The Roots Of American Cottage Design

Its ancestry is English, but “new world”conditions required a more practical and simplified approach to “old world” building methods. Stripped of any medieval ornamentation the cottage became, out of necessity, a purely American design. Today it’s subsequent modern interpretation has become known as American Cottage Design.

English Heritage

English cottage design is charming, comfy and very popular these days. Its history has evolved over many centuries. After all, thatch, timber and stone have been used as building materials in England since before Roman times.

American architecture, on the other hand, has had far less time to evolve. But since so many of the early founders were of English descent, it’s not surprising that their early structural designs leaned heavily on past “old world” building techniques. The style they replicated in the “new world” is basically the same. Typically, they’re small, single or one-and-a-half-story homes with a central chimney, shingle or clapboard siding and sometimes have dormers. The steeply pitched roof, originally thatched and later cedar shake, was well adapted to harsh New England winters with a12/12 roof pitch (a roof that rises 12 inches for every 12 inches over) in order to shed heavy snowfall. It was a simple, practical and functional style. Because the houses were built around big central chimneys that radiated heat and was surrounded by small rooms with low ceilings to retain heat, they also proved to be very efficient.

It could be designed 3 different ways: as a full cape, a three-quarter cape or a half cape.

A “full cape” had two windows on each side of the front door.

So successful was this design that, by 1740 it had spread across most of New England throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, the Hamptons, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. By 1790 it had made its way into southern New York state. Homesteaders took the Cape Cod design with them to central New York, to the area around Lake Erie, and by 1830 the Cape Cod style house had spread into Ohio and Michigan.

Boston architect, Royal Barry Wills, who revived the style in the 1930s, had the best reason for why this style is so enduring. He said they’re “as unpretentious as they are liveable. Carping critics may poke fun at their rambling roses, picket fences and stately elms, but such things spell home for us.”

Early builders had to work with what they found at hand. And what they had the most of was wood. Wood of all kinds. Wood, they soon realized, was what would sustain them in all things. It was their heat, their light and their tables, chairs, doors and beds. It was their willow and ash baskets, their tools and shoe soles; their writing paper, their newspaper and their books; their plates, bowls and spoons. Not to mention shelter for themselves and their animals and delicious fruit-bearing trees for a grateful sweetness to their everyday diet. Eric Sloane reflected upon it this way:

“The heft and feel of a well worn blade,

The sight of shavings that fell from the blade:

The logs in the woodpile, the sentiment of huge beams in an old-fashioned house,

The smell of fresh cut lumber and the pungent fragrance of burning leaves;

The crackle of kindling and the hiss of burning logs.

Abundant to all the needs of man, how poor the world would be without wood”

— Eric Sloane

Early Americans had to be resourceful and self-reliant. (Values that have become the bedrock of American culture.) With no time for constant repairing and rebuilding, making things to last was a priority. Early on there was even less time for intricate embellishment. Of course, many early pieces were dashed together for want of time, skill or proper materials, but most of what survives today are those examples that were made with pride and fine craftsmanship. Considering their situation, It’s not surprising that American cottages were much simpler in design than their centuries old English cousins.

Simplicity, then, became the great differentiator between American Cottage Design and English Cottage Design. English design was often embellished with wallpaper and bold colors like bright blues, mustard yellows, bright greens and even hot pinks. Modest American cottagers, before stenciling was introduced in the 1740s, relied mostly on muted earth-tone colors derived from natural materials. Clay, sand and straw, for instance, made a creamy plaster. Blue dyes came from indigo shrubs and some aquamarine seashells. Yellow was made from tansy, onion skins, turmeric or rhubarb. And red dye came from beetroot or various types of smashed insects.

Today, of course, comfort is more a part of the current American Cottage Design than it was in the 17th and 18th centuries. But, in keeping with its practical clean-lined aesthetic, modern upholstered sofas and chairs work very well with older primitive antiques in this new American style.