40 
B 
House & Garden 
There is often an 
interesting con¬ 
trast between the 
walls and roofs of 
the houses, which 
are whitewashed, 
and the stone gar¬ 
den walls, which 
arc left to weather 
U I L D I N G 
I N 
BERMUDA 
On This Delectable Island the Architecture of the Houses Is a Natural Product 
of Environment and Local Materials 
G. R. LOMER 
B ermuda affords an 
excellent example of 
the influence of environ¬ 
ment upon building. The 
absence of historical or 
stylistic influence may be 
due in part to its isolated 
geographic position and in 
part to its history. 
The Bermudas—for there 
are said to be 365 of them 
in the group—lie in the 
Atlantic, 300 miles beyond 
the Gulf Stream, nearly 700 
miles southeast of New 
York, and about 600 miles 
east of Charleston, S. C. 
Their length is twenty-five 
miles, and the total area 
amounts to only twenty 
square miles. 
The islands were known 
to the Spaniards early in 
the 16th Century, and it is 
from a Spaniard, Juan de 
Bermudez, that they get 
their name. Subsequently 
the English came to know 
them through Henry May, 
who was wrecked there in 
1593, and Sir George Som¬ 
ers of Virginia fame, who 
had a similar experience in 
1609 and died on the island 
in 1610. For some time the 
islands were known as the 
“Summer Islands,” though 
they wore also called “Isle 
of Devils” from strange 
sounds which the early 
“Par la Villc,” one of the old buildings of Hamilton, now used as a public li¬ 
brary, has wide verandahs running around three sides 
Many Bermuda houses built on a slope have the 'entrance on the upper story, 
the living quarters facing the water. These houses are of native stone 
mariners are said to have 
heard near shore. 
Whether these matters 
of geography or history 
have had an influence or 
not, the fact remains that 
most of the architecture 
in Bermuda, and the con¬ 
struction of the older build¬ 
ings in particular, may be 
said to have been strongly 
influenced, if not in certain 
respects entirely deter¬ 
mined, by three important 
factors—the climatic needs, 
the local materials, and the 
nature of the land. 
There are four principal 
needs in Bermuda houses 
which depend upon the 
geographical position and 
climate of the island: shade, 
coolness, airiness, and wa¬ 
ter. The facts lying behind 
these needs are these: there 
are a large number of sunny 
days every year; the tem¬ 
perature varies between 8o° 
and 49 0 Fahr.; and the 
annual rainfall amounts to 
approximately 54 inches. 
What is the effect of these 
natural phenomena upon 
the buildings that the in¬ 
habitants are now accus¬ 
tomed to build? The earli¬ 
est habitations have long 
since disappeared from 
view. Shipwrecked sailors 
erected what shelters they 
