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Shingle Style A coast of summer architecture extra

Above: Monhegan Island Harbor

At this point in life, I have lived in many places. Quaint houses clad in painted cedar siding, minimalist and loft style apartments in the city, and one house made of stone quarried at the time of the Civil War. But I will probably never be fully satisfied with my accommodations until I live in a simple shingle style cottage near the ocean.

A home where the summer sun drops patterned light and shadow on rough hewn floor boards and a constant breeze dances through white curtains.

Provincetown.

Traveling throughout the northeast, for a series of essays I called "The Coast of Summer," I was consistently captivated by the shingle style, which was originally developed in coastal communities in New England, and ages well in the sun, wind and salt air.

Clockwise from Upper Left: Narragansett, Rockport, Narragansett, Old Lyme garden shed and Old Lyme home.

The design first emerged in the late 1800s and was meant as a counter to the elaborately and colorfully decorated Queen Anne and Victorian homes of the era. The so-called painted ladies, were known for their intricate carvings, grand trimmings, and riot of colors that made them hard to ignore.

The simple, un-painted siding of shingle style homes, offered a comparatively humble contrast.

You would be wrong, however, to think this new style offered simplicity on the inside as well. In fact, the interiors of many shingle style homes designed at the turn of the last century - and many of those being designed today - are very luxurious.

The Pollock-Krasner House, East Hampton, New York.

The organic look of the shingle style influenced the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States.

Although some homes considered part of the vernacular are painted, those left unprotected from the weather, and allowed to develop a natural patina, provide a connection with nature. The effects the elements have on the building materials change with age. Shingles can be lightly colored when brand new, turn a darker brown as they slowly char in the sun, or take on the green color of moss if exposed to moisture and shade.

Shingle style with red trim in Rockport, Narragansett and Newport.

Windows are often symmetrically aligned, simply trimmed, and painted in white, forest green or barn red. The windows are commonly divided in two over two light patterns, or multiple top lights over a single bottom window.

Top: Home of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, East Hampton, NY. Bottom: Pollack's studio.

Several communities on the east coast are known as models of the shingle style. They include the Fenwick Historic District in Old Saybrook, Connecticut and the Montauk Association Historic District on Long Island.

In the East Hampton, New York hamlet of Springs, I came upon the shingle style home once shared by the American painters Lee Krasner and her husband Jackson Pollack. The home itself is typical of the vernacular, as is the barn Pollack used as his studio. Krasner continued to live and work there after his death in 1956.

Sunlight gives shingles a worn look and a hue of silver or gold.

I find it notable that artists like Pollack, and many lesser known creators, find inspiration in coastal places like Provincetown and Monhegan Island in Maine. It is as if the raw, unadorned architecture in these locations provide a blank canvas, with few distractions, from which to begin and build on their work.

The simpler the window trim the more charming the structure.

The way the sunlight falls on unpainted shingles tends to darken the windows, making the interiors of the homes appear empty and mysterious. Like dark eyes looking back at you, but inviting you inside at the same time. If a shingle style home were an article of clothing, it might be a well faded pair of blue jeans, a long sleeve cotton t-shirt on a fall day, or the turned up collar of a wool coat in winter.

The shingle style home is utilitarian and built to last with little effort put toward maintenance. They compliment their gardens or their natural surroundings. They do not call attention to themselves, but they can't help but be noticed.

A Monhegan Island home surrounded by a naturalized garden.

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© Dean Pagani 2020

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© Dean Pagani 2020

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