First Period is a designation given to building styles used in the earliest English settlements at
Jamestown, Virginia (1607), and
Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620), and later in the other British colonies along the Eastern seaboard. These buildings typically included as steep roofs, small
casement leaded glass windows (usually due to a scarcity of glass in the colonies), rich ornamentation (in the more expensive house only) and a massive central chimney.
French Colonial Developed in French-settled areas of North America beginning with the founding of
Quebec in 1608 and
New Orleans,
Louisiana, in 1718, as well as along the
Mississippi River valley to
Missouri. The early French Colonial house type of the Mississippi River Valley region was the
poteaux-en-terre, constructed of heavy upright cedar logs set vertically into the ground. These basic houses featured double-pitched hipped roofs and were surrounded by porches (galleries) to handle the hot summer climate. By 1770, the basic French Colonial house form evolved into the
briquette-entre-poteaux (small bricks between posts) style familiar in the
historic areas of New Orleans and other areas. These homes featured double-louvred doors, flared hip roofs, dormers, and shutters.
Spanish Colonial Developed with the earlier Spanish settlements in the Caribbean and
Mexico, the Spanish Colonial style in the United States can be traced back to
St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest established city in the country, founded in 1565. The early type of dwelling in
Spanish Florida was the "board house", a small one-room cottage constructed of pit-sawn softwood boards, typically with a thatched roof.
Coquina, a limestone conglomerate containing shells of small mollusks, was used as a building stone in St. Augustine as early as 1598 and has been used as recently as the 1930s in construction. There were coquina quarries on
Anastasia Island. From these quarries, coquina was brought to build the
Castillo de San Marcos,
Fort Matanzas, the
Cathedral Basilica, and homes throughout Florida's colonial period. During the 18th century, the "common houses" were whitewashed in lime
mortar with an oyster shell aggregate. Typically two-story, the houses included cooling porches to accommodate the Florida climate. The style developed in the
Southwest with
Pueblo design influences from the indigenous
Puebloan peoples architecture. In
Alta California, present-day
California, the style developed differently, being too far for imported building materials and without skilled builders, into a strong simple version for building the
missions between 1769 and 1823.
Ranchos were typically built of
adobe.
Dutch Colonial Developed from around 1630 with the arrival of Dutch colonists to
New Amsterdam and the
Hudson River Valley in what is now
New York and in
Bergen in what is now
New Jersey. Initially the settlers built small, one room cottages with stone walls and steep roofs to allow a second floor loft. By 1670 or so, two-story gable-end homes were common in New Amsterdam. In the countryside of the Hudson Valley, the Dutch farmhouse evolved into a linear-plan home with straight-edged gables moved to the end walls. Around 1720, the distinctive
gambrel roof was adopted from the English styles, with the addition of
overhangs on the front and rear to protect the mud mortar used in the typically stone walls and foundations.
Monmouth County in central New Jersey has many surviving examples of a hybrid of the Dutch style termed
Anglo-Dutch colonial architecture. Usually the earliest portions of the houses are one room and built in Dutch style with later additions built in the
Georgian architecture style. Examples being the
Hankinson–Moreau–Covenhoven House, the
Holmes-Hendrickson House, and many houses at
Monmouth Battlefield State Park.
German Colonial ,
East Donegal Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, built 1740; German Colonial Developed after about 1675, when the
Delaware River Valley area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware) was settled by immigrants from Sweden, Finland, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and several other northern European nations. The early colonists to this region adapted the "half-timber" style of construction then popular in Europe, which used a frame of braced timbers filled-in with masonry. The "bank house" was a popular form of home during this period, typically constructed into a hillside for protection during the cold winters and hot summers of the region. The two-story "country townhouse" was also common around
Pennsylvania during this time.
Mid-Atlantic Colonial The region surrounding the Chesapeake Bay on America's east coast was settled primarily by British settlers. The standard vernacular house built by the colonists in this region between the first settlement in 1607 and the end of British rule in 1776 followed the
I-plan format, had either interior or exterior gable chimneys, and was either wooden or brick. Most were only one room deep. Academic architecture was evident, but it was relatively scarce. The best example of Mid-Atlantic Colonial academic architecture is the 1774
Hammond–Harwood House in Annapolis, Maryland. This house was modeled on the Villa Pisani in Montagnana, Italy, as exhibited in the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio's
Four Books of Architecture (1570). Colonial architect
William Buckland designed this house in 1774 and the resulting house is a very skillful adaptation of the Villa Pisani for the warmer climate of the Chesapeake Bay region.
Colonial Georgian , built 1750, Georgian colonial Georgian buildings, popular during the reigns of
King George II and
King George III were ideally built in brick, with wood trim, wooden columns and painted white. In what would become the United States, however, one found both brick buildings as well as those in wood with clapboards. They were sometimes painted a pale yellow. This differentiated them from most other structures that were usually not painted. Mostly box shaped with multiple chimneys. Georgian architecture was based on classical architecture dating to an Italian Renaissance period. Architect
Christopher Wren, who designed the
Wren Building at the
College of William & Mary, was a renowned Georgian architect in the colonies. A Georgian colonial house usually has a formally defined
living room,
dining room and sometimes a
family room. The
bedrooms are typically on the second floor. They also have one or two chimneys that can be very large. The Georgian architectural style was most common from the early eighteenth century until the
Revolutionary War, after which the American Federal style of architecture emerged. Examples of remaining Georgian buildings include
Gunston Hall and Hope Lodge. Identifying features (1700 – 1780): • Panel front door centered, topped with rectangular windows (in door or as a
transom) and capped with an elaborate crown/
entablature supported by decorative
pilasters •
Cornice embellished with decorative moldings, usually dentilwork • Multi-pane windows and fenestrations arranged symmetrically (whether vertical or horizontal) Other features of Georgian style houses can include – roof to ground-level: • Roofs are
side-gabled,
gambrel, or
hipped • Chimneys on both sides of the home • A
portico. • Small six-paned
sash windows or
dormer windows in the upper floors, primarily used for servant's quarters. • Larger windows with nine or twelve panes on the main floors ==See also==