The earliest houses were simple one-story, single-room permanent dwellings.In rural areas, the design of houses depended primarily on available building materials. Where stone was abundant, houses were built with thick stone walls; where suitable clay was available, houses were built of brick, usually laid in a Flemish bond pattern; where timber was plentiful, the houses were of wood construction with siding of wide weatherboarding.
Common characteristics included: a roof covering of wood shingles or tiles; steeply pitched gables with parapets; Dutch gambrel roofs with flared eaves having a considerable overhang; straight-line gables; a chimney located in a thick exterior wall at a gable end or gambrel end of the house; casement windows with small panes and battened shutters; a Dutch door; heavy plank floors, bake ovens.
