The first settlers in the Appalachian Mountain Regions emigrated from previously settled areas in the United States. Germans and Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania, English from the Eastern sections of Virginia and the Carolinas, and Scandinavians from the Delaware Valley--all traveled further West and South to the rugged, isolated mountains of Appalachia. As they settled the area, these people retained elements of their distinct European heritage and altered their traditions to suit their environment (1). These traditions combined with each other in the mountains to produce the distinct culture of Appalachia. Early Appalachian architecture is one form of folk art which exhibits the unique combination of German, Scotch-Irish, English, and Scandinavian cultures in the Southern Highlands. We begin by examining the elements common to all log structures. We can then appreciate the variety of ways in which these elements were combined to construct the house, the barn, and the outbuildings of the mountain homestead (2). Generalizations can be made, but there are few rules that apply to their construction and design. These structures are unique, as were the individuals who built them.

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Log construction began in the Scandinavian regions before the Bronze Age. The first structures were simple rectangular buildings made of horizontally-laid round logs with corner notching (3). This basic form, known as the "Single Crib" or "Single Pen" has remained unchanged from as early as 10,000-8,000 BC and is ancestor to all log construction in America (4).

The first log structures erected in the American Colonies were the English "Garrison Houses" and Dutch "Blockhouses" of New England (5). Intended as military fortifications, these structures were built to withstand siege. The logs were hewn and carefully fitted together, and the second story was cantilevered over the first. Although the English settlers were familiar with this system of horizontal log construction they built their homes of the frame-clapboard or "Half-Timber" construction that was common in England.

The log house was unknown in America until the Swedish and Finnish peoples settled in Delaware and Maryland in 1638. Horizontal log houses were traditional in Scandinavia and were well suited to the new, heavily-timbered American landscape. In the early 1700's Germans and Scotch-Irish immigrants settled in Pennsylvania. Again, each group brought their traditional European construction methods with them in the form of stone cottages and log cabins. The practice of building log houses in Appalachia developed from the influence of German and Scandinavian traditions. This form of construction combined with Scotch-Irish stone masonry and English design elements to produce the typical Appalachian log house (6).

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Logs used in house construction were usually of chestnut, oak, poplar, and spruce. A good working log was generally 12 to 15 inches in diameter and 25 to 30 feet in length. These were hewn flat on either 2 or 4 sides, or left in the round. Early cabins were usually rough, temporary structures, with unhewn logs (7). Hewn logs were used when a more finished look and permanence were desired (8).

Logs are held in position at building corners by a system of notching. The particular style of corner-timbering used is one of the most distinctive features of log building. Notching is studied by scholars to determine the age and origins of log architecture. Saddle or round notching was sometimes used with projecting corners and round logs (9). This was one of the most common forms of notching in Appalachia, because it was quick and relatively easy. V-notching was characteristics of Pennsylvania German houses and it found its way south to the mountains of Appalachia (10). Each log was hewn with an inverted V on the edge and on the underside (11). These fitted tightly together, forming a strong joint.

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Full dovetail notching, developed in Europe and found frequently in Pennsylvania, is rarely found in the mountains of Appalachia. A full-dovetail is cut at a compound angle on both top and bottom edges and is the most elaborate form or corner timbering (12). Early in the development of log construction in Appalachia, full-dovetail seemingly evolved into the half-dovetail notch which provided the same sound joint with less labor. The top edge of the logs has a simple notch angled downward from back to front, and the bottom has a simple notch angled upward from from the end (13). This dovetail is often known simply as "dovetail" in the mountains.  Square notching is believed to be English in origin and is usually found in the Eastern portions of Virginia and the Carolinas (14). However, a few examples of square notching are found in the mountains (15).

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Other features of folk architecture are studied for origins and age. The Germans and Scotch-Irish excelled in the art of stone masonry. This skill was reflected in the fireplaces (16), chimneys (17), and foundations (18) of their log structures in Northern Appalachia. Solid stone foundations (19) are rarely seen farther south on buildings other than homes. Barns, outbuildings, and most houses in the Southern region were almost always supported by a simple series of stone piers (20). These are laid dry, or with mud, one on top of the other. Stone piers and foundations provided a means of leveling a building as well as helping to prevent termite infestation (21). Sometimes posts of locust or oak logs were used as foundation piers.

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The earliest chimneys in Appalachia were made with the "Wattle and daub" method, or clay over a stick framework. These chimneys often angled away from the house (22). Chimneys found in Appalachia today are almost always of fitted field stone, except in sections of eastern Tennessee where the proper clay for brickmaking was found (23). The location of the fireplace varies. Corner chimneys are rare in the mountains and are associated with early Scandinavian buildings. The common gable-end chimneys show Scotch-Irish and English influence (24). Chimneys arising from the central portion of the house are characteristic of German construction (25).

Stone chimneys were usually held together with red clay, which bakes hard from the heat of the fires. One problem common to mud filling or "chinking" is wasps that riddle the chinking with their homes (26). Brick chimneys were often laid up with clay and handmade lime mortar (27). Lime makes the clay "set up" harder. Other additives to strengthen the clay were the chaff from grains, animal hair, chopped scraps of rope, and hog's blood.

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Log barns and outbuildings were usually built in the rough, with the spaces between the logs left unchinked log (28). However, houses required chinking between the logs to protect against weather and insects. As with chimneys, the earliest log chinking was a simple mixture of clay and mud. Larger spaces were first filled with stones, or pieces of wood, then covered with the clay mixture. The Pennsylvania Germans introduced a more finished look by chinking first with stones and clay, then plastering this undercoat with white lime and sand mortar (29). The interiors of the walls were finished by nailing horizontal strips across the spaces between the logs to keep the chinking in place and add greater protection (30).

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Most log buildings in Appalachia have gables of clapboard (31), or board and battan construction (32). However the earliest buildings and smaller outbuildings incorporated the Scandinavian technique of logged gables (33). Early roofs were crudely made, using anything that was available for covering, such as turf, tree limbs, and boards (34). As buildings were improved the roofs were lightly framed and covered with "shakes." Shakes are long, rough shingles split out of a section of log (35). The system of shingle roofing is an English tradition which found wide acceptance with the Appalachian settler. This form of protective covering, vertical or horizontal, soon covered the walls of many log buildings, especially of the side toward the prevailing wind (36).

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The first homes of Appalachian settlers were temporary, one-room structures used until a better home could be built (37). These are sometimes known as pole shacks, descriptive of their crude appearance and the size of their wall logs. The primary feature that distinguished log cabins from pole shacks was the construction itself. Log cabins had larger logs, hewn on 2 or 4 sides. The spaces between the logs were narrow and chinked, while the corners were neatly notched (38). From the basic design, single-pen cabin additions could he attached in various ways, usually creating a double-pen house. There are two types of double-pen homes found commonly in the Appalachian Mountains. A "Dog-Trot" house consists of two single-pen cabins joined by a common roof (39), with a covered breezeway, or "dog trot" between them (40). Each single pen has its own chimney, and the dog-trot could be enclosed to form a third room. This house type emerged from the South Tennessee Valley. If the addition on the second pen was made on the chimney end, a "Saddle Bag" house was created (41). This house form, commonly found north of Tennessee, has two front doors and a central chimney which serves both sides (42). Log rooms could also be added to the main house in the popular "Ell" form (43).

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Mountain homes frequently had framed rooms added to the original log portion of the house (44). These additions served as kitchens and were almost always made after the introduction of sash-saw milled lumber into the mountains. The sash saw preceded the circular saw at early mills and left distinctive vertical saw marks on early lumber. The placement of frame additions varied with the individual's taste, at times appearing in the rear (45), on a gable end, or set off in front in an "Ell" shape (46).

Two-story log homes were almost always built in the English "Hall and Parlor" form. These elegant structures consist of two rooms, separated by a central hall, and a stairway leading to a large room upstairs (47). A commonly found "Hall and Parlor" house in Appalachia is the I-House. This house type has the typical 3-room plan. It is one room deep and two stories high (48). The house usually has external gable-end chimneys and is frequently found with a long rear addition serving as a kitchen (49).

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The log barn reached its peak of popularity in Appalachia in the early 19^th century. Like houses, they are records of cultural influences (50). They also record for us the means and degree of prosperity achieved by the inhabitants of a region. The earliest log barns in America were built in Pennsylvania by German settlers. Their style of construction became known as the "Great Pennsylvania Barn". Spacious and graceful, they were built on a hillside. The front door access was a ramp, while the back had a cantilevered "forebay" over a lower level used for stabling (51). Similar barns were known as "Bank barns" in Appalachia. However, large ones proved uneconomical for the rugged mountainous regions of the Southern Highlands.

Appalachian barns commonly were simple in structure and small in size. Logs were usually left in the round, saddle notched and the spaces left unchinked (52). Like early cabins, they consisted of one room, often two levels high, called a "Single Crib". The lower level was usually divided into stalls for livestock and corn storage. When more room was required, sheds for stabling were added to the sides (53). The upper level was used to store hay.

The simplest barn to build for size and stability was the "Double Crib". Like the Dog-Trot house, the double-crib barn consists of two cribs separated by a bay or breezeway, and covered by a single roof (54). This is the most common form found in Appalachia. The doors may either face in toward the breezeway, or face front. The first story of Double-crib barns is used for stabling, with the driveway-breezeway frequently used for threshing grain. The mow, or loft, for hay and grain storage was overhead (55).

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As production increased, the Double-Crib barn was added to in various ways. Side driveways or sheds could be attached (56), or more log cribs could be constructed. The four-crib barn was developed in southeast Tennessee by placing two Double-Crib barns side by side and connecting them by runways going from gable to gable and side to side (57). From this form the transverse crib barn was developed by boarding up one runway (58). This type is found in east Tennessee and is well suited for corn and hay storage.

The cantilever barn is round in the southern mountains of Tennessee, especially in the Great Smoky region. It is simply a Double-Crib barn with an overhanging loft on 2 or 4 sides (59). This type of construction is believed to have evolved from medieval German house types and may have been introduced into Appalachia from Pennsylvania.

The "Drover's barn" is similar to the cantilevered barn in having a large, overhanging, frame loft for hay storage (60). In this case, the loft is supported by log piers. This structure is much bigger than most barns, for it served as a "cattle hotel", a place where farmers could stable their herds for a night as they drove them off the mountains to market (61).

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The mountain farmstead consisted of several outbuildings in addition to the house and barn. Blacksmith shops, corn cribs (62), smoke or meat houses (63), tool sheds (64), milkhouses, springhouses (65), pumphouses, well houses, wash houses, and root cellars all served specific functions in the self-sufficient lifestyle of an Appalachian farmer.

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The first outbuildings were built of small logs. Few of the early structures remain since they were built with less care than the larger buildings. After 1900, log cribs were seldom built and older outbuildings have mostly been replaced by structures of clapboard and frame (66).

Almost all Appalachian log outbuildings are forms of the basic Pennsylvania outbuilding type. These are rectangular with a double-pitch roof and a door in the gable end (67). They are frequently built into the side of a hill and have a projecting roof over the door (68). In 2-level buildings the upper level was of log while the lower level was often made of stone (69).

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This basic form of architecture has traveled from Neolithic Europe to New York and Pennsylvania, and finally West and South to Appalachia. Corn cribs developed from European "granaries" and were modified for corn storage in America (70). The Pennsylvanian crib had two cribs with a runway between (71). This style is similar to the double-crib barn, but smaller, with no loft.

Frequently, cribs are found with attached sheds to store farm equipment or serve as a pig pen. An old fort of crib, dating from before the Civil War, is the crib with the side driveway (72). At times, there were two drives, one side was sometimes used for storing firewood and seasoning roof shingles (73).

Ears of corn were loaded into the corn crib through a narrow opening near the eave of the roof. Some early cribs had hinged roofs to allow for corn loading (74). The ears were retrieved through a small door near the bottom of the front side. Non-poisonous snakes were tolerated since they helped keep the mouse and rat population in the corn crib under control.

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Like Appalachian cribs, smoke and springhouses are patterned after the one-story Pennsylvania outbuilding. Both types of building are used for food preservation and many were built totally of stone masonry for increased insulation (75). Springhouses served as the farmstead refrigerators and were constructed over a running stream, usually from a spring (76). Sometimes water was piped through fitted log pipes, or short Lengths of copper, to the enclosed "house" (77).

Smokehouses are used for curing and storing meat (78). Within the smokehouse, salted meat was placed on wooden benches lining the walls. The floor is usually dirt, to allow a slow hickory fire to be built in the center of the floor.

Aside from these storage buildings, several outbuildings for housing animals were constructed of log, such as henhouses, and pigsties (79). These are the basic structures that were once found on Appalachian farmsteads.

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The first settlers in the mountains were solitary individuals maintaining self-sufficient homesteads away from "civilization". As time progressed and settlers poured into the Appalachian mountains, the first communities were formed. Buildings necessary to community life were also constructed of log in the early history of Appalachian settlement.

Among the first public buildings in a new settlement were gristmills (80). To the newly forming mountain communities they were the first industry and were essential to the life of any town. Some were little more than a roof on log posts (81), but for their sluice-poers, water wheels, and mill dams, Appalachian settlers used log construction.

In pioneer times a mountain community was lucky if there was a one-room schoolhouse to attend (82). Sessions usually ran two or three months during the year to allow students time to help at home with crops. Lack of qualified teachers and poor facilities were some of the problems of rural mountain education. In the years before the move toward consolidation, one or two room log structures like these frequently served the mountain communities (83). They housed grades one through eight, the extent to which many mountain children were educated, even into the early years of this century.

Nowhere are log structures more prevalent than in the mountains of Appalachia. They have retained their regional integrity and serve to distinguish Appalachia from other regions of the country. Scholars, historians, and others are recognizing the need to study and preserve these vanishing architectural remains of American pioneer life (84).

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