American culture

Frontier vernacular

The Homestead Act of 1862 brought property ownership within reach for millions of citizens, displaced native peoples, and changed the character of settlement patterns. The law offered a modest farm free of charge to any adult male who cultivated the land for five years and built a residence on the property.

This established a rural pattern of isolated farmsteads in the Midwest and West instead of the European influenced villages of the northeastern states. Settlers built homes from local materials, often erecting log cabins in the forested eastern states or sod houses in the treeless prairie.

A few original log cabins remain, most of which have been concealed by clapboard facades. Related Straw-bale construction, pioneered in Nebraska with early baling machines, has endured as a modern building material.

Rural residents preferred homes built from milled lumber and constructed these instead of sod or log homes when they could afford the materials. Railroads delivered building supplies to the nearest town. Grant Wood's famous American Gothic painting takes its name from the upper window in the farmhouse behind the couple. The arched window was a popular 1880s design element sometimes known as "carpenter gothic."

The Sears Catalog Home that sold from 1908 to 1940 supplanted the remaining sod homes and most of the log homes. These complete homebuilding kits included lumber and plans. The "balloon style" framing architecture could be erected with a small construction team of family members and friends.

Decorative elements were conservative, reminiscent of late Victorian esthetics. The double hung sash windows of the Sears Catalog homes are the most common residential window type in the United States. Sears Catalog homes remain popular for their better than average quality.