duplex house plan has two living units attached to each other, either next to each other as townhouses, condominiums or above each other like apartments. By contrast, a building comprising two attached units on two distinct properties is typically considered ''semi-detached'' or ''twin homes'' but is also called a ''duplex'' in parts of the Northeastern United States, Western Canada, and Saudi Arabia. The term "duplex" is not extended to three-unit and four-unit buildings, as they would be referred to with specific terms such as three-family (or triplex) and fourplex (or quadplex/quadruplex) or a more general multiplex. Because of the flexibility of the term, the line between an apartment building and a duplex is somewhat blurred, with apartment buildings tending to be bigger, while duplexes are usually the size of a single-family house. Variants Big cities In dense areas like Manhattan and downtown Chicago, a duplex or duplex apartment refers to a maisonette, a single d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fireplace Mantel
The fireplace mantel or mantelpiece, also known as a chimneypiece, originated in medieval times as a hood that projected over a fire grate to catch the smoke. The term has evolved to include the decorative framework around the fireplace, and can include elaborate designs extending to the ceiling. ''Mantelpiece'' is now the general term for the jambs, mantel shelf, and external accessories of a fireplace. For many centuries, the ''chimneypiece'' was the most ornamental and most artistic feature of a room, but as fireplaces have become smaller, and modern methods of heating have been introduced, its artistic as well as its practical significance has lessened. Where the fireplace continues up the wall with an elaborate construction, as in historic grand buildings, this is known as an overmantel.''OED'' first citation, 1882. Mirrors and paintings designed to be hung above a mantel shelf may be called "mantel mirror", "mantel painting" and so on. History Up to the twelfth century ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fireplace
A fireplace or hearth is a structure made of brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficiency, depending on the design. Historically, they were used for heating a dwelling, cooking, and heating water for laundry and domestic uses. A fire is contained in a firebox or fire pit; a chimney or other flue allows exhaust gas to escape. A fireplace may have the following: a foundation, a hearth, a firebox, a mantel, a chimney crane (used in kitchen and laundry fireplaces), a grate, a lintel, a lintel bar, an overmantel, a damper, a smoke chamber, a throat, a flue, and a chimney filter or afterburner. On the exterior, there is often a corbelled brick crown, in which the projecting courses of brick act as a drip course to keep rainwater from running down the exterior walls. A cap, hood, or shroud serves to keep rainwater out of the exterior of the chimney; rai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plaster
Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "render" commonly refers to external applications. Another imprecise term used for the material is stucco, which is also often used for plasterwork that is worked in some way to produce relief decoration, rather than flat surfaces. The most common types of plaster mainly contain either gypsum, lime plaster, lime, or cement plaster, cement,Franz Wirsching "Calcium Sulfate" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 2012 Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. but all work in a similar way. The plaster is manufactured as a dry powder and is mixed with water to form a stiff but workable paste immediately before it is applied to the surface. The reaction with water liberates heat through crystallization and the hydrated plaster then ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Composite Material
A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a material with properties unlike the individual elements. Within the finished structure, the individual elements remain separate and distinct, distinguishing composites from mixtures and solid solutions. Typical engineered composite materials include: *Reinforced concrete and masonry *Composite wood such as plywood *Reinforced plastics, such as fibre-reinforced polymer or fiberglass *Ceramic matrix composites ( composite ceramic and metal matrices) *Metal matrix composites *and other advanced composite materials There are various reasons where new material can be favoured. Typical examples include materials which are less expensive, lighter, stronger or more durable when compared with commo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rafter
A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members such as wooden beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof shingles, roof deck and its associated loads. A pair of rafters is called a ''couple''. In home construction, rafters are normally made of wood. Exposed rafters are a feature of some traditional roof styles. Applications In recent buildings there is a preference for trussed rafters on the grounds of cost, economy of materials, off-site manufacture, and ease of construction, as well as design considerations including span limitations and roof loads (weight from above). Types in traditional timber framing There are many names for rafters depending on their location, shape, or size (see below). The earliest surviving roofs in Europe are of common rafters on a tie beam; this assembly is known as a "closed couple". Later, principal rafters and common rafters were mixed, which is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wall Stud
A wall stud is a vertical repetitive framing member in a building's wall of smaller cross section than a post. It is a fundamental element in frame building. Etymology ''Stud'' is an ancient word related to similar words in Old English, Old Norse, Middle High German, and Old Teutonic generally meaning ''prop'' or ''support''."Stud". def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009 Other historical words with similar meaning are ''quarter'' and ''scantling'' (one sense meaning a smaller timber, not necessarily the same use). ''Stick'' is a colloquial term for both framing lumber (timber) and a "timber tree" (a tree trunk good for using as lumber (timber)); thus, the names ''"stick and platform"'', ''"stick and frame"'', ''"stick and box"'', or simply ''stick framing''. The stud height usually determines the ceiling height, thus sayings like: "...These rooms were usually high in stud..." Purpose Studs form walls and may carry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foundation (engineering)
In engineering, a foundation is the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, transferring loads from the structure to the ground. Foundations are generally considered either shallow or deep. Foundation engineering is the application of soil mechanics and rock mechanics (geotechnical engineering) in the design of foundation elements of structures. Purpose Foundations provide the structure's stability from the ground: * To distribute the weight of the structure over a large area in order to avoid overloading the underlying soil (possibly causing unequal settlement). * To anchor the structure against natural forces including earthquakes, floods, droughts, frost heaves, tornadoes and wind. * To provide a level surface for construction. * To anchor the structure deeply into the ground, increasing its stability and preventing overloading. * To prevent lateral movements of the supported structure (in some cases). Requirements of a good foundation The design and the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
