Hall Cottage
A simple one-room module with gable roof (often with a loft or half-story) and a fireplace and chimney at one end, this structure was built of heavy framing by the earliest English colonists. Dwellings of this form were constructed along routes of migration outward from the Delaware Valley. This basic house type persisted after the adoption of balloon frame construction well into the nineteenth century. Floor outlines typically approximated 16 by 16 feet: the size of space comfortably warmed by a single fireplace. These dimensions (the standard bay) may have deeper roots in European culture as the traditional size of building used for stabling oxen. Kelly 1924, 6; Williams and Williams 1957, 71; Glassie 1968a, 53; Pillsbury and Kardos c. 1970, 24; Newton 1971, 6; Ieane and Purcell 1978, 8; Swaim 1978, 29; Hubka 1979, 222; Marshall 1981, 41; Walker 1981, 42, 46, 50, 56, 66, 74; McAlester and McAlester 1984, 80, 83; Noble 1984, 44. (Jakle, 1989)