Ancestry Magazine

From the earliest dwellings in Plymouth and Jamestown, to buildings being constructed today, the people who settled America shaped the country’s landscape via architecture borrowed from their homelands. Want to know if the house you live in reflects an immigrant who long since passed away? Take a look.

From the earliest dwellings in Plymouth and Jamestown, to buildings being constructed today, the people who settled America shaped the country’s landscape via architecture borrowed from their homelands. Want to know if the house you live in reflects an immigrant who long since passed away? Take a look.

Cape Cod (ca. 1620)

Some of the first English colonists inhabited the rocky shores of New England and built small, one-room, wooden structures that mirrored their humble cottages in England.

Log Cabin (ca. 1638)

Swedish immigrants settled along the Delaware River and brought with them techniques for building notch-corner log cabins.

Dutch Colonial (ca. 1650)

In New York and along the Hudson River Valley , the Dutch constructed barn-like dwellings with gambrel roofs and dormer windows.

Georgian (ca. 1720)

As colonists became wealthy, the face of the Eastern seaboard changed. The English built stately, symmetrical homes of the Georgian style that resembled their manors back home.

Spanish Mission (ca. 1770)

Spanish missionaries arriving in California and the Southwest changed the landscape with their church-inspired dwellings—homes with stucco walls, red tile roofs, and courtyards.

French Creole (ca. 1800)

In the South, particularly Louisiana , a mixture of immigrants from France , Spain , Africa, and the Caribbean created a unique Creole building style that features wide porches, balconies, and lacy ironwork.

Shotgun (ca. 1860)

Originally a type of dwelling in West Africa, the “shotgun” house is a modification of a long, narrow, one-story building that African immigrants brought with them to Haiti, and then on to the American South.