The Half House Made Whole: Evidence from Southeastern Massachusetts

Abstract

abstract: End-chimney houses were a common form in early New England. This article examines the ways in which these houses were used, based on physical and documentary evidence from southeastern Massachusetts and adjacent regions. Especially in their double-pile variety, these houses accommodated several different types of interior organization, each suggesting a different relation of the occupants to early modern conceptions of space, privacy, and refinement. Work functions such as cooking could be placed “forward” in the house, continuing an essentially medieval conception of the hall as a multipurpose space, or could be removed to the rear of houses. Private spaces such as bedrooms or parlors were often situated beyond or above this hall. Occasionally, concepts of material refinement and privacy were spatially linked, but often they were split, with expensive showpieces like beds appearing in halls, with less refined but more private spaces beyond. The architecture determined the ways in which these houses were used only to a limited extent; the flexibility of the house form was likely a factor in its continuing popularity into the eighteenth century.