American Colonial Architecture

It’s important to remember that when North America was first settled, those who came to the new world brought the architectures from the homelands as well as their customs and beliefs. Over time all these factors would mesh into the American melting pot that we see today, but at that time it was quite evident from the architecture, where the designers and builders were from.

For example, the homes that were built along the northeastern coast during that time are very different from others in the southwest. Still there is a style from the British, French and Spanish that is clearly evident in these areas to this day. Many different unique American architectural styles were built in the time between 1500 and 1800 when the British combined the way they built homes with the native North Americans. Like the country itself, the architecture of America was becoming a melting pot of different ideas and styles.

During the twenty year span after the 1930s, there was push toward the smaller more economical house. This cod style home was an offshoot from the Colonial times in New England where these homes were first introduced. Some of the first homes that were built in North America were logs homes that Swedish settlers built in the early 1700s. These were far from the more luxurious ones that we build today with skylights and electrical power throughout.

The design of these log cabins were influenced by the Homestead Act of 1862 that gave any immigrant that wanted it, a parcel of land provided that they cultivated it and that the homes that these homesteaders built were at least ten by twelve feet in size with at least one glass window. Still there’s one place in American architecture that stands alone when it comes to being the oldest building in America and that’s a schoolhouse in Florida that first appeared on the tax rolls there in 1788.

At first, the place was used as a homestead but when the owner married, part of the building was converted in a schoolhouse where boys and girls shared the same rooms together. In that way, America’s first coed school came about much sooner than people gave credit for. To the left side of the structure is a rusty implement that sits right in front of the place and this was placed there in 1937 when townspeople thought a storm could blow the place down so they decided to anchor it with an old ship’s anchor.

In many ways, it’s very clear that the architecture Americans enjoy today is the byproduct of the meshing of a variety of styles that came from all over the world.

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