2.11: Ethnic Folk Landscapes

Ethnic Folk Landscapes

There are a handful of locations in North America where folk landscapes reflect cultural practices of specific (non-Anglo) ethnic groups, rather than broader regional trends. These locations are often smallish ethnic enclaves, and each offers interesting clues into the cultural values and norms of the ethnicity that constructed them, as well as differences in the adaptive strategies used by the ethnic group versus the wider host culture. A discussion of these houses could easily be presented in the chapter on Ethnic groups, but for the sake of consistency, they are discussed below.

Franco-American Landscapes

A variety of landscape clues tell of the significant legacy of French speakers in North America. In addition to their habit of naming all of their settlements after a saint, and allotting farmland to settlers in narrow strips called long lots, the French built houses, barns and other structures unique in appearance and construction technique.

Figure Vincennes, In This Creole Folk House is in Indiana, one of the outposts of French settlement in the US. It has a flared roof, double ensconced porches and raised foundation.

The French attempted to colonize many parts of North America, establishing settlements in the interior of the United States well before the British. Cities like St. Louis, Detroit, and Des Moines have French histories, but the heart of French settlement in the early colonial period was in Canada, especially in the St. Lawrence River Valley, Nova Scotia and along the shores of Lake Ontario. The British also claimed these territories, and the two colonial powers fought several wars for control of these regions. The easternmost parts of Canada, known as the Maritimes, fell under British control in 1710. French settlers in Canada, known as Acadians were allowed to remain, but most refused to sign an oath of loyalty to the British crown. Frustrated with the Acadian’s persistent loyalty to France, the British expelled thousands of French speakers from the Maritime Provinces in 1755. Known today as the Great Expulsion, Acadians were deported from Canada. Many moved to regions now within the United States, where they were often unwelcome. Some Acadians expelled during a subsequent wave of deportations migrated to Louisiana, another former French colonial possession that was controlled by Spain. The descendants of the Acadians are generally called Cajuns. Another group of French speakers migrated to Louisiana after a slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) in the late 1790s. Many of the French-speaking descendants of these immigrants are call themselves Creoles.

Figure Cut off, LA Creole Cottages such as this one line the “River Road” that runs alongside the Mississippi River South of Baton Rouge. Note the pier and beam construction, and ensconced porch

Because many Cajuns and Creoles were isolated from outside cultural influences by the vast swamps of southern Louisiana, ensuring that many of their ancient folk practices survive today. South Louisiana can claim many folk-inspired practices found nowhere else in the world. Among the traditional practices that are unique are Cajun and Creole cooking, Cajun and Zydeco music, the Cajun French language and a variety of construction techniques and housing types. These distinguishing features mark South Louisiana as culturally distinct from the rest of the Lowland South.

The scattering of French people across North America invited the invention of several folk house types. The Québécois, those that stayed and today dominate Quebec, developed unique folk adaptations to combat the harsh winters of Canada using local materials. The French who migrated to Louisiana built houses with similar features, yet altered them significantly to meet the needs of the very hot and humid South. This adaptation is an example of stimulus diffusion.

Figure Natchez LA Restoration of this Creole Cottage revealed vertical timbers filled with bousillage

The most common of the Franco-American house types is the Creole Cottage, also sometimes called the Grenier House. The most distinctive feature of the Creole Cottage is the built-in or ensconced porch. Unlike porch construction prevalent elsewhere in the South where porches are simply attached to the front of houses, ensconced porches are integral to the house (see images above). Many Creole Cottages are two rooms wide, with two front doors, but without an interior doorway connecting the two rooms. They are built using pier-and-beam construction, much like their southern neighbors. Early models sometimes used a post-in-ground or poteaux en terre construction technique in which builders pounded vertical timbers supporting the walls into the ground. This technique differs greatly from most log houses which are built with horizontally stacked timbers. Many French folk houses also feature walls filled with a mixture of dried mud and Spanish Moss called bousillage, that is similar to the earthen material used to fill wall cavities elsewhere known as wattle and daub.

Figure Thibodaur, LA This Creole church features many of the same design elements as French folks housing Including the galley porch and the gablet hipped roof.

There are several variations on the Creole Cottage common in Francophone America, especially where immigrants brought construction ideas from the Caribbean. Several things to look for are the common use of dormers, little windowed roof structures that allow light and air into the sleeping quarters in the “attic”. The French were also quite creative with roof construction. In addition to the common flared bell-cast roof, you can find a variety of hipped-roof construction techniques. The French were also fond of large gallery or veranda porches that sometimes wrapped around the entire house. Large floor-to-ceiling doors and windows were also common features of French-built homes, and these, like the other design features in the Deep South, were an adaptation to help residents cope with the heat and humidity of the region. Large, multi-windowed doors, especially when placed built side by side are frequently called “French Doors”, another example of a folk artifact that remains with us today.

Figure Yellowstone National Park, WY this photo features “square notching” corner of a log house with white chinking A variety if chinking and notching styles were used across the country

Germanic-American Folk Landscapes

So many Germans came to the United States that today they constitute America’s largest single ethnic group. Germanic people came so early, and in such great numbers to America, their impact on the landscape is at once profound and sometimes hidden because so many German folk practices are today considered “American”, especially in the Midwest.

Germans and Scandinavians introduced several house types in the early colonial period, but the most common was the quintessential home of the American frontier, the log cabin, and its more permanent cousin called a log house. These simple structures were often built almost exclusively of wood because timber was widely available and metal nails were scarce during the colonial era. Log houses were built by stacking partially hewn logs horizontally upon one another. Corners were held tight by a variety of interlocking notching techniques. Cracks between logs were filled with a mixture of mud and plant material called chinking. Log buildings were so well adapted to the frontier resources and local climate conditions that other ethnicities adopted log cabin designs during in the 18th and 19th centuries. By the mid-1800s, log cabins had become an important national symbol. For several generations, American politicians would claim they were “born in a log cabin”. Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and U.S. Grant were among those who proudly announced their log cabin roots. Think about why log cabins became a powerful symbol embraced by Americans.

Figure Gettysburg, PA -A classic Pennsylvania forebay barn nestled against a small slop allows farmers to access at least two floors

German farmsteads were also unique. The most well-known Germanic farm buildings are the massive Pennsylvania Forebay barns. Their size allowed farmers to complete many activities (animal husbandry, dairying, crop storage, food processing) in a single building. However, the size of these barns also made them immovable, unlike small the barns built by Scots-Irish farmers who were known to dismantle their barns to transport them to new locations when soils were exhausted. The permanence of German barns seems to indicate a far greater commitment to the long-term husbandry of farm soils than evident in other ethnic groups.

Pennsylvania forebay barns were frequently built into an embankment, allowing farmers to access both the animal pens on the ground floor and the threshing floor above. A hayloft generally occupied the top floor. The “forebay” is an extension (overhang) of the second floor over the ground floor, providing shade, and perhaps some protection from the elements for the livestock stabled on the ground floor. Pennsylvania easily has the greatest collection of barns in the US. Pennsylvania’s state government established a commission to inventory and protect folk landscapes, partly because they have become valuable tourist attractions.

Figure Saint Augustine, FL Several of the Spanish era bundling were constructed of coquina locally available sedimentary rock, making this a folk practice. It turned out to be an ideal materials withstanding naval bombardment

Spanish Landscapes

It’s sometimes easy to forget that the Spanish were the first Europeans to settle in the United States. Because Spain didn’t have the same dire population pressures as the Irish, British and Germanic peoples, they, like the French, migrated in smaller numbers than their European rivals to the US. Spanish influences are most obvious in the American Southwest, but they are also evident in a few places in Florida and Louisiana.

Founded in 1565 by Spanish colonists, Saint Augustine, Florida is the oldest town in the United States, predating the English colony in Jamestown by around 40 years. If you visit St. Augustine today, you will have no trouble seeing the impact of Spanish people on the landscape there. The massive Presidio (fort) is of a classic Spanish design. Several dozen well-preserved colonial homes also feature Spanish design elements as well, but since they are constructed from local materials, especially those made from the peculiar coquina stone, these homes qualify as Spanish-American folk dwellings, rather than Spanish houses.

Figure New Orleans, LA- The beautiful wrought-iron gallery porches on this building in the French Quarter were popularized during the period when Spain ruled Louisiana Note the effective shade the porches provide to the building

The Spanish also occupied Louisiana for several decades following the defeat of France in the Seven Years’ War. During that time, the Spanish greatly influenced the landscape. Ironically, the graceful wrought-iron balconies that characterize numerous buildings in New Orleans’ Vieux Carré (old quarter), known by tourists as the French Quarter, are actually Spanish. This part of town burned and was rebuilt during the period of Spanish occupation of New Orleans. It was the oldest part of town, which is why it’s called the Vieux Carré, but when it was rebuilt, the buildings were constructed according to Spanish tastes – not the older French styles. The Spanish also probably introduced to the US the peculiar tradition of interring the dead in above-ground vaults. Because New Orleans is famous for these kinds of cemeteries, above-ground burial is often mistakenly associated with the French. However, historical and geographical evidence strongly suggests that the Spanish brought this burial technique to the New World.

Figure Natrchez, LA- Above ground burials are common in French settled areas and mistakenly thought to be the product of high- water tables. They seems to be Spanish in origin, and have little to do with flooding.

Figure Los Angeles, CA - The Avila Adobe is reputed to be the oldest house in Los Angeles. It is remarkably cool inside even on very hot days. It’s museum now on Olvera Street, a tourist district near downtown.

Lots of people also assume that above-ground burials are a folk adaptation introduced to counter the threat of flooding in New Orleans, where shallow water tables and frequent rains are common. Clearly, this folk burial practice is well-adapted to swampy southern Louisiana, but historic geographers point out that above-ground cemeteries also can be found in older Spanish settlements in desert locations, and on high ground where flooding is rare. The common element suggesting that above-ground burials are an ethnic practice rather than simply a folk practice is that they are found in many locations in the United States where the Spanish settled, but are rare elsewhere.

Spanish influences on the landscape are perhaps most profound in California. Folk houses in the American Southwest were mostly constructed of adobe, but the Spanish can only take partial credit for the popularity of Adobe houses. Clearly, buildings made of sun-dried mud bricks were popular in Spain, many indigenous people of the American Southwest and Mesoamerica also built homes in the adobe style before the arrival of the Spanish.

Adobe construction is ideal for people who live in desert and semi-desert, Mediterranean climates of both the American Southwest and Spain. The walls of adobe houses are generally several feet thick and windows are small. These design features insulate the interior from hot winds and the burning sun during the day. The adobe simultaneously stores the sun’s energy and radiates it into the house during the evening when it gets colder outside.

Traditional adobe houses usually have nearly flat roofs built by laying timber beams across the top of the walls. Generations ago, flat roofs were ideally suited to those living in dry climates because they helped homeowners catch rainwater or morning dew. Steeply pitched roofs also capture heat unnecessarily while wasting scarce lumber resources. Adobe houses would not be feasible in the rainier or snowy parts of the world. Mud walls need to be painted, or whitewashed regularly to prevent them from melting away during rainstorms. Flat roofs are vulnerable to collapse under heavy snowfall. Although infrequent rains are not a serious threat to well-maintained adobes in California, earthquakes destroyed most of California's once numerous adobe houses.

Figure Fort Stockton, TX This house built in the mid -19th century has fallen hard times Adobe Bricks deteriorate when exposed to rain.

Perhaps the biggest contribution made by the Spanish to the landscape of the US is not a folk architecture type, but rather an architectural style called Mission Revival. This style gets its name from the fact that it was used in the construction of the 23 Franciscan Missions built in California between 1769 and 1823. Though they were largely derelict by the time California became part of the United States, thousands of architects resurrected the look of the old missions and the Spanish Colonial haciendas to create a pop-culture style. Mission Revival style has been applied to everything from the simplest of homes, to fast-food restaurants, to major urban landmarks. Mission Revival is popular in part because it is evocative of California’s colonial history, but like many nostalgic symbols, it requires the erasure of the less pleasant realities of history – in this case the devastation wrought upon California’s indigenous people. Most people don’t really think about the genocidal horrors of Spanish colonization when they see Mission Revival buildings. In the popular imagination of most Americans, Mission Revival evokes notions of the leisurely lifestyles enjoyed by wealthy people living in upscale Coastal California cities, like Santa Barbara, Laguna Niguel or Carmel, where Mission Revival architecture dominates the landscape.

Figure San Gabriel CA- Missions like this server as the inspiration for thousands of buildings in Southern California and beyond. There nostalgic romance associated with Mission Revival architecture. What does it signify to you?