Renaissance Style: History of the Cape Cod

Posted by Kelly Asmus on Oct 4, 2011 in Latest News, Renaissance Style, _Special | 0 comments

The Cape Cod style home originated in colonial New England. Today, the term refers to Cape Cod shaped houses popular during the 1930s to 1950s. Owing to the romantic associations of 18th century models, the Cape Cod is arguably the most recognized house style in America.

History of the Cape Cod Style

The Cape Cod style evolved from the “hall and parlor” model brought to New England by British colonials. This model, which economized living space, exhibited two rectangular rooms on the lower level and usually a half story, or attic, for bed space. Using locally found materials built to withstand harsh New England weather, the hall and parlor style evolved into the Cape Cod style with its characteristic weathered shingles.

Over the course of a few generations, a modest, one- to one-and-a-half-story house with wooden shutters emerged. Reverend Timothy Dwight, a university president, is credited with recognizing these houses as a class and coining the term “Cape Cod.”

Cape Cod style homes can typically be identified by their low, broad frame, traditional one-and-a-half floors and steeply pitched roof. They are usually free of gables and exhibit an odd number of windows, usually three, on either gable end.Cape Cod houses are traditionally built from clapboard or shingles and have little ornamentation aside from a central chimney and wooden shutters.

The early to mid-1900s saw a reemergence of Cape Codhomes, later to be known as Colonial Revival style housing. Though still resembling a traditional Cape, Colonial revival homes were often built with more modern materials, were free of a central chimney, displayed window dormers on the second floor and often had one story wings built on to either or both sides. The shutters on modern Cape Cod houses are strictly decorative; they can’t be closed during a storm. For the most part there was no front porch on the original Cape Cod style house. The door is the decorative highlight of the house. The house may be entirely shingled, or the front clapboarded and the back and walls shingled. Often it is unpainted and has weathered to a beautiful silvery gray. In very old houses there is a slight pleasing sag in the line of the roof and gable ends that give the house a handmade look. These small, economical houses were mass-produced in suburban developments across the United States.

Traditional, Colonial-era Cape Cod houses had many of these features:

• Steep roof with side gables
• Small roof overhang
• 1 or 1½ stories
• Made of wood and covered in wide clapboard or shingles
• Symmetrical appearance with door in center, unadorned
• Dormers for space, light and ventilation
• Multi-paned, double-hung windows
• Shutters
• Hardwood floors
• Little exterior ornamentation
• Shingle-sided, sometimes clapboarded on the front with shingles elsewhere

Renaissance Homes builds new vintage style Cape Cod plans with energy efficient features in the Portland metro market. Renaissance Homes is an award winning Street of Dreams custom home builder specializing in green building.