what it is
An A-frame is a house whose steep roof slopes down to or near the foundation on two sides, so the roof also forms most of the walls. In cross-section it has the shape of a capital letter A. The two triangular end walls, called gable ends, are often filled with glass. Inside, the ground floor is usually one open room, and a sleeping loft sits under the peak, with the rafters left exposed. The steep pitch sheds snow, and the simple frame keeps construction costs low.
Early examples include R. M. Schindler's cabin for Gisela Bennati at Lake Arrowhead, California (1934), and Andrew Geller's Reese House in Amagansett on Long Island, New York (1955). Restaurant chains including IHOP, Wienerschnitzel and Tastee-Freez also used A-frame buildings. A Swiss chalet has a similar steep gable roof, but it rests on full-height walls; in an A-frame the sloping roof is the wall, so the upper floor is narrower than the ground floor.
how to spot one
history
R. M. Schindler designed what is considered the first modern A-frame house, a cabin for Gisela Bennati at Lake Arrowhead, California, in 1934. The form became popular in the 1950s, when architects including Andrew Geller, Walter Reemelin and John Campbell designed A-frame vacation houses. Geller's Reese House on Long Island, completed in 1955, became internationally known after The New York Times featured it on May 5, 1957.
From the mid-1950s through the 1970s, A-frames were built across the United States and abroad as vacation houses in ski areas and near lakes and beaches. Rising incomes after World War II and the growth of the second-home market increased demand, and prefabricated kits, sold by stores including Macy's, made the houses cheaper still. Restaurant chains such as Wienerschnitzel, Whataburger and IHOP adopted the shape for roadside buildings in the same decades.
where to find it
Ski towns and lake country everywhere: Tahoe, the Catskills, and the Rockies, plus mid-century roadside churches.
