Have you ever noticed the use of wood shingles around New Orleans? Instead of clapboard, older homes sometimes have wooden patterns as siding and decorative accents.
Unlike Colonial New England, which has a history of shingle-clad houses, the use of wood shingles as a wall cladding material arrived here in the later part of the 19th century.
Replacing clapboard and drop siding, the shingles were something new that added both texture and pattern to homes. It caught the eye of architects across the nation who enthusiastically jumped on board.
Shingle Style in Rhode Island
While the Gilded Age wealthy were busy building massive summer homes referred to as “cottages,” there was a growing desire for something more American. The William Watts Sherman House in Newport, Rhode Island, designed by Louisiana native H.H. Richardson, is considered the prototype of what has been dubbed Shingle Style…