Creole Architecture: A Comparative Analysis of Upper and Lower Louisiana and Saint Domingue

Abstract

What factors accounted for variations in architectural traditions in the French colonial settlements of the New World? This paper tests several of the propositions of culture theory against what is known of the process of tradition-formation in the French vernacular architecture of the Illinois Country, Lower Louisiana, and theCaribbean colony of Saint Domingue. It explores the extent to which generalized cultural processes such as preadaptation, founder's effect, and cultural syncretism account for changes in the forms of typical settler's houses.

African earthen structures in colonial Louisiana: architecture from the Coincoin plantation (1787–1816)

“…The archaeology of the interior of French colonial Louisiana has been comparatively neglected and with it some surprising material aspects of a creolised frontier society. One such aspect is that of the local earthen architecture and questions concerning its derivation from European and/or African sources (Edwards 1994(Edwards , 2002(Edwards , 2006. Our current research at a unique colonial-era plantation in north-western Louisiana-owned by a woman of African descent-provides new evidence concerning West African technological contributions to the wider corpus of Creole architecture.…”

“…The architecture of colonial Louisiana has been well documented, with several buildings from the period still extant in Natchitoches Parish (Wells 1973;Edwards 1994Edwards , 2002Edwards , 2006Maygarden 2006). Dwellings commonly documented in late eighteenth-century north-western Louisiana took three forms:…”

A Sequence Of French Vernacular Architectural Design And Construction Methods In Colonial North America, 1690--1850

“…In order to establish a both a temporal and geographical sequence, this research will address how information from archaeological reports and extant dated buildings can be used to answer the following questions. Africa and the Caribbean), non-vernacular sources (e.g., the military), and non-traditional materials, to demonstrate the emergence of architecture that was no longer Gallic, but rather Creole (Edwards 2006 Louisiana Acadians were more likely to take cues-at least with regard to architecturefrom Creole petits habitants (rather than from the raised homes of the planter elites) explains the cultural milieu, it nonetheless stops short of incorporating discussions of status.…”

“…Additionally, excavations at Site 21Mo20, in Little Falls, Minnesota, suggest that a mid-eighteenth-century French colonial outpost there included a palisaded poteaux-enterre wall (Birk 1991:257), and another structure the exterior walls of which also were built using the poteaux-en-terre construction method (Birk 1991:260). Furthermore, Edwards (2006), writing about the failure, during the period of 1699-1730, of poteauxen-terre and poteaux-sur-solle construction methods in Lower Louisiana's heat and humidity, points out that environmentally-suitable alternative methods quickly had to be established (Edwards 2006:267). French architects and engineers adapted architectural designs from the northern, cooler climate of France, to the warmer, more humid climate of New Orleans (Edwards 2006:267).…”

“…French colonists used traditional vernacular architectural designs and construction methods in North America as the basis of the colonization process. Architectural design was used in part to maintain control over indigenous North American populations, as well as to transport French cultural traditions to the colonies (Edwards 2006;Maygarden 2006).…”