THE
ENDURING The Enduring Cape Cod House explores how building technology and living needs have changed over time by exploring one specific house type, the Cape Cod House. The Cape Cod house is a small, one-story building with a central chimney. The steep roof allows the attic to be used as living space. This folk-style house developed in New England in the late 17th and 18th centuries. The Cape Cod house was rediscovered in the 1930s and 1940s, when small, economical houses were popular. Today they can be found all over America. Do you have any Cape Cod houses in your town? The Cape Cod House
When English colonists came to America, they built houses that were familiar to them. The half-timbered English house with its hall and parlor was their model, which they adapted to the climate and natural resources of New England. What emerged over several generations was a distinct new development : what is now called the Cape Cod house. This traditional, vernacular house style was built all over New England for more than 250 years, and spread across the country in the 1940s and 1950s to become one of America’s favorite house styles. The Cape Cod house is one of New England’s most significant contributions to American culture. |
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Updated 14 July, 1998
