This article is about the historic house type. For the Clayton I-House, see
Clayton Homes.
The Dr. Holladay House in Orange, Virginia. The original brick house (ca. 1830) was a Federal-style I-House.
A basic example (c.1850), in Bloomington, Indiana.
The I-house is a vernacular house type, popular in the United States from the colonial period onward. The I-house was so named in the 1930s by Fred Kniffen, a specialist in folk architecture who identified and analyzed the type in his 1936 study of Louisiana house types.[1] He chose the name "I-house" because of its common occurrence in the rural farm areas of Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, all states beginning in the letter "I".[2] He did not use the term to imply that this house type originated in, or was restricted to, those three states.[1]
History and defining characteristics [edit]
Moss Hill in Wilcox County, Alabama (c.1845), an I-house with front and rear shed rooms and a partial front porch.
Cohasset (c. 1873), with a full shed-roof front porch and rear shed rooms in Hampton County, South Carolina.
The I-house developed from traditional 17th century British folk house types, such as the hall and parlor house and central-passage house. It became a popular house form in the Mid-Atlantic and Southern United States at an early date,[3] but can be found throughout most of the country in areas that were settled by the mid-19th century. All I-houses feature gables to the side and are at least two rooms in length, one room deep, and two full stories in height.[3] They also often have a rear wing or ell for a kitchen or additional space. The facade of an I-house tends to be symmetrical, and they were constructed in a variety of materials, including logs, wood frame, brick or stone. In the South a variation of the I-house, with one-story rear shed rooms and usually a full-width front porch, is often referred to as the Plantation Plain house type,[4][5] though it is more correctly termed as an I-house with sheds.[3]
Because of the popularity and simple form of the I-house, decorative elements of popular architectural styles were often utilized. Front porches and any decoration would be in the restrained Federal manner through the 1840s, or in the Greek Revival style during the 1840s and 1850s. The I-house was also adapted to Gothic Revival and Italianate styles during the mid-19th century.[6]
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References [edit]
External links [edit]
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| Colonial |
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| Early Republic |
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| Mid-19th century |
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| Victorian |
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| Late-19th to mid-20th century |
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| Post-World War II to current |
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| Vernacular |
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