A Look at Common Folk Architecture in Tennessee

Have you ever imagined what Graceland Farms looked like in the 1800s when it was just a 13.8- acre estate without its Colonial Revival mansion? What about Nashville without Belle Meade Plantation, and other areas in Tennessee without the stately plantation homes and luxurious residences?

Just think of the vast expanse of open lands during earlier times and envision the structures that stood there. In the centuries before architecture became a formal discipline, and before house styles were defined and improved upon, homes on the frontier were simple and functional buildings. They were constructed of available materials that provided shelter, warmth, and comfort to families and communities. 

Tennessee has its share of residential architecture designed and built by nonprofessional homesteaders in the 17^th and 18^th centuries in what is known as vernacular architecture.  Here’s a closer look at the State’s interpretations of “common-folk” architecture.   

 

Just What is Vernacular Architecture?

Defined as “architecture that makes use of common regional forms and materials at a particular place and time; usually modest and unpretentious, and often a mixture… or hybrid of several styles,” it originated when settlers were forced to make use of the natural resources around them to provide shelter and comfort from the elements.

 

In the mid-17^th century, most of the early residential architecture in Tennessee was generally vernacular – it was of the region and adapted to the local landscape. Instead of being built by skilled craftsmen, houses were planned and constructed by locals who imitated and combined various elements from designs shown in the popular press, magazines, and mail-order catalogs.

 

Characteristics of Tennessee Vernacular Homes

Since vernacular architecture is dictated by local cultural traditions and circumstances, characteristics of buildings may differ from area to area. In Tennessee, there are four basic features that define vernacular buildings.  

• Materials used

• Construction techniques

• Shape of building

• Design elements

 

Styles of Tennessee Architecture

Early in Tennessees history, three types of houses dominated: stone, log, and tmber-frame homes. In subsequent decades, though, many other styles and combinations emerged from these early vernacular forms, as you will see today.

 

Brick and Stone Houses

 

Log House

From the 1780s to about 1900, log houses started appearing in the Tennessee region; and came in four sub-types base on their exteriors.

A Single Pen is a rectangle or square of four walls of a log cabin. It has gable roofs, stone pier foundations, and stone chimneys.

A Double Pen can be a one or two-story home that consists of two separate log structures built close to one another and covered with a single roof. The space in between the two pens became a breezeway. 

The Saddlebag is a log cabin with two rooms, each with its own hearth and chimney. A connecting door between the two rooms can be added as well as windows in each space. A loft reached through a stairway was used for sleeping or storage. 

The Dog Trot House – like the double pen – is made up of two log cabins of the same size separated by an open hall or breezeway, all under one roof. One cabin was used for cooking and dining; and the other served as a bedroom. The breezeway cooled the occupants during the hot summer months in the South.

 

Timber Frame Home

A timber frame structure is a one or two-story sturdy rectangular plan featuring a gable roof and framed with timber and posts supported with hand-hewn diagonal braces. They were built in Tennessee before 1860 – and some of them are still around in Knoxville and other cities.

 

Cumberland House

is a one or two-story rectangle plan constructed with logs or braced framing. Actually a variation of the double-pen, this style featured two rooms, with each room having its own outside door.

The basic plan of the Cumberland house was often modified by the addition of shed or lean-to porches in front and back or of one or more rooms across the back. In some designs, a hall separated the two rooms.

The style derived its name from one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal Programs – the Cumberland Homesteads – 251 homes, which were built in Crossville, Tennessee, between 1934 and 1938. The plan was to build a village with 20 to 30 acre farms that would house and educate a starving Appalachian population.

Designed by architect William Macy Stanton, the homes followed his basic patterns: rectangular houses, L-shaped houses, and T-shaped houses, most of which are 1.5 stories with gable roofs and one or two chimneys. Most houses originally had covered-porch entrances and batten doors. 

 

The Cumberland homes were built with locally quarried sandstone called crab orchard stone – known for its durability and reddish hue. They were generally three bedrooms, with one downstairs and two bedrooms located atop a narrow staircase.  The stairs are open in some plans, with fireplaces designed as the center of the living space.  Many of the plans have two chimneys to accommodate both the fireplace and a wood burning cook-stove in the kitchen. 

 

One-Story Piano Box Houses

From the mid-19^th century to the early part of the 20^th century, Piano Box Houses were introduced in Middle and West Tennessee. So called because their shape resembles that of a rectangular or box-shaped piano, these homes were limited to the Tennessee area – with only a handful still in existence.

One-story Piano Box Homes evolved from an L-shaped floor plan, with a second wing creating an H form. The houses feature porches, fireplaces to provide heat, and trim on windows.

 

Gable Houses

Many of Tennessees homes are one or two-story wood frame houses built between the mid-19^th century to the early 20^th century (and continue to be built today); they came in three different variations. Because of their front-forward gables that resembled the forms of pediments, they reflected the Gothic and Greek Revival styles.

• Center Gable House (between 1850 and 1890) features a center gable that extends from the wall of the façade. At times, the facades may have paired or tripled gables.

 

• Gable Front House (1870-1930), as the name suggests, is a style where the gable faces the street. This folk house type is found in a variety of styles ranging from Queen Anne, to Greek Revival, Gothic Revival and other simple house styles.

 

 

• Gable Ell is a variation of the gable front house that incorporates an intersecting side gable that forms an L-shape. This style found in urban and rural Tennessee is sometimes called an Upright and Wing House or a Gable Front and Wing House because of its shape.

 

 

Shotgun House

The Shotgun House was the most popular house style in the South from 1860 to 1930. Built in urban and rural areas for worker and tenant housing, the Shotgun is a narrow rectangular home with gable front or hip roofs. They feature rooms arranged one behind the other and doors at each end of the house. People say these are called shotgun “because a bullet fired through the front door would go right out the backdoor without hitting a wall."

 

Bungalow Style Houses

Bungalows can range from one- to two-story structures with open floor plans and informal interiors. They usually have a small porch with columns set in large brick bases. These porches are often enclosed with screens to keep the bugs away on summer nights on the porch. The floor plans are generally narrow yet deep homes. For more on the Bungalow style, click here.

 

In addition to these styles, Tennessee house plans include the following designs:

• Colonial Revivals and other period revivals

• Southern Plantation

• Ranch

• Country

• Georgian

• Victorian   

 

Early Floor Plans of Tennessee Vernacular Architecture

Most of the early residential architecture in Tennessee followed two principal house plans – the Hall-and Parlor and Central-Hall Plan, plus its variant, the Penn Plan.

 

Hall-and-Parlor Plan

Quite common in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, this design originated from medieval England. When Welsh and English settlers from Virginia moved into the Tennessee Valley, they built frame, stone, brick, and even log homes that were two rooms wide and one-room deep.

Often a one-and-a-half story home, the Hall-and-Parlor is a rectangular two-room configuration. The structures had steeply pitched side-gable roofs and chimneys on one or both sides of the house. The larger of the two rooms – the Hall – served as the center of household activity. If the home had a loft, there was an enclosed stair or ladder going up to it.

The parlor or chamber – which was the more private section – often featured a fireplace and a door to the outside. This was used primarily for sleeping. 

 

Central-Hall Plan

From Colonial Maryland and Virginia and influenced by the symmetry of the Georgian and Palladian styles, the design features a center hall flanked by two rooms on each side. The big hall served as a reception area or living space for the family. One of the side rooms was used as a formal parlor with the other rooms for family use.

The style can be adapted to one-story or two-story structures. Around 1800, the preference was toward the two-story, two-room house with a central passage.

 

While central hall houses in Tennessee date back to the 1790s, the plan did not catch on until the mid-19^th century when it began to replace the Hall-and-Parlor style. Today, there are still brick and stone houses in Tennessee.

 

Penn-Plan

A variant of the Hall-and-Parlor plan, this is a three-room house design made up of a large hall and two smaller rooms on the other side of an interior wall. The hall had a fireplace for cooking, stairs to the upper level and a door opening to the outside. The two smaller rooms were used as a sitting room or a bedroom and featured a window in each room, along with an exterior side wall fireplace opening into the rooms. 

The earliest Penn Plan house in Tennessee was the Embree House which was completed in 1791 in Jonesborough for Thomas Embree, a Quaker from Pennsylvania who settled in Tennessee. Architect and builder Set Smith built the home of gray limestone quarried on Embrees property. Then in 1830, Aaron Hoffman constructed a frame Penn-Plan home in Kingsport. Both residences are historic landmarks in Jonesborough and Kingsport.

 

There’s everything to love about Tennessee vernacular architecture and its evolution into diverse home designs that make sense in the modern world.

 

 

Additional Source

Tennessee Encyclopedia