Historic House Construction Methods 1

For hundreds of years houses in the northeastern United States ( and earlier colonies) were built with post and beam construction, in which the weight of the structure was carried by large square or rectangular timbers, usually on the corners of the building or of each of its larger rooms.    There could be intervening studs to support the inner or outer surfaces, but they were seldom load-bearing.

In the middle of the 19th century an alternative construction method was introduced called "balloon frame" in which the heavy posts were replaced by multiple studs that shared the load of the structure. This method lent itself to the newer, multi-faceted shapes of houses being designed in that period. Rather than the rectangular house shapes that had been common in the past, these buildings featured intersecting roof lines, smaller stacked forms, added towers, unusual windows and sometimes wrap around porches.  The illustration below shows the balloon frame for a rectangular house, but by adding studded walls the house plan could be expanded to include the multiplicity of forms you see in the Victorian house featured as Catskills Vernacular Architecture Challenge #3.

 

On my program tonight, October 7, I'll talk about the kinds of exteriors these later 19th century flexibly formed house might have.  If Challenge #3 is identified by airtime, I'll share some of the history of this attractive 19th century residence. -- Ginny