In 1957, crooner Patti Page recorded her chart-topping single Old Cape Cod with its repeated refrain: “You’re sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.” Actually, by the late 1950s, America had been in love with Cape Cod for the greater part of the previous three decades. Beginning in the early 1930s and continuing through the 1950s, Cape Cod had loomed large in the popular American consciousness. A nation exhausted from the Great Depression and World War II took comfort in a nostalgic look backward to the perhaps less-stressful times of the Colonial era and early American Republic. Cape Cod was one of a number of early American locales that captured the popular imagination with its beauty and with its historic charm.

A Full Cape Cod from the 1800s located in Massachusetts.

A Portland Cape Cod with a “Beverly Jog” — named for a common house type from Beverly, MA.

A Portland Cape Cod with its wood shingle siding approximates the appearance of an early Cape Cod, MA house.

A Three-Quarters Cape from New England build in the 18th century.

Another Three-Quarters Cape from New England.

An I8th century Half Cape from New England.

Much early New England history took place on Cape Cod. It was at “The Cape,” after all, where the pilgrims first landed the Mayflower. (Never mind that they expected to land in Virginia.) The Cape’s earliest years were prosperous, with farmers and fishermen taming the wilderness. Soon, whaling and shipbuilding brought much more wealth to the area. Later still, in the Victorian era, glass manufacturing put Cape Cod on the map.

The Sandwich Glass Co. was for many years the largest maker of glass in the world. The Cape has also been throughout its history as the home (or second home) of many of America’s best-known politicians, educators, writers, and artists. Recent decades have bought large influxes of tourists and retirees. Even with this increasing population, the Cape still remains a place of undeniable beauty and picturesque charm. Patti Page would still find her “sand dunes and salty air, quaint little villages here and there.” Cape Cod is eternal.

Such a special place was bound to produce a special architecture uniquely suited to its own environment and way of life. The “Cape Cod House” developed shortly after the first permanent settlers arrived in 1638 (the fickle Pilgrims having abandoned the Cape for mainland Plymouth in 1620). The style of the house was a logical reflection of the area’s climate, resources, and social patterns. The simple story-and-a-half houses were built low to the ground to ride out the fierce “Nor’easter” storms that lashed the region.

The fronts of the houses always faced south to take advantage of the low winter sun that added warmth and light to the front room(s). The important front room was used for weddings, funerals, and entertaining the minister. For families who could not afford a clock, a secondary advantage was gained: When the sun shone directly into the front window, the family knew it was noontime. The large chimney of the house was always placed in the center so that heat could radiate outward to the surrounding rooms. In the warmer colonies such as Virginia, fireplaces were located on the outside walls to dissipate the heat away from interior rooms. Overheating New England homes was seldom a problem. Central chimneys worked best there.

Homes were constructed of timber and planks from nearby forests. The exterior of the house was covered in wood shingles, allowed to weather in the salt air to a warm gray color. People who could afford it often covered the front of their house with clapboard siding, but never the sides or rear. Front clapboards were considered “dressing up,” but having clapboards on all four sides was considered “showing off” (and wasteful).

The original Cape Cod houses came in three sizes: The small “Half Cape” with two windows at one side of the door. The medium sized “Three-Quarter Cape” with two windows at one side of the door and one at the other. The larger “Full Cape” has its door in the center and two windows on either side.

Over time, many Half and Three-Quarter Capes were seamlessly expanded to become Full Capes. It is impossible today to tell which Full Capes started out their lives as something smaller. Expansion could also occur by popping out dormers for usable attic space. Other expansion possibilities involved adding onto the rear of the house in a direction perpendicular to the house. In any case, expansion almost always left the street façade as a recognizable Cape Cod style house.

The traditional Cape Cod style house started to fade from fashion with the arrival of the new “Greek Revival Style” of the 1830s. Prosperous sea captains wanted the latest in worldly architectural fashion for their new homes. The local Cape Cod never completely faded away in this period, but it would take the national Cape Cod Revival of the 1930s to fully restore the styles dominance in the land of its origin.

In the 1930s through 1950s, Cape Cod Revival houses were built in every corner of the country. In many regions the style was the dominant residential building type. In Portland, OR, Cape Cod houses were constructed in those parts of the metro area being built from the 1930s to 1950s. Cape Cods were also built on infill lots in the central city. The style’s simplicity and economic use of space appealed to Depression-era homebuyers. Also, the young soldiers returning home from World War II loved the way the style lent itself to expansion possibilities. Many ex-G.I. families bought these homes because they knew their families would eventually grow and require more space.

Many attics in Cape Cod houses became living space for growing families. New dormers could be located in the rear — the traditional way of expanding a house in old Cape Cod. Or they could be in the front, always two symmetrically placed “doghouse” style dormers. This type of front dormer placement was rare, but not unheard of, in the original Cape Cod houses.

Cape Cod Revival houses of mid-century were built in all sizes and price ranges. The Leavitt brothers built Cape Cod tract houses in their Levittown developments after World War II. The Cape Cod style was not limited to entry-level housing, however. Boston architect Royal Barry Wills popularized the Cape Cod to the upper-middle and upper income classes. Home improvement magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens also promoted the Cape Cod style as one of the “All American” house types. “Early American” furniture became the rage for nearly three decades, even in places like Portland where there was no real connection to the early days of the Republic.

The gradual opening of the newly restored Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia in the 1930s further added to the appeal of all things early American. After 1960, few Cape Cods were built throughout the country. They continued, however, to enjoy popularity in their home, Cape Cod, MA. Many new homes built there today continue to be designed in this most traditional of house styles.

Today’s Portland homebuyers looking for historic homes with character are taking another look at Cape Cods. Enough time has elapsed since their construction (75 years for the oldest ones) that they are considered “older homes” by now. They contain construction features and design details not found in newly built homes. And their exterior design reflects four hundred years of time-tested appeal. On the “charm” scale, the Cape Cod house rates near the top.

Jack Bookwalter is a freelance writer and archictural historian living in Portland, OR.