8 Section 1 Architectural Drafting Fundamentals
in the corners, forming a square or rectangular
structure that supported the roof. The small
narrow cracks or slits between logs were fi lled
and weatherproofed.
Saltbox
By the early 1700s, demand for more interior
space led many settlers in New England to
construct an additional “lean-to” structure, one
half-room deep, to the rear of the house. The
additional space changed the roof line, giving the
house a distinctive look. The shape of the house
resembled the shape of a box that was commonly
used during the Colonial period for keeping
salt and other sundries. This style, therefore,
became known as the Saltbox. See Figure 1-8.
The low, slanting roof also helped combat the
bitter winds common to New England winters.
Cape Cod
Further advances in building techniques
allowed the roof to span more than one room,
allowing for a wider ground plan. This change
introduced the New England Cape Cod, one
of the earliest and best known of the Colonial
styles. Built by the English colonists, the Cape
Cod was a fairly small house with a gable roof
and a massive central chimney located in line
with the front door. The roof had very little
overhang and the eaves line was always near
the top of the symmetrically placed windows
that fl anked the entrance. See Figure 1-9.
The early Cape Cods were built with a small
hall and one to three rooms on the fi rst level
and one to two additional rooms in the attic. A
later addition to the Cape Cod was the dormer,
a projecting structure on a roof that had walls,
a front-facing window, and a roof. It provided
daylight, ventilation, and additional usable space.
Today, the same features are incorporated in
larger houses that accommodate the needs of
the modern family.
Tidewater
The Tidewater style was developed in the
1700s along the southeastern coastline to help
people live comfortably in the moist heat. This
style was noted for its full-width front porches,
which provided cool shelter from the hot sun
and frequent rainstorms of the region. The
porch was built under an uninterrupted roof
American Colonial Houses
The earliest non-native houses were built by
European settlers in the early 1600s. The early
settlers of Colonial America brought with them
the building traditions and styles of their home-
lands. They adapted their techniques to their new
location, incorporating local building techniques
and using native building materials to construct
their shelters.
Log Homes
One of the earliest Colonial homes was the
log cabin, which was introduced in the early
1600s by Swedish and Finnish immigrants. These
settlers came from areas with rich resources
of timber and brought with them the building
techniques of their homeland. The log cabin
was originally a simple one-room, gabled-roof
house built from large logs with a centrally
located door and chimney. See Figure 1-7. Over
time, one-room cabins were replaced by log houses
with multiple rooms.
The walls of a log home consisted of logs
stacked one on top of another. The ends of the
logs were notched to allow the walls to interlock
Michael Shake/Shutterstock.com
Figure 1-7. The one-room log cabin was an early
Colonial design. The style was adapted over time to
build larger structures with multiple rooms.
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