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A Cape Cod house is a low, broad, single or double-story frame building with a moderately-steep-pitched
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 aesth ...
d roof, a large central
chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...
, and very little ornamentation. Originating in
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
in the 17th century, the simple symmetrical design was constructed of local materials to withstand the stormy weather of
Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
. It features a central front door flanked by multipaned windows. The space above the first floor was often left as unfinished
attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building; an attic may also be called a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the ...
space, with or without windows on the gable ends. The building type enjoyed a boom in popularity and adaptation to modern needs in the 1930s–1950s, particularly with
Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...
embellishments. It remains a feature of New England homebuilding.


History

The Cape Cod cottage–type house (it is a form or type, not a style, though commonly--mistakenly--referred to as a style) originated in the wood-building counties of
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and was brought to America by
Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
carpenters. The harsh climate of
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
tested the pioneers' ingenuity, and by lowering the house and pulling its plan into more of a square footprint, they transported the English
hall and parlor house 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.
, now called the Cape Cod cottage. The type has survived and emerged as a one- to one-and-a-half-story house with wooden shutters and a
clapboard 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 Americ ...
or shingle exterior. Using local materials—cedar for roofing and siding shingles, oak and pine for framing and flooringBallinger, Barbara. "Cozy Cape Cods". ''Realtor Mag'' 1 May 2007.—settlers built houses locally adapted to New England's extreme winter climate. Temperatures in January and February can drop to , with snow accumulations often reaching several feet. To fight the chill, they built massive central chimneys and low-ceilinged rooms to conserve heat. The steep-roof characteristic of New England homes minimized snow load. Finally, colonists installed shutters on the windows to hold back heavy winds. The Reverend
Timothy Dwight IV Timothy Dwight (May 14, 1752January 11, 1817) was an American academic and educator, a Congregationalist minister, theologian, and author. He was the eighth president of Yale College (1795–1817). Early life Timothy Dwight was born May 14, 17 ...
(1752–1817), president of
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
from 1795 to 1817, coined the term "Cape Cod house" after a visit to the Cape in 1800. His observations were published posthumously in ''Travels in New England and New York'' (1821–1822). The type was popularized more broadly in a slightly more elaborate
Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...
variant popularized in the 1930s–1950s, though traditional unornamented Capes remain common in New England.


Colonial and federal Capes (17th century – early 19th century)

Colonial-era Capes were most prevalent in the
Northeastern United States The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...
and
Atlantic Canada Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (french: provinces de l'Atlantique), is the region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec. The four provinces are New Brunswick, Newfoundlan ...
. They were made of wood and covered in wide clapboard or shingles, often unpainted, which weathered grey over time. Most houses were small, usually in size. Often windows of different sizes were worked into the
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 aesth ...
ends, with those of nine and six panes the most common. The type has a symmetrical appearance, with the front door in the center of the house and a large central chimney that could often accommodate back-to-back fireplaces. The main bedroom was on the first floor, with an often-unfinished loft on the second. A typical early house had no
dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...
s and little or no exterior ornamentation. Image:Hoyt-BarnumHouse.jpg, Hoyt-Barnum House, built File:Oldest House in Brockton Heights, MA.jpg, A traditional Cape Cod–style farmhouse in Brockton Heights, Massachusetts File:Harlow_Old_Fort_House_in_Plymouth_MA.jpg,
Harlow Old Fort House The Harlow Old Fort House is a First Period historic house at 119 Sandwich Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts. History According to legend, Sergeant William Harlow built the house in 1677 using timbers from the Pilgrims' original fort on Buria ...
, an example of the rarer
gambrel A gambrel or gambrel roof is a usually symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. (The usual architectural term in eighteenth-century England and North America was "Dutch roof".) The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, ...
-roofed Cape


Framing and layout

The overwhelming majority of early Capes were
timber framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) 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 ...
, with three bays formed by four bents. A few late examples of early Capes used stud framing, and plank framing was also used. The first Cape Cod houses fall into four categories: the quarter, half, three-quarter, and full Cape. The comparatively rare quarter Cape is a single bay, usually a wider "outside" bay that becomes rooms. It has a single door and a single window on the front but is full depth. The half Cape is two bays, with a door to one side of the house and two windows on one side of the door; the three-quarter Cape has a door with two windows on one side and a single window on the other; while the full Cape consists of a front door in the center of the home, flanked on each side by two windows.Ross, Chuck. "Cape Cod-Style Houses: The Colonists' 'Starter Homes. HGTV Pro. Otherwise, the three categories of early Cape Cod houses were nearly identical in layout. Inside the front door, a central staircase led to the small upper level, which consisted of two children's bedrooms. The lower floor consisted of a hall for daily living (including cooking, dining, and gathering) and the
parlor A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...
, or master bedroom.Pilgrim Hall. Pilgrim Hall Museum, 18 May 2005. Some use a different naming system and call the full-size version a "double Cape", but this is used more often for an extended duplex structure. "High post", also known as "knee wall", Capes were originally an uncommon variant but became more common into the 19th century, emerging as a feature of Cape-derived
vernacular architecture Vernacular architecture is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. This category encompasses a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, bo ...
in the
Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
. The posts extend vertically past the first floor, increasing usable space on the second floor and simplifying
joinery Joinery is a part of woodworking that involves joining pieces of wood, engineered lumber, or synthetic substitutes (such as laminate), to produce more complex items. Some woodworking joints employ mechanical fasteners, bindings, or adhesives, ...
, at a cost of structural rigidity. The
knee wall A knee wall is a short wall, typically under three feet (one metre) in height, used to support the rafters in timber roof construction. In his book ''A Visual Dictionary of Architecture'', Francis D. K. Ching defines a knee wall as "a short wall ...
was often fenestrated with small, low windows.


Adaptations

Over the years, owners doubled the full Cape and added wings onto the rear or sides, typically single-storied.
Dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...
s were added for increased space, light, and ventilation. A screened-in
porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...
was sometimes added to one side of the home, rarely the front.


Colonial Revival (1930s–1950s)

Colonial Revival Cape Cod houses are very similar to colonial Cape Cod houses, but some have the chimney at one end of the living room on the side of the house. Elaborate replicas were designed for the affluent, while architects such as
Royal Barry Wills Royal Barry Wills (August 21, 1895 – January 10, 1962) was an American architect and author. He was a master of the Cape Cod type house, particularly its 1930s–1950s Colonial Revival incarnation. Houses built to his designs continue to fetch ...
modernized the Cape for middle-class families by including modern amenities that addressed demands for increased privacy and technology, including bathrooms, kitchens, and garages. Adaptations proliferated throughout suburbs that emerged after World War II, and planned communities like
Levittown, New York Levittown is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York. It is located halfway between the villages of Hempstead and Farmingdale. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a tota ...
, offered Cape Cod–style
tract housing Tract housing is a type of housing development in which multiple similar houses are built on a tract (area) of land that is subdivided into smaller lots. Tract housing developments are found in suburb developments that were modeled on the "Levitt ...
, particularly to returning soldiers.Pilgrim Hall Museum, ''The Cape Cod House''


See also

* Cape Cod style of lighthouse architecture *
Strawberry box houses Strawberry box houses or Strawberry-box bungalow was a style of homes built during World War II and into the 1950s to 1960s and found throughout Canada. The style uses a square or rectangular foundation and named due to the similarity with boxes ...
, homes built with a simplified Cape Cod design


References


External links


Retro Renovation - The Royal Barry Wills Cape Cod House

Cape Cod Home- The Original American Cottage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cape Cod (House) American architectural styles Colonial architecture in the United States
House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
* House styles