Traditional Rural Houses Along the Missouri-Kansas Border

Abstract

I-houses and I-cottages predominate in the pre-1940 rural landscape along the Missouri-Kansas border, a region settled by people from different culture areas of the eastern United States. Cultural heritage explains part of the housing pattern, particularly the distributions of I-cottages and one-story bungalows, but for the most part, regional culture associations are not strong. The housing situation is understood better historically. To judge from various external indicators, local I-structures have been influenced by both the Georgian and the Gothic architectural traditions. More recent house types, although often not considered to be products of the folk tradition, nonetheless have traits that link them with this past. Using the construction of I-structures as a general measure, one can say that traditional architecture has been in decline since at least 1880 and that the rate of decline has accelerated through time.