TheI-house is avernacular house type, popular in theUnited States from the colonial period onward. The I-house was so named in the 1930s byFred Kniffen, a cultural geographer atLouisiana State University who was a specialist infolk architecture. He identified and analyzed the type in his 1936 study ofLouisiana house types.[1][2][3]
He chose the name "I-house" because the style was commonly built in the rural farm areas ofIndiana,Illinois andIowa, all states beginning with the letter "I".[4] But he was not implying that this house type originated in, or was restricted to, those three states.[1] It is also referred to asPlantation Plain style.
The I-house developed from traditional 17th-centuryBritish folk house types, such as thehall and parlor house andcentral-passage house. It became a popular house form in theMid-Atlantic andSouthern United States at an early date,[5] but can be found throughout most of the country in areas that were settled by the mid-19th century. It is especially prevalent through the culturally mixed midland, an area through central Pennsylvania and through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois (or approximate to the oldNational Road, and now paralleled by Interstate 70). I-houses generally featuregables to the side and are at least two rooms in length, one room deep, and twofull stories in height.[5] They also often have a rear wing orell for a kitchen or additional space. The facade of an I-house tends to be symmetrical. They were constructed in a variety of materials, including logs, wood frame, brick or stone.
In his book on folk architecture in north-centralMissouri, Marshall devotes nine pages to the I-house after investigation of close to 100 old houses in the “Little Dixie” region of Missouri.[6] He calls the I-house the “Farmer’s Mansion”. It is the Southern-style house sought by a middle-class planter, a symbol of his success. (DW Meinig introduces the I-house and thedogtrot as symbols of Southern influence in hisShaping of America.)[7] In Little Dixie, originally settled primarily by migrants from the Upper South, settlers were so eager to build an I-house that many lived in tents until they completed their new buildings.
Marshall classifies folk houses by type using rules developed byHenry Glassie in the late 20th century.[8] The basic unit is a sixteen by sixteen foot “hall”, called a pen. Asingle pen house might be a typicallog cabin. Combinations define other types. A two-story, single pen house is known as astack house. Pens can also be extended side by side to create a two-pen house, which with a central hall becomes adogtrot. A two-story, two-pen house is the basic I-house. The house may by modified by additions, but the pen system provides a classification.
These nineteenth-century houses lacked indoor plumbing and central heating. The classical I-house has fireplaces in each room. In Missouri, I-houses were built from about 1820 to 1890. The style was brought to the US by the Scots-Irish.
Because of the popularity and simple form of the I-house, decorative elements of popular architectural styles were often used. Through the 1840s, front porches and any decoration were primarily designed in the restrainedFederal manner. TheGreek Revival style was also used during the 1840s and 1850s. The I-house was also adapted toGothic Revival andItalianate styles during the mid-19th century.[9] Late 19th-century I-houses often featuredQueen Anne andEastlake-Stick style details.
In the South, a variation of the I-house, with one-story, rear shed rooms and usually a full-width front porch, is often referred to as thePlantation Plain house type.[10][11] It is more directly described as anI-house with sheds.[5]
