Creating an American Farmscape

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:Historic Catalysts for the Development of the RuralAmerican Farmstead

Edward G. FitzGerald

ANTH 463Prof. Kolb11/27/05

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By far the most significant force that shaped the rural countryside evolved fromthe vast agricultural base that once dominated the American economy. The commondenominator of this activity was the farm, and the nucleus of each farm was a group of structures representing the farmstead. These agrarian structures, as described in

America’s Forgotten Architecture

, “constitute probably the most diverse elements of the built environment.”

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Yet, whether viewed from the air or ground, the American rurallandscape is characterized by certain standard features prominent among which is thecontiguous fence-enclosed farm, situated on a rectangular plot, whose focal point is thefarmstead with its single family-dwelling. This arrangement, involving compact farms,fenced-in fields, and isolated farmsteads, stands in contrast to another system prevailingin eastern and southeastern Asia and in many parts of Europe, where scatterednoncontiguous unfenced fields, and farmsteads grouped into rural villages are the rule.

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This paper will attempt to identify the historic factors that molded the rural Americanagrarian landscape, with its characteristic features, as we know it today.O

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In ancient times, when crop growing and cattle breeding began to supplementhunting and fishing, a fundamental change took place in the structure of the traditional

tribal community. A place was needed for animals, tools, and the land’s harvest. The

farm shelter came into being as the core for a more settled form of existence. The signs of this ancient transformation still exist in parts of Northern Europe where there are remains

Cover photo by W. H. Tishler,

Bulletin of the Association for Preservation Technology

(1978, 10:68).Northern Wisconsin Farmstead.

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The National Trust for Historic Preservation,

America’s Forgotten Architecture

(New York: PantheonBooks, 1976), 84.

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G. T. Trewartha, “Some Regional Characteristics of American Farmsteads,”

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

38 (1948): 169-225.

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of simple earthen structures that housed a clan of several generations under one roof onan ancestral plot of cleared land.

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As technology and social systems changed, the singlecommunal dwelling with its clan-related tract of land evolved into smaller holdings witha series of separate or attached buildings. The added influences of geography, climate andvarying economic practices resulted in a great variety of patterns in the plan and generallayout of the farm.According to the classification outlined by French geographer Albert Demgeon,European farmsteads fall into two main types: those built in one block and those with ayard or court.

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The block farm could be built horizontally, on the ground, with only onefloor above the ground floor, and with different sections placed side by side; or it couldbe built vertically with several stories, the stables being on the ground floor, livingquarters above, and the barn on the top. The court farm consisted of several buildingswhich were separated or built at right angles; these buildings surrounded a yard or werescattered through an enclosed court (see Fig. 1& 2) . Fred Kniffen, a geographer of folk

housing, has pointed out the “strong influence of European preceden

t over early

[American] in both mode of construction and form.”

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In a similar way, one can trace theOld World roots of the site arrangement of early American rural farmsteads. A variation

of the European block farmstead can be found in the “connecting barn” built in northern

and eastern New England and in nearby portions of Quebec and New Brunswick.

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Thisgroup of structures can be defined as any barn that is physically joined to the farmhouse.Several different methods of connecting the separate units, including roofed corridors, a

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E. Alnaes, et al.,

Norwegian Architecture Throughout the Ages

(Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1950), 10.

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J. Gottham,

A Geographic Europe

(New York: Holt, Reinhart, and Winston, 1969), 64.

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F. Kniffen, “Folk Housing: Key to Diffusion,”

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

55(1965): 569.