- Framer 73 – Pioneer New Patterns And Groundbreaking Designs Ideas
- Framer 73 – Pioneer New Patterns And Groundbreaking Designs Free
- Framer 73 – Pioneer New Patterns And Groundbreaking Designs Patterns
- Framer 73 – Pioneer New Patterns And Groundbreaking Designs For Beginners
The patterns in drawing, in making, in editing, in form and design—all converged little by little, after close scrutiny, creating a unified work which reflected a larger reach of human time¬— from primitive loom to modern video”. The installation is illuminated by two scores, also on view in the exhibition. Required Cookies & Technologies. Some of the technologies we use are necessary for critical functions like security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and to make the site work correctly for browsing and transactions. Next Camo™ creates groundbreaking photorealistic “stick and leaf” camouflage patterns that have taken the industry by storm due to their wide format design. Next Camo’s Vista is one of the most well-known photorealistic woodland camouflages in the Water Transfer Printing market.
[ Patterns Home | Colonial Revival |Bible |Civil War |Contact ]
'That any quilts survived the trip West is remarkable. It attests both to the durability of the quilts and to the loving tender care so crucial to that survival.' 1
Quilts were precious to pioneer women for many reasons. They not only warmed the weary travelers at night but also brought memories of old friends and hopes for a good life in the new land. Sometimes friends and family made a friendship quilt giving a pioneer woman a precious memento of loved ones so far away. Women also made quilts in anticipation of the journey. It's only natural that some quilt patterns favored by pioneers have names related to the journey and to their faith in God.
Names Related to the Journey and Nature
There are names that refer directly to the pioneer experience like Rocky Road to Kansas, Road to California and Oregon Trail.
Others relate to nature and the new life they would be living like Log Cabin, Bear's Paw and Pine Tree. Some blocks represented the journey including Wandering Foot and Prairie Queen as well as various wheel patterns and star patterns.
Sometimes quilt blocks known by other names were given a name related to the migration west. For example the pattern most often known as Drunkards Path has been called Wanderer's Path in the Wilderness, Oregon Trail, Endless Trail and even The Road to California. You can find a free pattern to this block under yet another name at Solomon's Puzzle.
Quilts were not just made out of necessity. Many pioneer women expressed their creativity through quilt making. For example Dorinda Moody loved quilt making and managed to find time for it in spite of her rigorous pioneer life. 'Dorinda obtained ideas for her quilts from her own creative mind and from the trees, plants and natural objects around her. She always kept a notebook and pencil on the table next to her bed. When a quilt design occurred to her, she would light her coal-oil lamp and draw out the design.' 2
Names Reflecting Religious Faith
Perhaps the most meaningful to these women were names that reminded them of their devotion to God. They knew the trip west would be fraught with danger and sometimes their faith was all that kept them going. A quilt made with blocks named from the Bible would be a source of comfort.
In keeping with this importance of religious faith to these women the first quilt pattern in this series will be the Delectable Mountains, a name inspired by the book, 'Pilgrim's Progress'.
The Rose of Sharon, a Bible based applique design, was sometimes used to make a quilt for newlyweds who were about to embark on the journey west. This pattern can be found at the Rose of Sharon Bible Quilt Pattern page.
Expression of the Pioneer Experience Through Quilts
The following quote best sums up the pioneer quilt maker's experience.
'For women experienced in needlework, interpretation of the Oregon Trail through their quilts was a natural creative enterprise. Themes reflecting their perceptions of leave-taking from family and friends, the six months of living outdoors, and the reliance on equipment and divine guidance appeared in quilts connected to migration.' 3
Look at the navigation in the upper left corner of this page to find the pioneer quilt patterns that I've designed for you. Enjoy these free patterns and remember the story of pioneer women and their quilts as you sew.
Learn more about pioneer quilts at
Pioneer Quilts: A Comfort Through Hardship.
Pioneer Quilts: A Comfort Through Hardship.
© 2007 Judy Anne Breneman
print a printer friendly version of this pageReferences:
1 p11, 'Ho for California!: Pioneer Women and Their Quilts ', by Jean Ray Laury
2 p45, Pioneer Quiltmaker: The Story of Dorinda Moody Slade, by Carolyn O'Baggy Davis
3 pp 79, Quilts of the Oregon Trail, by Mary Bywater Cross
ARCHITECTURE
In what sense can we speak about an architectureof the Great Plains? Such a narrativewould necessarily derive from essentialcharacteristics of the whole place–flora andfauna, climate and weather, geology, topography,and horizon–and would address buildingwith compelling reference to this ground.Alternatively, we might speak of architectureon the Plains, using spatial location as our primarycriterion. Either approach might work,but this essay will follow the former, first becausethe region is defined, in good part, byproperties of the natural place, and secondbecause architecture, at root, creates culturalplaces within natural place.
Acknowledging natural place as the groundfor architecture changes the perspective onour view of building. Congruence betweenthese 'two' places can be discerned by thinkingof both in terms of form and structure or,metaphorically, as mind and body. Though itis not possible to conclude an entirely homogeneousinterpretation of building fromthe diverse constructions on the Plains, thisapproach forces us at least to think about architectureand place in other than humancenteredterms. This perspective reveals an incongruencebetween the two aspects of placethat was present from the very beginning ofEuropean American entry to the Plains. Thisstory is at variance with those we have heardbefore.
Ancient Place
Original peoples evolved within an architectureof place. Because the Plains region includesmany places and peoples, a diverse realizationof architecture occurred. This resultedin part from materials variability, in part fromprevailing climatic conditions, and in partfrom evolving cultural preferences.
A defining characteristic of all prehistoricarchitecture in the region was the use of constructionmaterials taken directly from theplace. Grasses played important roles, particularlyin the tallgrass areas, where they wereutilized for thatching, matting, and underlayand as wattling for clay-daubed walls. Themost spectacular use was the historic Wichitalodge of the Southern Plains, though pole-and-grass huts may also have found early usein widely scattered Central Plains locations.
Similarly, grassland soils played a role inmost of the more substantial constructions.Partially excavated interiors were characteristicof many permanent lodges. Some earlysquare and rectangular houses utilized wallsystems of closely spaced posts that were wattledand daubed with clay. Clays were alsoused in the southwestern Plains to plasterfloors, make wall bricks, and raise puddledwalls. Highly consolidated soils or sedimentaryrocks were utilized principally along theHigh Plains of the western part of the region.Caves formed by the erosional undercuttingof streams were home to early big-game huntersalong the northwestern Plains from 5,000to 10,000 years ago. Later cave sites have beenlocated all across the western margins of theregion. Stone masonry dwellings were built inthe rugged canyon lands and escarpments ofthe southwestern Plains. The use of soils culminatedin the earth lodge.
Plains fauna also provided raw materials forconstruction. Bison skins were used from historictimes back into the more distant past,perhaps as many as 5,000 years ago on theplains of southern Alberta. The historic tipi isthe evolved descendant of a long line of skinlodges.
The extensive repertoire of walling materialcontrasted with a limitation in roof structure.A scarcity of forested areas limited the location,size, and duration of permanent settlements.Temporary campsites and smallerlodges built of poles with mat, grass, bark, orskin coverings could utilize woods such aswillow in more widely scattered locations. Butsubstantial lodges needed large trees for posts,beams, and rafters; permanent villages weretherefore built near major wooded streamsand rivers.
The formal aspects of this early architectureare more difficult to determine than its structure.Evidence gleaned from archaeologicalinvestigation is difficult to interpret, especiallyin projecting three-dimensional forms fromtwo-dimensional remains. Nevertheless, twodistinct patterns, one of circular forms andthe other of rectilinear forms, can be broadlydiscerned.
The oldest remains are found along thewestern High Plains, where ubiquitous rockcircles mark the base of what were circularlodges. Rocks were used to secure the coveringof the lodge to the ground or perhaps to stabilizethe poles of the structure. Ancestral indesign to the historic era tipi, these structuresare oldest and most numerous on the AlbertaPlains and become more widely scattered andpresumably later to the south. The more recentcircles mark larger lodges than earlierones–the adoption of the horse by nomadicpeoples increased the size of lodge that couldbe transported.
The oldest remains are found along thewestern High Plains, where ubiquitous rockcircles mark the base of what were circularlodges. Rocks were used to secure the coveringof the lodge to the ground or perhaps to stabilizethe poles of the structure. Ancestral indesign to the historic era tipi, these structuresare oldest and most numerous on the AlbertaPlains and become more widely scattered andpresumably later to the south. The more recentcircles mark larger lodges than earlierones—the adoption of the horse by nomadicpeoples increased the size of lodge that couldbe transported.
Among the oldest of the rectangular-patternhouses were those constructed at the beginningof the second millennium of the currentera along the middle Missouri River of contemporaryNorth and South Dakota. Thesesemisubterranean houses had floors one ormore meters below the surface, with entrancethrough the southerly end of the house via along, covered ramp. A slightly raised platformusually occupied the entrance end and sometimesextended along the sides. The hearth wasalong the long axis. Structurally, these housesappear to have been gable-roofed buildings,supported by ridgepoles and side walls built ofclosely spaced posts.
Entirely different rectangular houses havebeen unearthed in the southwestern Plains.Dating from nearly the same time, one built inthe upper Washita River drainage containeda central hearth and two central posts. Thisplan is similar to lower Arkansas valley Caddoanhouses of the mid.thirteenth throughmid.fourteenth centuries. Closely spacedposts around the perimeter indicate wall linesand narrow, protruding entrance passages.The roof was likely hipped and thatched,while walls appear to have been closed withwattling.
More ubiquitous was a square, four-postlodge that appeared throughout the Centraland Southern Plains from the tenth throughthe fifteenth centuries and that came to beadopted along the middle Missouri Riversomewhat later. Built with considerable variationin size and detail, this house type appearsto be an enlarged version of the two-post rectangularhouse, constructed with a hippedor pyramidal roof. The nearly square plantypically had rounded corners with walls ofclosely spaced posts that undoubtedly werewattled and daubed. On the western portionsof the Central Plains they were built on ornear the surface, while to the east they weresemisubterranean.
Initially, square houses were not oriented toany particular direction, but over time thefour posts came to be set at the semicardinalpoints. As the structure was reoriented, theentrance vestibule was typically built facingeast. The commodious interiors utilized a varietyof features, such as benches and screens,to divide the space into different compartments.Square-lodge villages were typically locatedon the first or second terraces of riversand streams, while the village pattern, regardlessof size, tended to organically follow theterrain of the terrace. Fortifications were rareexcept in the middle Missouri region of theNorthern Plains, and there they protectedonly a portion of the extended village.
Perhaps the most distinctive adaptation ofthe four-post square house occurred along thesouthwest margins of the Plains in the upperCanadian drainage of what is now the Panhandleof Texas. Particularly interesting arevillages in the Antelope Creek basin, wherethe house was oriented to the cardinal directionsand had a very low, east-facing entrancepassage. The house floor incorporated raisedbenches with storage bins. Another raisedplatform, either protruding into the houseor occupying a projecting extension of thewest wall, was often found opposite the door.Hearths were centrally located.
Construction technology further distinguishesthese houses. Walls were built of puddledclay or clay bricks alternating with horizontalstone slabs. Occasionally, vertical postswere used to stabilize the clay walls. Most interestingwas the use of various forms of rockfoundations and footings: single or doublerows of vertical stone slabs set into theground, the latter with rubble fill, comprisedthe most unusual system.
Sioux tipis, Fort Buford, Dakota Territory, May 1881
View largerVillage patterns were also distinct. In several,lodges were built contiguously into largecommunal blocks that seem to have been afunction of choice and not of site limitation.Room configuration was complex. Circularrooms served as antechambers to onesquare house in each block, possibly indicatingsome kind of communal function.
Other multichamber complexes were builtfarther to the northwest along the upperreaches of the Canadian and Arkansas drainagesand to the east along Ladder Creek, atributary of the Smoky Hill River (in contemporaryNew Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas,respectively). The latter, a pueblo-like construction,dates to after the Pueblo Revolt of1620. Known as El Cuartelejo, it was associatedwith the Plains Apache.
Even as the house-pattern preference of thePlains villages coalesced around the four-postsquare lodge, a shift toward a circular plan hadalready begun. Four-post circular lodges, presumablywalled with wattle and daub like theirsquare counterparts, were occasionally foundas minority forms within some square-housevillages. Examples from about A.D. 1000 to1400 appeared along the Salt Creek drainageof the Smoky Hill River in what is now westernKansas and along Muddy Creek in theSouth Loup River system of present-day Nebraska.Other early circular lodges existed tothe south of the High Plains rock-circle clustersin the rugged Apishapa Canyon of theupper Arkansas River in present-day southeasternColorado. Dating from the latter halfof the thirteenth century, these were singleandmultichamber dwellings constructed ofupright stone slabs. They varied in size frompostless and single-post to four-post structures;the latter seems to anticipate four-postcircular earth lodges.
The circular earth lodge itself apparentlyappeared after 1450 and was common until theEuropean American invasion. This house typewas adopted by virtually all the semisedentarycommunities from the Central Plains northward.It was like earlier square lodges in theutilization of the four interior posts, the centralhearth, the extending entrance vestibule,and the system of roof rafters. Aside from itsplan, major distinctions from its predecessorsoccur in the perimeter structural system andthe earthen covering. In structure, vertical wallmembers were replaced with a post-and-beamsystem, and roof rafters rested on the beamrather than on a wall plate. Wall memberswere leaners that rested against the perimeterbeam. The space beneath these leaners, to theoutside of the posts, was used for a variety ofpurposes, including sleeping platforms, storage,and altars.
Other lodge types of the protohistoric periodadopted the circular form as well. Huntingcamp lodges along the middle Missouri ofPawnee earth lodge, ca. 1871the Northern Plains were built with four centerposts whose beams supported leaners thatpeaked like a tipi and marked a circle on theground. Central Plains Apaches built seasonallodges that made the circular motif more explicit.There the imprint of the leaners wasmirrored in the internal structure, where typicallyfive and sometimes six interior postswere set in a circle around the hearth. Theentrance was less an appendage than a protuberanceof the curvilinear form.
On the Southern Plains another circularlodge emerged that became a Plains housetype of importance equal to the earth lodge.Known primarily from historic Wichita structures,the thatched or grass lodge utilizedwall-roof poles set firmly into the ground,bent across an internal post-and-beam system,and tied together at the peak. Light horizontalstringers were tied to these 'rafters' tostrengthen the frame and provide support forbundled grass thatch. Another set of stringerswas applied over the thatch to help secure it tothe frame. Older grass lodges in the Red Rivervalley along the Texas-Oklahoma border apparentlywere built upon a four-post plan. Theevolved Wichita house, however, utilized a circular,multipost system that retained some ofthe significance of the old four-post lodge inthe designation of principal posts for the fourdirections.
Pawnee earth lodge, ca. 1871
View largerA similar evolution occurred with the earthlodge into the historic period, at least amongsome tribes. Protohistoric Pawnee villages inthe lower Loup River valley of present-day Nebraskawere composed of four-post circularlodges, while historic Pawnee lodges utilizedfrom six to eight or twelve interior posts set ina circle. This was also the case with historicOmaha lodges. Thus, while four-post circularlodges continued to be built on the NorthernPlains, in the Central and Southern Plainsfour-post structures gave way to multipost circularstructural systems that reflected the circledescribed by the external walls.
While the full meaning of this evolutioncannot be known, some significant patternscan be discerned. Three principal architecturalforms share the multipost–or multipole–circular configuration. All three utilizedexterior surfaces that were, in essence, angularprojections that began the vaulting over of thedwelling from the plane of the earth. Neitherwall nor roof in the Western sense, these surfacesformed a continuous vaulting of thedwelling that projected upward from a circleinscribed on the earth. The whole materialbody of the Plains was also reflected in theseforms: soil, the geological and biological basisfor the life of the place, was reflected in theearth lodge; grass, the principal flora of theGreat Plains, was reflected in the thatchedlodge; and bison, the principal faunal life ofthis place, was reflected in the skin lodge.
In a real sense, the mind of original Plainspeoples converged with the body of the placeand evolved a climactic Great Plains architecture.The shapes and cycles of things wereechoed in the evolved architecture. The vastexpanses of the Plains are defined by the circularhorizon, and from the horizon vaultsthe still more vast sky. Within this expansethe rhythmic cycles of the cosmos–of theearth, moon, sun, and stars–are plainly evident.Here the great circle of the terrestrialworld, the horizon, marked the boundary ofplace. Native peoples reflected the shape of theplace in forms that mirrored the place. Cyclesand the place were celebrated in materialform–from lodges to medicine wheels andfrom great camp circles to contemporarydance arbors.
Disembodiment
Framer 73 – Pioneer New Patterns And Groundbreaking Designs Ideas
Further evolution of Native architecture waseclipsed by the rapid conquest of the Plains byEuropean Americans, who defined the placefrom a distance. Disembodied, abstract concepts–following the Cartesian lead–tookpower and control over the ancient evolvedbody of the place, and anthropocentric prioritiesbegan to rift the place to pieces, first inmind, then in body.
The Great Plains was objectified on desks inWashington and Ottawa, fueled by concepts ofproperty and reports from scientific and militaryexpeditions. New territories were definedby imaginary lines such as those drawn in abstractspace using the global grid. This gridbecame part of the 'architectural' transformationof the Plains; its extension via governmentsurveys imposed a uniform Cartesiannet over the whole of the 'flat' and 'empty'land. Ultimately, the cultural expression ofthese lines effected the complete transformationof place, with property lines determiningthe limits of thought.
Three institutions–the fur trade, the military,and the railroad–cleared the way for EuropeanAmerican resettlement and the finalphases of disembodiment. Though the earlyarchitectural presence of these institutionsgave an appearance of being in place due totheir use of local materials, their architecturesquickly evolved into modern facilities of extractionin keeping with their institutional intent.Their mature architectural forms rereflectedthe power their enterprises had overthe body of the place.
Fur traders, here to strip the Plains of itsfur- and skin-bearing animals, were the firstto make permanent constructions. Early MissouriRiver posts were typically built of horizontallogs cut from the forested valley. Fontenelle'spost at Bellevue (1822), in present-dayNebraska, consisted of individual buildingsset around a loose, partially fenced courtyard.Its otherwise benign appearance was belied bythe size of its warehouses. Later constructionssuch as those at Fort Union at the mouth ofthe Yellowstone (established in 1828) were formallydesigned, fully stockaded compounds.The head trader's house there is an early exampleof the elite colonial designs that quicklymade their way onto the Plains.
Other fortified compounds were built, beginningin the 1830s, as new centers of extractionwere established on the western HighPlains. Wood was not abundant there, so claytechnologies adopted from Hispanic sourceswere utilized. From Bent's Fort on the Arkansasnorthward to Fort John on the NorthPlatte, the spread of southwestern constructiontechniques was made possible by anabundance of clays and a liberal use of Latinolabor. Built as variations on the Spanish presidio,the adobe forts embodied corporatepower with controlled, hierarchical plans thatonly looked premodern because of their oldstructural systems.
The second wave of corporate technologywas associated with U.S. military campaigns.Pursuit of the nomadic western tribes for thesecurity needs of traveling European Americansled to the initial establishment of numeroustemporary posts. Selective adoptionof premodern techniques facilitated constructionwhere the preferred materials were rareor nonexistent: adobe masonry and panel-walllog construction are just two examples.Seldom were these valued for permanent installations.Lumber was imported as soon aspossible, and by the turn of the twentieth centurybrick veneers were used extensively tolend an aura of permanence and substance tothe most important posts.
Unlike the compounds of the fur traders,military architecture on the Plains was rarelyfortified; industrial weapons technologies obviatedthis need. Drawn from Anglo-Americanarchitectural traditions, forts were orderly collectionsof individual buildings, hierarchicallyarranged and properly attired. Commandingofficers' quarters were patterned after the hierarchicalcentral-passage houses of eastern merchants.Though often scaled back to one and ahalf stories in height, their symmetrical facadesand front galleries symbolically reinforcedthe government's role of establishingcontrol over the region.
and character of the resettlement. Extensionsinto 'unsettled' country allowed them to establishstops, to plat and own towns, and tocontrol the towns' development. Rail townswere laid out following a small repertoire ofplans, all focusing on the depot as the centralplace. Control of these geometric plats allowedrailroads to shape the character oftowns by deciding which lots were sold forwhat purposes and in what order. Businessdistricts were created in immediate proximityto the depot, while churches and residentiallots were pushed to the periphery.
The depot was the most intentionally symbolicstructure. Plains railroads adopted standardplans that allowed for a variety of selectionsdepending upon the position of thecommunity within the economic structure ofthe corporation. Noteworthy among Plainsdesigns was the residential depot, which providedhousing for agents in locales that werenot yet developed. The most common of thesehad living space on the second floor abovepassenger waiting rooms and agent offices.
Standard plans gave way to custom designsin communities that established themselves assignificant economic entities. Elite designscreated symbolic images for both the communityand the corporation. This became problematicafter World War II, when passengerservice declined or ceased altogether. Corporationsoften quickly removed passenger stations,so that today the sight of a depot is rareand rarer still in its original location. Giventhe depots' prominent siting, their removalhas often left significant gaps in the urbanlandscape.
An even greater impact of rail technologywas in the movement of people and goods.This contribution to the disembodiment oforiginal place facilitated the commodificationof agriculture, with its widespread replacementof native flora and fauna. In additionto stockyards and trackside corrals, the mostpermanent and symbolic of the structures ofdisembodiment was the grain elevator. Theearly stacked-lumber elevators have largelydisappeared except, perhaps, in more remoteregions of the Northern Plains and PrairieProvinces. Victims of truck transport and corporateconsolidation, the wooden structureswere replaced with larger facilities built of reinforcedconcrete. The most substantial ofthese are in gateway cities along the fringes ofthe region. As the largest and most monumentalconstructions in the region, they symbolizethe region's modern role as grain supplierto the world.
Another architectural result of this activitywas the emergence of sod-wall construction.Utilized over vast areas of the central andnorthern farming Plains, it flourished with increasingEuropean American settlement in the1870s and followed wherever the prairies werebroken. Its success as a building technologyrelied upon the manufacture of the steel plowsneeded to cut the tough prairie-grass roots; itsdemise rested upon Anglocentric notions of'proper' dwelling construction, the proliferationof industrial building technologies, andthe destruction of the native prairies.
Replacement
The rest of the architectural story is dominatedby the importation of building materialsand abstract architectural ideas. The materialsneeded to accommodate Anglo-Americanways of building did not exist in quantity inthe Plains, so the new architectural bodyturned its back on the region. The story is oneof replacement.
The existing place didn't feel like a potentialhome to European Americans, who hadmostly been a people of the forest, first in Europeand then in America. On the Plainseverything was strange and seemingly empty;as one early traveler put it, a single tree wouldhave been enough to relieve the pain of lonelinessand desolation. That tree would alsohave provided the preferred building materialof the newcomer, and so wood, in the formof imported lumber, became critical to thereplacement.
Though some wood was processed locallyin river towns, regional riparian stands of timber,following the decimation wreaked byoverland travelers, the army, the railroads, andthe telegraph, were insu.cient to meet anythingbut rudimentary local needs. Exogenouslumber was first supplied by steamboat, andsome precut houses were imported during thefirst years of settlement. But it was the completionof the transcontinental railroads thatstarted the massive importation of lumberinto the Plains. The resettlement was builtfrom the body of the upper midwestern andsouthern forests, and the trackside lumberyardbecame another symbol of EuropeanAmerican resettlement.
Prior to the o.cial opening of the Plains,the evolution of American wooden buildinghad begun to standardize around light frameconstruction with nail joinery. Locally, however,framing initially followed diverse patterns.Heavy braced frames continued to bebuilt for a time by easterners and some Germans,but increasingly these were supersededby modern light wooden frames. Idiosyncratichybrid framing was not uncommon, buteventually the technology settled on more orless standard balloon and western platformframes.
The thought behind the replacement was asout of place as the lumber, and this was reflectedin the forms the replacement took aswell. In the more heavily settled sections ofthe region the superimposed spatial grid influencedthe character of the new landscapefrom the beginning. Roads, fields, fences,lanes, farms, schools, churches, and towns allbecame subsets of the grid. Terrain and waterwaysno longer ordered culture or formedplace; section roads and property lines did.In the farming countryside checkerboardfields planted in straight monocultural rowsdrilled the modern mechanistic order into theland itself. The place became changed at everdeeper levels.
Architectural form followed from the samemind that overlaid the landscape with the abstractgrid. Though this modern, abstractmind held sway over the Plains, some communitiesinitially embraced a wider variety ofattitudes. Architecturally, before the final triumphof national modernism a more diversepresence established heterogeneous placesthroughout the region.
Diversity
For a time the Great Plains was inhabited byan international community–a historicallycontingent, multicultural presence of quitedifferent and sometimes opposing belief systems.Their initial constructions represented awide array of responses to the challenge ofmaking place. Foreign immigrants often builtin old ways that were familiar and comfortable.The transference of old forms was restrictedby the extent a material was availableto build in the traditional way. If it was not,or if one were instead attempting to conformto emerging national standards, then the oldform was either abandoned for a new onebuilt of lumber or it was modified to accommodatethe new material.
Automounter 1 3 – automatically mount network shares. When we think in regional architecturalterms, we naturally look to the materials thatform the body of the place, and here, due tonotoriety, the sod wall comes first to mind. Itsutilization across a broad expanse of the farmingPlains, irrespective of culture, made thesod-wall dwelling a true regional vernacular ofthe replacement. The nature of the material'sassociation with disembodiment, however,precluded its utility beyond the first or secondgeneration of houses. Constructions of baledbiomass (hay and straw), perhaps the only regionalarchitectural invention, might haveprovided a sustainable counterpart to sod,though it appeared too late and in areas toosparsely settled to have had an immediate impact.Its recent resurgence is another matter.
![Framer 73 – pioneer new patterns and groundbreaking designs ideas Framer 73 – pioneer new patterns and groundbreaking designs ideas](https://lasopaaholic587.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/7/1/127192617/810884445.jpg)
Less popular than sod but still widespreadwere various clay-wall technologies. Unfiredclay found use in brick masonry, puddledclay,and rammed-earth constructions; itsmany iterations were known by diverse terms,depending upon the culture that utilized thetechnique. The clay technologies were primarilyculture-bound, and while they werepreadapted to the Plains environment, theiradoption by others appears to have been onlyidiosyncratic. Black Sea Germans, Czechs,Poles, Ukrainians, and Hispanics were amongthe dominant builders in clay.
Diversity was also a theme in the utilizationof other native materials. Variation in thetype, quantity, and quality of stone led vernacularand elite masons to a remarkable varietyof construction in surprisingly widespreadlocales, virtually everywhere su.cient veins ofgood-quality rock were found near the surface.Where quantity and quality supportedcommercial quarrying, elite buildings wereconstructed. High-quality architectural workcan be found everywhere stone was used, butprobably nowhere in such concentrations asin the Sioux Quartzite areas of southeasternSouth Dakota or the Flint Hills of easternKansas, where sophisticated dressed ashlarwork was common.
Perhaps most surprising for the 'treeless'Plains was the extent of log construction duringthe early settlement period. Diversity arosefrom the multicultural background of buildersand the mixed flora of the region. Mostof the log-timbering methods known to havebeen brought to America, as well as those thatevolved on the continent, were utilized on thePlains.
Two factors influenced the use of nativematerial: the first in which the 'pioneer' wasforced as a matter of necessity and a second inwhich settlers chose native material as a matterof preference. The former was spatiotemporallyrestricted to the ever-shifting lineof resettlement. Few surviving constructionswere built from strict necessity, and mostof what remains derived from cultural preference.These were built predominantly by Germans,German Russians, Poles, Czechs, Finns,Hispanics, and Ukrainians.
Cultural diversity was also reflected in architecturalform, especially among rural folkand the more conservative immigrants andduring the first, second, and sometimes thirdgenerations of dwelling construction. Usuallythe diversity was the result of the direct transplantationof Old World forms.
Though dwelling types were all within a familiarwestern mold, the constructions offoreign-born settlers were often noticeablydistinct from those of the native-born. Manyearly dwellings were built along ancient plansthat accommodated preferred ways of living.Most of these modest dwellings were characterizedby the presence of principal rooms–called halls in the English American tradition–and open plans that allowed directentry into these rooms, preserving old, intimaterelationships between the house and theland. The most prominent of the traditionalbuilders were the Germans, German Russians(both Black Sea and Volga), Czechs, Poles,Ukrainians, and Danes. Their old plans weremodified, with rare exception, by the adoptionof American cast-iron stoves for heatingand cooking. The abandonment of old-stylehearths, stoves, and ovens did change the interiorcharacter of dwellings and often necessitatedmodifications to traditional foodways.Some built larger, more modern Old Worlddwellings, while others such as the Volga Germansand Danes chose from American housetypes that closely resembled familiar Europeanforms.
Though some Anglo-Americans initiallybuilt traditional houses (usually a hall-andchamberhouse), most erected modernizedplans that abandoned halls in favor of kitchensand parlors. Other principal features ofthis modernization, whatever the kind ofhouse, included the use of multiple thresholdsand the accommodation of bedrooms anddining rooms–all reflective of the increasingdwelling size and room specialization characteristicof modern society's movement towardprivacy, individuality, and separation fromthe land. Most of the early modern houseswere variations on popular Georgian planningand formal symmetry. Later settlersadopted house types derived from rapidlychanging national architectural fashion. Thespecific sequences of both the foreign- andnative-born developments varied dependingupon where and when initial settlement tookplace.
National Modernity
In the main, however, the architectural storyof the Great Plains after European Americanimmigration was about an architecture thatjust happened to be built on the Plains. In thebroad sweep it was not substantially differentfrom that developed anywhere else in theUnited States. There is no reason to retell thatstory here using local examples. It is, however,important to at least acknowledge the surge ofnational modernity as it played out on thePlains.
Easterners wasted little time in setting forththe national parameters within which thisnew place was to be defined; lumber was first,and the architectural pattern book was second.Mass-produced pattern books made thetransference of formal architectural ideas outof place possible. Designs no longer neededto respond to locale; rather, they became abstractionsthat could be built on any 'site,'anywhere. Pattern books by eastern and Britisharchitects had already been a means forexpressing and disseminating elite architecturalideas before initial resettlement began.Stylish houses could be and were built soonafter the various territories were opened.
By the turn of the twentieth century, booksby architects such as Chicagoan William Radfordwere produced for more popular consumption.Mail-order catalogs were likewisepublished by retailers like Sears and MontgomeryWard, offering not only designs butalso precut materials ready for shipment.Soon local builders and lumberyards producedcatalogs depicting their own repertoireof house designs. These were increasinglybuilt in tracts of similar or identical dwellings.
National and 'progressive' trends in farmbuilding design were also perpetuated throughthe state and national agricultural journalsthat proliferated from the late nineteenth century.Following trends established earlier inarchitectural publications, they offered adviceon lifestyle as well as technical information onbuildings. Land-grant universities publishedtechnical leaflets with designs for essentialfarm and ranch building needs. The impact ofthese was substantial, and from around 1900onward the agricultural landscape became architecturallymore homogenized.
As the demand for architectural and engineeringservices increased, especially in thecities, more architects from the East migratedwest. Some were trained under the apprenticeshipsystem, while others, both native- andforeign-born, had also received academictraining. Custom buildings of increasingstructural competence and design sophisticationwere soon raised on the Plains, beginningin the boom years of the 1880s. By the nextcentury academic training was virtually thenorm. Education was provided by leadingschools in the East, technical universities inEurope, and the Ecole des Beaux-arts in Paris.Some Beaux-arts-trained architects such asThomas Kimball of Omaha were native sonswho returned home after completing theirschooling to contribute to the development ofthe region.
Local apprenticeship systems produced anextensive lineage of architectural practice thatbecame the foundation for the licensed practitionersof the twentieth century. By midcenturyseveral state land-grant and provincialuniversities had established architectureschools. Some local architectural firms havebecome national and even international concerns,made possible by the ideological trendsof modernity and a globalizing economy.
Great Plains architectural output from thebeginning of the replacement replicated abstract,national, and modern trends. Essentialinfluences emanated from eastern cities, thenfrom Chicago, then from the Pacific Coast,and finally from avant-garde Europe. Plainsarchitects creatively adapted national and internationaldesign ideology to local problems,especially in the cities and for elite clients.Most moved freely from style to style (a legacy,first promoted by pattern books, of reductionismapplied to architecture that divorcedthe design of a facade from the function andstructure of the building) and have done so inevery era to the present. Architects were oftenimported from cities like Chicago, Minneapolis,Kansas City, St. Louis, and New York forthe most prestigious commissions.
While society's attitudes toward the modernwere national, there was no tendency towarda national style following EuropeanAmerican entry to the region. The nationalclassical revivals of the first half of the nineteenthcentury were on the wane when resettlementcommenced, and what followed was arapid succession of stylistic gyrations. Thefirst to proliferate on the Plains was the QueenAnne; it was a style with national extent, but itlacked national meaning. On the Plains theethno-English associations of the style werevague; its popularity was more related to abooming economy, ideas of modern 'progress,'and incipient suburbanization–all conceptsthat had national overtones of theirown. Otherwise, architectural style changedlike the prairie winds with the fickle tastes ofconsumer capitalism.
Excellent products of these multifarious nationaland international trends dot the landscape,interspersed with delightful local andpopular versions. But anything that might besuggestive of a distinct architectural characterin the region was more the result of historicalcontingency. Boom periods–via the sheerquantity of construction–established an initialcharacter to rural and urban landscapesthat was distinct from older areas, east or west.These remain present in most locales thatpeaked economically before the current era.Communities that experienced continuedgrowth typically replaced the replacementsand now are tending to resemble the 'anywhere'landscapes so emblematic of our time.In this kind of setting, individual monumentsserve as symbols of place.
Differentiation
Two forms of architectural differentiation appearedduring the first part of the twentiethcentury. The first sought explicit ethnoculturalmeanings. Designs generated by someforeign immigrants as they emerged from thebackground of settlement and forged a greatercultural presence on the land created distinctivelocal environments. Their architecturaldifferentiation was more pronounced in ahost environment dominated by revivals intendedin part–via adoption of very selectiveEuropean and American sources–to createthe solidification of cultural hegemony.The second was intended to be a resistance tomodernity, an attempt to reground architecturein nature and place through a revival ofvernacular design, craft tradition, and, if notindigenous materials, at least the use of naturalmaterials.
Ethnic architectural emergence by somegroups appears less culture bound than theresult of individual or community tastes andidiosyncrasies; these groups tended to assimilatequickly, with a concomitant architecturalmelding into the host landscape. Amongthem, however, Swedes did participate in anAcademic form (a self-consciously learnedand sophisticated approach to the revisioningof earlier styles) of what has been dubbed'National Romanticism' via the AugustanaSynod architect Olof Z. Cervin of Rock Island,Illinois. His picturesque churches drew inspirationfrom national revivals then currentin the Nordic countries. The most explicit ofhis work was the yellow brick, stepped-gablecampus of the Bethphage Mission in KearneyCounty, Nebraska. Danes also drew inspirationfrom the revivals in their homeland,though in a more provincial mode. This wasevident in picturesque designs for folk schoolssuch as at Nysted in Nebraska, but a moreubiquitous if less obvious ethnic presence wasprovided especially by Grundtvigian Danishchurches, gymnasia, and other communitybuildings whose interiors were richly walledand ceiled in wood. This harking back to adistant forested past–and recalling woodenseafaring vessels–represents a distinct architecturalexpression on the Plains.
Also provincial but more a part of an OldWorld cultural continuum than a revival wasthe adoption of simplified baroque designsfor the community buildings of freethinkingCzechs. This 'rustic' baroque was part of anearly three-century extension of the Europeanstyle. The latest Plains example was the1921 Kollár Hall near Dubois, Nebraska. Thelater Orthodox churches of Ukrainian settlersin the Prairie Provinces were also continuationsof traditions that had been perpetuatedearlier in pioneer church buildings. The freeexpressions of Alberta architect Father PhilipRuh stand out, such as his Ukrainian CatholicChurch of the Immaculate Conception of 1930at Cooks Creek, Manitoba. In it Ruh retainedthe multipart articulated massing of traditionalchurches topped with domes (thoughnot onion domes) but departed from traditionin his Germanic decorative embellishment.
More Academic in origin and related tothe immigration of trained architects wasthe appearance of two German American nationalstyles. Designs based upon the GermanGothic were unobtrusive in the Americancontext. Major examples of this Spitzbogenstil,or pointed-arch style, were built in Germansettlements throughout the region: Sioux Fallsarchitect Joseph Schwarz's Holy Family CatholicChurch (1903–6) in Mitchell, South Dakota,and J. P. Guth's St. Johns German EvangelicalLutheran Church of 1902 near Lyons,Nebraska, are representative of two commonvariations. The second, the Rundbogenstil, orround-arch style, was more than an ecclesiasticalstyle. Breweries and other commercialand public buildings in German-dominatedplaces were often constructed in this popularstyle. Frederick W. Paroth's St. Elizabeth CatholicChurch at Auraria, Colorado (1898), AntonDohman's St. Mary's Abbey Church atRichardton, North Dakota (1905–9), andOmaha's Anheuser Busch Beer Depot (1887)are exemplary of a very large repertoire ofsuch designs.
The impetus toward national stylesthroughout Europe in the nineteenth centurygrew from emerging nation-state identity, anissue many immigrants brought with them.But the impulse applied equally to the dominantculture in the United States. By theturn of the twentieth century, a GeorgianColonial Revival coalesced that had nationalovertones among the native-born. Domestically,the style, reinforced in part by xenophobia,segued into various English Periodhouse styles around World War I, then expandedto include period house choices fromthe western Europe of the old immigration.
Multiplicity was the rule for the nondomesticarchitecture of the first half of the twentiethcentury as well, but it was really a focus ontaste and massive scale associated with the Academictrend in architecture that characterizedAmerican national romanticism of thisperiod. Styles were chosen based upon oftenvaguenotions of association–sometimes institutional,sometimes personal. Thus it couldhappen that an Academic skyscraper adornedin the Gothic Revival–a sort of 'cathedral ofcommerce'–could appear a few blocks from anew Gothic Revival church, with no apparentcontradiction in meaning. Whatever the associations,they may never have been known tothe community at large. Such was probably thecase with the appearance of the RomanesqueRevival for many Catholic churches of this period.Derived from the Italian mode, the styleflowed from Vatican influences within the religioushierarchy. To outsiders, taste and substancewere probably the primary indicativeaspects of Academic national romanticism.Though lacking in substance, this taste waspromoted through a series of national expositions,including the Trans-Mississippi and InternationalExposition of 1898 in Omaha.
Another impulse of the trend toward associationaldesign was a return to American regionalculture. The lack of a prior EuropeanAmerican presence on the Plains, however,was problematic. There was no regional stylehere to revive. One solution to this deficit wasthe use of imagination. Coronado's trek intothe Southern Plains provided su.cient impetusfor Omahans Thomas Rogers Kimball andArchbishop Richard Scannell to conjure theSpanish Colonial Revival as a style appropriateto the Central Plains. Kimball's St. Cecilia'sCathedral in Omaha of 1905.59 initiated anidentity with the American Southwest beforeGoodhue's national popularization of thestyle at the 1915 Panama-California Expositionin San Diego. Spanish influences were moreprominent on the Southern Plains, where thebaroque also found expression in a varietyof eclectic designs such as the city hall andauditorium of 1927 in Wichita Falls, Texas, byLang & Witchell in association with Voelcker& Dixon.
The restrained mission style was more popular,again particularly on the Southern Plains,where it was adopted by the Southern Pacificand Santa Fe Railroads as part of their corporateidentities. The Santa Fe station at GreatBend, Kansas, is perhaps exemplary. KansasCity architect Louis Curtiss's more inventivereprisals of southwestern forms such as his1907 depot and hotel at Syracuse, Kansas, andthe 1909–11 Lubbock, Texas, depot are probablyhigh points of this kind of regional identity.As remote as these associations seem today,they do appear more grounded, at least inthe South, than the more imaginary associationsdrawn directly from the Mediterraneansuch as the 1918 Broadmoor Hotel in ColoradoSprings.
The various forms of romanticism heldsway side by side with the California Craftsmanstyles that were popularized in the Plainsin the Bungalow movement of the 1910s and1920s. Craftsman houses were unlike the periodrevivals in that they lacked cultural rootsin the American scene. They were similar tothem, however, in a favoring of craftsmanshipand vernacular design as well as a philosophicalintent to reground buildings in nature.The import of both movements from the Eastand West Coasts, however, merely continuedthe trend of building out of place. Neitherstyle's attempts to build with indigenous materialswere very successful. With rare exceptions,these buildings were little more thanphilosophical statements lacking connectionto the Plains.
Framer 73 – Pioneer New Patterns And Groundbreaking Designs Free
During this period indigenous materialswere used almost exclusively in recreationalarchitecture such as the river rock constructionsat the Medicine Park Resort in southwesternOklahoma, the earthen shelters ofEmiel Christensen's private retreat, PaWiTo,along the Platte River in Nebraska, and theoccasional public works project. Exceptions,however rare, can always be noted. A shortlivedriver rock vernacular developed on thePlains near Medicine Park, Oklahoma, andhere and there distinctive porches appearedon bungalows throughout the region; thosebuilt with glacial erratics are probably themost spectacular.
One Chicago influence was related to theCraftsman style in a general way. It was feltin the Plains to an extent in Prairie-style adaptationsthat borrowed superficial motifs forapplication to otherwise derivative Colonialand catalog forms. The style probably had theclosest theoretical a.nity to what might havebeen a Plains architecture but was fully realizedby only a smattering of buildings. This, inspite of the fact that the Plains boasted examplesof both Frank Lloyd Wright's earlier andlater Prairie houses: the Sutton house of 1905in McCook, Nebraska, and the Allen house of1915 in Wichita, Kansas. Fundamental Prairiestyleforms–such as low, horizontal, hiproofedhouses–reappeared after World War IIwith the popularization of suburban ranch-stylehouses. But these were principally unrelatedto the earlier movement and had theirgenesis on the Pacific Coast.
Beyond these halting movements, an impetustoward regional differentiation simplynever materialized, other than through individualefforts. The ephemeral Corn Palace atMitchell, South Dakota, and the Texas SpringPalace at Fort Worth are two unconventionalexamples. Both were built to celebrate a kindof cyclical architectural stylishness with theirannually changing facades of modern productsderived from the body of the Plains; atMitchell, however, the motifs are applied to abuilding designed following Moorish sources.More permanent regional motifs appear inplaces with varying degrees of appropriatenessand success. The cowboys and Indians at theFrontier Hotel in Cheyenne (1936) and the architecturalinscriptions utilized on the NatronaCounty Courthouse in Casper, Wyoming,are examples. The cowboy and Indianhad appeared earlier as incised sculpture onthe frontispiece of the Panhandle-Plains HistoricalSociety Museum of 1932 at Canyon,Texas. Architect E. F. Rittenberry also incorporatedthe sculpted head of a longhorn steerand a gridwork of local cattle brands surroundingthe entrance.
Framer 73 – Pioneer New Patterns And Groundbreaking Designs Patterns
Nebraska State Capitol
View largerPerhaps no effort surpassed that of architectBertram Goodhue for the Nebraska State Capitol.It was not regional in style but was aneffort to generate monumental form that wasresponsive to the Plains landscape. Thoughmuch about its design and embellishment wasanticipated by the local elite, it came to Goodhuealone to conceive of the broad horizontalbase and landmark tower in terms that weremodern and more explicitly symbolic of place.Goodhue's genius needed an equal in local visionaryHartley Burr Alexander to develop thethematic elaboration of the building. His planfor the murals, mosaics, exterior sculpture,and inscriptions was broadly historical, occasionallytranscendental, and firmly rooted inthe ethnocentric milieu. Themes associatedwith place were prominent.
However one might criticize the Canyonand Lincoln buildings today (or even the oneat Mitchell), they provide occasions for lookingback at place, at least toward culturalplace. All three are expressions of regionalidentity that are still locally revered. But thethinking behind their expression was as fleeting as a late summer thunderstorm. Modernthinking never really looked back at placeagain. (I. M. Pei's National Center for AtmosphericResearch at Boulder may be an exceptionof a different sort.)
Hypermodernity
Both the Canyon and Lincoln buildings werereflective of an emerging modern style. Inspite of its initial theoretical concern with'space,' even European modernism in thePlains ultimately continued to promote a progressiveand reductive architectural style. Thiscause has been taken up with even more seriousnessby so-called postmodern (reallyhypermodern) developments, in which now,quite literally, decorated facades and the seekingof new forms have again become principalarchitectural problems.
Other aspects of modernism's focused reductionismhave different consequences. Wecan look to a further loss of the sense of bodyin place that might have been anticipated byone of the region's most noted modernists,Norman, Oklahoma's Bruce Goff. The philosophicaland psychological split of mind frombody that has informed this essay and that riftsite from place could be exaggerated by Goff'sfree expressions, which seem to have beenmade possible only by the prior abstract detachmentof site from place. He further pursuedarchitecture as a container split apartfrom the outside, a container in which theappearance of nature, if it were allowed at all,would be thoroughly domesticated and constrainedfrom the inside.
This latter aspect of Goff's production raisesissues concerning a hypermodern extension ofthe replacement. Of what we can say is left ofspontaneous Great Plains place (topographyand atmosphere), neither seems destined tosurvive our assault. Suburbanization's sprawlingconsumption of land increasingly resultsin the massive replacement of terrain and topsoil.Topography is forced into the flat linearconditions of abstract space and the engineer'sdrawing board and then is sometimes mechanicallyreintroduced to add 'character' tothe new, designed landscape. Redacted 1 0 download free.
Concerning atmosphere, the replacementfurther affects human embodiment in place.The main vehicle for this effort is air conditioning,a technology that, no matter how desirableunder acute health-related conditions,conflicts with atmospheric place beyond theeffects of consumption and pollution. Hypermodernpromotion of air conditioning, designedwithin a very narrow and absolute'comfort zone,' serves to further human disembodimentthrough a more anesthetizeddisengagement from place than ever before.
See also IMAGES AND ICONS: Corn Palace /INDUSTRY: Fur Trade, Lumberyards / NATIVE AMERICANS: Paleo-Indians, Pawnees, Sacred Geography, Wichitas / WAR: Frontier Forts.
David MurphyNebraska State Historical Society
Boddy, Trevor, ed. 'Special Issue on Prairie Architecture.'Prairie Forum 5, no. 2 (1980). D&d lords of waterdeep 1 0.
Framer 73 – Pioneer New Patterns And Groundbreaking Designs For Beginners
Erpestad, David, and DavidWood. Building South Dakota: A Historical Survey of the State's Architecture to 1945. Pierre: South Dakota State HistoricalSociety Press, 1997.
Henderson, Arn, Frank Parman,and Dortha Henderson. Architecture in Oklahoma: Landmark and Vernacular. Norman OK: Point RiversPress, 1978.
Henry, Jay C. Architecture in Texas, 1895–1945.Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993.
'Historic Places:The National Register for Nebraska.' Nebraska History 70,no. 1 (1989).
Nabokov, Peter, and Robert Easton. Native American Architecture. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1989: 122–73.
Noel, Thomas J. The Buildings of Colorado.New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Sachs,David H., and George Ehrlich. Guide to Kansas Architecture.Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996.
Starr,Eileen F. Architecture in the Cowboy State, 1849–1940: A Guide. Glendo WY: High Plains Press, 1992.
Upton, Dell,ed. America's Architectural Roots: Ethnic Groups That Built America. Building Watchers Series. Washington DC: PreservationPress, 1986: 100–165.
Previous: | Contents | Next: Arboretums
XML: egp.arc.001.xml