Volume XVII 
February, 1910 
Number 2 
A modern Dutch Colonial home at Colonia, N. J., George A. Nichols, architect 
The Dutch Colonial Type of House 
by Aymar Embury, II. 
Photographs by the author and others 
[The problem of choosing an architectural style for the American country or suburban home is one of the most puzzling that confronts the home¬ 
builder. In order to bring about a better under standing of the more common types and with the idea of clarifying, as far as possible, this whole matter, 
we have asked a number of prominent architects to present each the cas „ for one particular style. In the December issue Mr. Frank E. ft allis, the well 
known authority on Colonial architecture, told why a house of that type is the only one to build. Mr. Allen fV. Jackson presented in the January issue 
the case for the Half-timber house. In the present article Mr. Embury adds his convincing argument for the picturesque Dutch Colonial. A number of 
other styles will be ex plained and illustrated in future issues — modern English and German types of plaster houses, Italian adaptations, the Patio type 
and probably one or two others. The Editors will gladly do all in their power to answer anv questions regarding style, details or const) uction.\ 
B EFORE going into the subject of 
the merits of Dutch architecture 
it may be well to define the mean¬ 
ing of the term as it is commonly used. 
It refers not to the architecture of Hol¬ 
land, but to the style which was built up 
by the Dutch Colonists and which was 
developed not only by them but by the 
French Huguenots and the English who 
later settled amongst them. The houses 
are entirely different from those of Hol¬ 
land in material, in mass and in detail. 
Here the houses are built of stone or of stone in combination 
with plaster or clapboards, but brick was very sparingly employed, 
except for the chimneys and the enormous baking-ovens. In 
Holland, on the contrary, the architecture was one almost 
entirely of brick; stone was about as common as diamonds are 
here, and came in about the same sized pieces. The most char¬ 
acteristic feature of our Colonial Dutch houses was the roof. 
and this again was of a new type. Here either a long low slop¬ 
ing roof was employed or the gambrel type, so beautifully handled 
that the terms “Dutch” and “gambrel” are synonymous. 
The origin of this roof has been long a subject for dispute. It 
is purely an American development, without any European 
precedent, and its use must have arisen from some condition 
peculiar to this country. I believe this is to be found in the fact 
that two-story houses in Colonial days were heavily taxed, while 
one-story houses went free. The early designers therefore endeav¬ 
ored to evade the law by building a one-story house of two 
stories, and in order to get the rooms in the second story as large 
as possible, the roof was given a wider overhang and sloped very 
steeply. But, since continuing the steep roof slopes on either side 
of the house up to their intersection would be excessively high, 
giving the house as seen from the end the shape of a stingy 
piece of pie, after the builders had run it up high enough to include 
the second story they covered over the intermediate spaces with 
as flat a roof as possible. 'Hie wide overhangs, besides giving 
more space in the second floor, had another valid reason. 
(47) 
