How about your Grandmother’s house, or your relatives in the country, or on the bayou? Or most of the buildings that you see driving through the country? Where do they fit it? These buildings, which in south Louisiana are typically along a body of water, are the ones that really represent how most people lived in the 18th and 19th century. I prefer the simple term "old buildings". Fred B. Kniffen, (1900-1993) taught at LSU for many years, and was a pioneer in the recognition that old buildings can be a unique part of a regions landscape, and a building's type, form, and structure, can be used to trace a people's cultural origins. He called them Folk Buildings. As you drive around the old roads of any region, folk houses are still a part of the rural landscape. Louisiana in particular, still has many 18th and 19th century houses which can still be seen in the landscape.
It has been my passion for many years to document these buildings as they will never make it on the National Register (NR), and will (as they have been) go undocumented and eventually be forgotten. They disappear into the landscape, slowly, over time. These buildings, (houses), are remarkably similar! (Unlike those on the NR which are often designed by Architects and built for wealthy people), these buildings are representative of a common cultural groups who shared similar values, etc. It’s a kind of conservatism, where house types were passed down and similarity was the norm. Only later (beginning @ 1820), do we start to see houses with an “Anglo” style beginning to influence the outward appearance. Many house continue to retain an earlier (older) floor plan within while the exterior may be remodeled in the “latest style”. More to come....
