The first and only full-scale technical and stylistic analysis of 200 years of architectural evolution in northern New England

William Faulkner once said, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." Nowhere can you see the truth behind his comment more plainly than in rural New England, especially Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and western Massachusetts. Everywhere we go in rural New England, the past surrounds us. In the woods and fields and along country roads, the traces are everywhere if we know what to look for and how to interpret what we see. A patch of neglected daylilies marks a long-abandoned homestead. A grown-over cellar hole with nearby stumps and remnants of stone wall and orchard shows us where a farm has been reclaimed by forest. And a piece of a stone dam and wooden sluice mark the site of a long-gone mill. Although slumping back into the landscape, these features speak to us if we can hear them and they can guide us to ancestral homesteads and famous sites. Lavishly illustrated with drawings and color photos. Provides the keys to interpret human artifacts in fields, woods, and roadsides and to reconstruct the past from surviving clues. Perfect to carry in a backpack or glove box. A unique and valuable resource for road trips, genealogical research, naturalists, and historians.

Constancy permits the evolution of types and characteristics to be identified, even in widely spread locations. It helps trace the origins of structures, despite later modifications. And change allows one to trace the effects of difference in environment, fashion, cultural ideas and economic influences. Change and constancy operate together, although one may or other may dominate at a particular time and place. In Vernacular Buildings Allen Noble extends the global survey contained in his earlier highly successful Traditional Buildings, to cover vernacular buildings and dwellings around the world. In a truly comprehensive account, he ranges from the fazenda of the pioneer Brazilian settlers, the Masai dwellings of Tanzania and the gothic houses of Shanghai, to Virginia Hall and Parlor houses, the thatched dwellings of the Eifel region of Germany and the three -decker houses of New York. Acknowledging the value of archival research the author is also firmly convinced of the importance of field observation and the book is extensively illustrated with photographs from his own personal collection. With a comprehensive bibliography, and incorporating new material from cultural geographers, historians, folklorists and anthropologists, Vernacular Buildings is a unique survey that will be welcomed by specialists and enthusiasts alike.

A startlingly original synthesis of keen observation and interpretive skill that will transform one s understanding of New England s man-made landscape"

« Invitation to Vernacular Architecture: A Guide to the Study of Ordinary Buildings and Landscapes is a manual for exploring and interpreting vernacular architecture, the common buildings of particular regions and time periods. Thomas Carter and Elizabeth Collins Cromley provide a comprehensive introduction to the field. » « Rich with illustrations and written in a clear and jargon-free style, Invitation to Vernacular Architecture is an ideal text for courses in architecture, material culture studies, historic preservation, American studies, and history, and a useful guide for anyone interested in the built environment. »--

First published in 1988 by the New Hampshire Historical Society, and long since sought after, On the Road North of Boston is back in print. This richly illustrated, entertaining book is an invaluable resource for New Hampshire residents and students of the state's history alike. Nine extensively researched and meticulously prepared chapters depict historic taverns and tavern society of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century New England. Donna-Belle and James Garvin vividly reconstruct the physical landscape: the taverns themselves, the network of roads, travel conditions, traffic and commerce. They immerse the reader in the contemporary tavern atmosphere: encounters with fellow travelers, food, drink, entertainment, and hospitality in its earliest incarnations "on the road north of Boston." On the Road North of Boston contains rare and wonderful black-and-white illustrations of authentic tavern signs and furnishings, broadsides advertising tavern entertainments, early photographs and drawings of tavern buildings, road signs, vehicles, and bridges, portraits of tavern keepers, stage drivers, and itinerant performers. This book offers modern New England residents and travelers rich chronicles and visions of an age long past.

The fully expanded, updated, and freshly designed second edition of the most comprehensive and widely acclaimed guide to domestic architecture: in print since its original publication in 1984, and acknowledged everywhere as the unmatched, essential guide to American houses. This revised edition includes a section on neighborhoods; expanded and completely new categories of house styles with photos and descriptions of each; an appendix on "Approaches to Construction in the 20th and 21st Centuries"; an expanded bibliography; and 600 new photographs and line drawings.