A three-quarters Cape Cod house had the door slightly off-center and one window to one side of the door and two on the other.
#Cape cod style house windows#
These changes do not (in my opinion) disqualify a house from being considered a Cape Cod.Ī typical Cape Cod had the door centered, and two windows on either side of the door, but there were a couple of variations. The layout is now likely to be an open floor plan, the walls are likely to be plasterboard and the décor much more contemporary. This is a colonial look and it is a very pleasing look, but it is fair to say that most Cape Cods have abandoned this interior aesthetic. Note the wood floors, fireplace, white trim and wainscoting (visible next to the door) in this house from Cape Cod, Barnstable County, Massachusetts Along with white wood trim on the interior it is one of the telling points of the Cape Cod style. This was an old trick, and not unique to the Cape Cod house, but it became associated with the Cape Cod. Inside, to keep out the damp, wainscoting lined the walls. Shutters were a standard feature to help the windows survive the storms.
The overhang of the roof was minimized, so those strong winds wouldn’t rip the roof off of the house. Along with the cold came lots of snow, so roofs were kept steep. Massachusetts was also much colder than England, so the ceilings were kept low, to hold in the heat, and chimneys were moved into the center of the house. Straw roofs weren’t a good idea in those same storms, so wood roof shingles became the order of the day. Wood was readily available, so clapboard or shingle siding was added. The daub-and-wattle walls (mud on sticks) didn’t withstand the strong Northeaster storm winds. It was what they were used to back in England. This hall and parlor layout was not original. In the earlier homes the houses lacked the dormers, but these came along in time, and in its Colonial Revival version a house with dormers was probably the prevalent form of the house. This was the typical layout in the colonial era.Ī three-quarters Cape Cod house from Truro, MAAbove the first floor was either a loft or a half-story with gabled dormers. Since the chimney is also centered the hallway is short and ends on the backside of the fireplace, with a hallway door leading past the chimney and into a long room running the length of the back of the house. Rooms are accessed from this central hall. In the standard Cape Cod house the door is centered on the front of the house and opens into a hallway. Originally the homes were identical to their Old World cousins, but the practical realities of life on Cape Cod produced changes and formed the Cape Cod style.įirst of all it has a simple hall and parlor layout. The OriginsThe Cape Cod home is a colonial adaptation of a very simple European post-and-beam home. This article is an attempt to right that wrong and to confirm the Cape Cod house in its rightful place in the pantheon of home styles. Some of these “fakes” are fine and beautiful houses, but if a term gets misused it loses its meaning. Along the way I will give you some advice on separating the true Cape Cod houses from the fakes.
Shingle, shutters, and shape give this away as a Cape Cod houseThis article will explore what characteristics define the Cape Cod house and why it developed the way it did.
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