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10 · Global Traditions

Caribbean Vernacular

c. 1700–present

Bright paint, deep verandas, louvered shutters, and lacy gingerbread trim, tuned to trade winds and hurricanes.

Look for

Wraparound porch Carved wood ornament Hipped roof
Old San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico: an example of Caribbean Vernacular architecture
Old San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Photo: Nils Huenerfuerst, CC BY 4.0
Willemstad, Curaçao
Willemstad Curaçao · Coolcaesar, CC BY 4.0
Chattel house, Barbados
Chattel house Barbados · Shardalow, CC BY 2.0
Jacmel, Haiti
Jacmel Haiti · User:Doron, CC BY-SA 3.0
Key West, Florida
Key West Florida · Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0

what it is

Caribbean vernacular describes the traditional houses of the Caribbean islands, built by local builders rather than architects. Most are timber-framed and raised above the ground on posts, blocks or a masonry base, with a veranda or gallery (a roofed porch) along the front. Roofs are steep, often hipped so they slope on all four sides, and covered in wood shingles or corrugated metal. Windows and doors have louvered jalousie shutters, made of angled slats that let air through while blocking sun and rain. Many houses are painted in bright colors, and some carry gingerbread trim, fretwork cut from wood along eaves and railings.

In Barbados, chattel houses are small wooden houses set on blocks so they could be taken apart and moved. Port-au-Prince, Haiti, has about 200 gingerbread houses in the Pacot, Turgeau and Bois-Verna neighborhoods, with tall roofs, high ceilings and porches. Willemstad, Curacao, has rows of colored merchant buildings with Dutch gables along the Handelskade, and Key West, Florida, has wooden houses with similar verandas and shutters.

how to spot one

Wraparound porch A covered porch that runs along the front of a house and continues around at least one side. It is common on Queen Anne, Folk Victorian and Colonial Revival houses. Carved wood ornament Decorative shapes cut into a building's wooden parts, such as brackets (supports under the eaves), porch trim and window screens. It is common on Victorian houses and traditional timber buildings in Asia. Hipped roof A roof that slopes down to the walls on all four sides, with no gables (triangular wall ends). It is common on Georgian, Italianate, Prairie and American Foursquare houses.

Also look for

Clapboard sidingRoof finialStucco wall

history

The tradition has no single originator. It developed across the British, French, Dutch and Spanish colonies of the Caribbean from the 1700s, as European house types were built in local timber and stone and given raised floors, verandas and shutters. In Willemstad, the Dutch West India Company founded the walled town of Punda in 1634, and the Otrobanda district followed in 1707. In Barbados, after slavery ended in the 1830s, freed workers rented house plots on plantation land and could be evicted on short notice, so they built chattel houses that could be dismantled, moved by ox-cart and reassembled in a day.

Gingerbread trim spread in the late 19th century. In Haiti, the style began with the second National Palace in 1881, and three Haitian architects, Georges Baussan, Leon Mathon and Joseph-Eugene Maximilien, adapted French resort houses to the local climate after studying in Paris in 1895. By 1925 the style had spread to towns including Saint-Marc and Jeremie. In the 2010 earthquake, about five percent of Port-au-Prince's gingerbread houses partly or fully collapsed. The historic center of Willemstad became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

where to find it

Old San Juan, the painted rows of Willemstad in Curacao, Haiti's gingerbread mansions, Barbados's chattel houses, and Key West.

easy to confuse with

Wesleyan Grove Cottages, an example of Folk Victorian Folk Victorian Plain folk house shapes dressed up with porch spindles and jigsaw-cut gable trim. Cahokia Courthouse, an example of French Colonial French Colonial Living floors raised a story off the ground, wrapped in full-width porches under one broad hipped roof. Elvis Presley Birthplace, an example of Shotgun House Shotgun House One room wide and several rooms deep: a narrow gabled house with a full-width front porch.