I-house
TheI-houseis avernacularhouse type, popular in theUnited Statesfrom the colonial period onward. The I-house was so named in the 1930s byFred Kniffen,a cultural geographer atLouisiana State Universitywho was a specialist infolk architecture.He identified and analyzed the type in his 1936 study ofLouisianahouse types.[1][2][3]
He chose the name "I-house" because the style was commonly built in the rural farm areas ofIndiana,IllinoisandIowa,all states beginning with the letter "I".[4]But he was not implying that this house type originated in, or was restricted to, those three states.[1]It is also referred to asPlantation Plainstyle.
History and defining characteristics
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The I-house developed from traditional 17th-centuryBritishfolk house types, such as thehall and parlor houseandcentral-passage house.It became a popular house form in theMid-AtlanticandSouthernUnited States at an early date,[5]but can be found throughout most of the country in areas that were settled by the mid-19th century. It is especially prevalent through the culturally mixed midland, an area through central Pennsylvania and through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois (or approximate to the oldNational Road,and now paralleled by Interstate 70). I-houses generally featuregablesto the side and are at least two rooms in length, one room deep, and two full stories in height.[5]They also often have a rear wing orellfor a kitchen or additional space. The facade of an I-house tends to be symmetrical. They were constructed in a variety of materials, including logs, wood frame, brick or stone.
In his book on folk architecture in north-centralMissouri,Marshall devotes nine pages to the I-house after investigation of close to 100 old houses in the “Little Dixie”region of Missouri.[6]He calls the I-house the “Farmer’s Mansion.” It is the Southern-style house sought by a middle-class planter, a symbol of his success. (DW Meinig introduces the I-house and thedogtrotas symbols of Southern influence in hisShaping of America.)[7]In Little Dixie, originally settled primarily by migrants from the Upper South, settlers were so eager to build an I-house that many lived in tents until they completed their new buildings.
Marshall classifies folk houses by type using rules developed byHenry Glassiein the late 20th century.[8]The basic unit is a sixteen by sixteen foot “hall”, called a pen. Asingle pen housemight be a typicallog cabin.Combinations define other types. A two-story, single pen house is known as astack house.Pens can also be extended side by side to create a two-pen house, which with a central hall becomes adogtrot.A two-story, two-pen house is the basic I-house. The house may by modified by additions, but the pen system provides a classification.
These nineteenth-century houses lacked indoor plumbing and central heating. The classical I-house has fireplaces in each room. In Missouri I-houses were built from about 1820 to 1890. The style was brought to the US by the Scots-Irish.
Because of the popularity and simple form of the I-house, decorative elements of popular architectural styles were often used. Through the 1840s, front porches and any decoration were primarily designed in the restrainedFederalmanner. TheGreek Revivalstyle was also used during the 1840s and 1850s. The I-house was also adapted toGothic RevivalandItalianatestyles during the mid-19th century.[9]Late 19th-century I-houses often featuredQueen AnneandEastlake-Stick styledetails.
I-house with sheds (Plantation Plain)
[edit]In the South a variation of the I-house, with one-story, rear shed rooms and usually a full-width front porch, is often referred to as thePlantation Plainhouse type.[10][11]It is more directly described as anI-house with sheds.[5]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ab"I-House".Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture.Oklahoma Historical Society.Retrieved2008-10-03.
- ^Fred Kniffen, "Folk Housing: Key to Diffusion," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 55 (1965).
- ^Fred Kniffen, "Louisiana House Types,"Annals of the Association of American Geographers26 (1936).
- ^"Designing Place: Architecture as Community Art in Martinsville, Indiana".Morgan County Historic Preservation Society.Archived fromthe originalon 2009-02-10.Retrieved2008-10-04.;the link is broken but for examples in Indiana see:https://www.in.gov/core/results.html?profile=_default&query=i-house&collection=global-collection
- ^abcGamble, RobertHistoric Architecture in Alabama: A Guide to Styles and Types, 1810-1930,pages 29-32. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press, 1990.ISBN0-8173-1134-3.
- ^Marshall, Howard Wight (1981).Folk Architecture in Little Dixie: A Regional Culture in Missouri.Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press. pp. 62–71.
- ^Meinig, Donald William (1993).The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History, Vol. 2: Continental America, 1800-1867.New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. pp. 274, 280.
- ^Glassie, Henry (1967).Pattern in the Material Folk Culture of the Eastern United States.Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
- ^"2001 Home and Garden Tour".West Central Neighborhood Association.Retrieved2008-10-04.
- ^"Plantation Architecture in Alabama".Encyclopedia of Alabama.Alabama Humanities Foundation.Retrieved2008-10-03.
- ^"Colonial Architecture: Overview".New Georgia Encyclopedia.Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.Retrieved2008-10-03.
External links
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