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Many books have been written recounting the history of the country from its earliest days at Jamestown to
the time of the American Revolution. But the story can also be related without words from a perusal of surviv-
ing landmarks. Old homes, taverns, churches, and public buildings, the drama of colonial times and the lives of
our ancestors are revealed in their architecture. The buildings that exist today are now, for the most part, muse-
ums. They were not always; some were official buildings in which the affairs of the colony were conducted.
Others were the homes of men and women; children were born in them and were married and died. Still others
were places of worship where the colonists sought refuge in the word of God. The sequence of colonial archi-
tecture, whether in New England or on the James River, was that of necessity; one can see the shift from crude
shelters and defensive outposts to the construction of dwellings, churches, homes, and public buildings of a
planned community with a definite future.
Between the two strong and opposing cultures of Virginia and New England, the only continuous highway
was the sea. The early model of New England could hardly have worked in the South, and neither could the
early model of Virginia have worked in the North. Two main cultures emerged from the English settlements in
the North and South: the Southern planter society had a ruling aristocracy and great class distinctions between
the wealthy and the poor; New England was more of an egalitarian settlement under the control of a Puritan
oligarchy, in which a strong middle class had developed.
The first concern of the European settlers, after they arrived in America, was to provide them with shelter.
They did this with whatever materials were at hand, according to whatever methods of construction they could
remember, devise, or observe. The earliest shelters in all frontier situations were similar caves were dug in hill-
sides, tent-like structures were made of tree branches and covered with cloth, or stakes were driven into the
ground to form palisades, which were roofed with rushes or branches woven into mats and covered with sod or
plastered with mud.
Of the original houses built by the first settlers, there seem to be no remains, but there is documentary evi-
dence. The first dwellings, at least among the poorer class, were what were called "cellars". They were so
named because they were constructed in exactly the same way as were the outdoor cellars used for the storage
of vegetables. None of the well-to-do among the settlers made use of these cellars except for the first few
weeks, or perhaps, months of their stay. The homes of the poor no longer exist today; they were either torn
down or left to decay. Most of the homes that remain today are representatives of the middle and wealthy
classes.
The homes of the English colonists were derived from both the manor house and the humble cottage of
their mother country. In seeking the origins of the style of building and manner of their construction, it is found
that, in the colonies, the differences in construction are traceable to the parts of the old country from which the
majority of settlers came. It was the most natural thing in the world for them to bring with them impressions of
their native home. It was just as natural for them to erect dwellings more or less in the same way, as they had
been accustomed to do in their homeland. Always to be taken into consideration, however, was the availability
of materials and tools necessary for construction.
Active Vocabulary
1) to recount – излагать
2) perusal – изучение, рассмотрение
3) ancestor – предок
4) affair – дело, событие
5) refuge – убежище, защита
6) worship – поклонение, почитание, культ
7) shelter – защита
8) outpost – пост
9) to emerge – появляться, возникать
10) egalitarian – равноправный
11) cave – пещера, землянка
12) stake – столб
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