A conch house is a style of architecture that developed in

Key West, Florida Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Sigsbee Park, Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Isla ...

in the 19th century and used into the early 20th century. The style was also used in the other keys and in the Miami area. The introduction of the conch house style is attributed to immigrants from

the Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

Characteristics

The conch house, like other Florida

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 ...

styles, is built of wood, and set on posts or

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

, which allows air to circulate under the floor. Conch houses are rectangular, of one or two floors, and usually have a porch across the full width of the front of the house (both floors if the house has two floors). Other characteristics are horizontal

weatherboarding 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 clapboarding, low

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 or

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

s, and

double-hung sash window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent mater ...

s. Roofs may be metal or shingled. Conch house designs were often influenced by Classical Revival or

Neoclassical architecture Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

. Other than carved brackets and/or rafter ends on porches, conch houses generally lack ornamentation.

History

The conch house style was developed in Key West by Bahamian immigrants, known as "

Conchs Conch () is a common name of a number of different medium-to-large-sized sea snails. Conch shells typically have a high spire and a noticeable siphonal canal (in other words, the shell comes to a noticeable point at both ends). In North Ame ...

". Many Bahamians had experience building boats, and the earliest conch houses were built like boats, using

timber framing 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 ...

. In the 1880s timber framing was replaced with

balloon framing Framing, in construction, is the fitting together of pieces to give a structure support and shape. Framing materials are usually wood, engineered wood, or structural steel. The alternative to framed construction is generally called ''mass wal ...

. Houses in the conch style were also built in Miami, in particular, in the

Coconut Grove Coconut Grove, also known colloquially as The Grove, is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The neighborhood is roughly bound by North Prospect Drive to the south, LeJeune Road to the west, S ...

and Overtown neighborhoods. The term "conch house" has been applied to houses built in a variety of styles in Key West, but the most common usage is for houses built in a Bahamian style. About half of the historic houses in Key West have been classified as being in the Classical Revival style. The Bahamian immigrants in Key West were accustomed to building houses in the Bahamian clapboard house style. This style placed houses on posts or piers, used timber framing, had large windows and high ceilings to allow cooling by available breezes, and had louvered shutters hinged at the top ("Bahamas shutters"). The Bahamian clapboard house style has influenced housing in many areas with tropical climates.

References

Architectural styles Bahamian-American culture in Florida Vernacular architecture in Florida

External links

*{{Cite journal, last=Starr, first=Roger, date=February 1972, title=The Carpenter-architects of Key West, url=https://www.americanheritage.com/content/carpenter-architects-key-west, journal=American Heritage, volume=23, issue=2