Bermuda has been written about from many points of view. Its
interesting discovery and history have been written and rewritten;
its volcanic origin investigated, discussed, tested and settled by
able minds. The plant life existing there, the remarkably varied
and beautiful aquatic life, has had its share of attention from
scientists, and as an attraction is exploited for the amusement of
visitors. The mild climate and hospitality to travellers has not
lacked acclaimers and advertisement, and entirely adequate guide-books
giving miscellaneous information of interest can be obtained without
difficulty.
Bermuda's houses, however, seem to have had little attention called
to them. A number of picture post-cards, it is true, exist, but these
are misleading in that the views are chosen to show the islands as
tropical, and the cards are colored by commercial "artists" who
presumably have never seen the place. Some recent magazine articles
have also slightly touched this interesting and characteristic part of
old Bermuda.
The casual visitor and "tripper" cannot help being struck by the charm
of the older buildings of the island, and the picturesque element
that they add to many views through the entire fitness in scale and
design to their surroundings. To students in architecture they present
many points of singular interest and beauty. The architecture is in
no sense grand, nor is it even important compared to that of other
lands. Its interest lies chiefly in the fact that it is a very simple,
straight-forward and complete expression and outcome of a number of
unusual conditions and factors that were a marked and characteristic
part of the earlier life of the colony. These factors were the climate,
the unusual geological formation and structure of the island, and to a
lesser degree the economic and social conditions under which the island
had its early development.
The climate is a mild and humid one, with abundant rainfall, with a
fairly even temperature throughout the year, varying not more than
35 degrees or so, subject, however, to high winds and occasional
hurricanes. With a fertile though rather scanty soil, agriculture
has been carried on with varying degrees of success since the first
settling of the island, though it appears the island was never wholly
self-supporting in this respect. Fishing, whaling and shipbuilding were
other pursuits carried on until recent times.
The local indigenous cedar, that still predominates and originally
covered the island, afforded a lumber that could be used for
housebuilding purposes, as well as giving an excellent wood for
shipbuilding and for furniture. Many interesting pieces of furniture,
in native cedar, made by island cabinetmakers, still exist.
The islands are formed of soft stone and sand with a thin surface of
soil, the whole resting on a volcanic substructure of extreme age.
The so-called "coral" of which the islands are formed is in reality
a true Æolian limestone, formed of wind-drifted shell sand with a
small percentage of coral material. This stone occurs throughout the
islands, varying in compactness and suitability for building purposes,
but the hardest of it is easily quarried, cut into blocks for walls
and slabs for roofing tiles, by handsaws, and may be trimmed with
hatchet and adze. It is too soft and brittle to lend itself readily
to fine ornament. For this reason Bermuda's houses show few purely
ornamental motives in stone. In some of them there are semicircular
arched projections over windows, called "eyebrow" windows, and a few
crude pediment forms used as decorations. Finials on gable ends are
not uncommon, but in any case all forms of carving are reduced to
the lowest terms of simplicity. Mouldings on the exterior or moulded
cornices on buildings seem to have come only with the advent of
Portland cement. Some of the gateposts have coarse mouldings cut in
stone.
Though the stone, when exposed to air, hardens somewhat, it remains too
soft and porous to stand well without protection. When burned it gives
an excellent lime, which is used with sand as a mortar in which to set
the stone, and as a stucco inside and out to protect from moisture and
disintegration, and finally as a whitewash for finish and cleanliness.
Besides the influence on building forms that this stone had, as
a universally available and easily worked material, its presence
throughout the island had another effect. In spite of abundant
rainfall, the stone structure of the island is so porous that there is
no natural accumulation of fresh water resulting in an entire absence
of springs and streams, so that the inhabitants have been at all times
dependent on catching and storing rain water. Thus each roof serves
not only its usual protective purpose, but must also serve to catch
fresh water. The result is a feature, a marked Bermudian characteristic
of roofs immaculate with whitewash and a system of gutters leading to
that necessary adjunct of every Bermuda dwelling, "the tank."
The form of roofs employed varies considerably. Roofs with gable end
and hipped roofs are both used, sometimes in the same building. There
seems to be no generally adopted angle of pitch. One finds roofs almost
flat and in different degrees of steepness to the sixty degree pitch
of some of the outhouses and butteries. The roof surfaces are never
interrupted by dormer windows.
The roof spans are in no cases large, rarely exceeding eighteen feet,
probably governed by the limited sizes of the cedar lumber available
for floor beams, but in any case apparently quite sufficient for the
needs of the inhabitants. This smallness of span forced a smallness
of division in plan, and contributed to the general small scale, a
characteristic of island architecture referred to elsewhere.
The roof construction consisted of rather light sawn or hewn rafters,
either butted at the summit or framed into a ridgepole, and securely
fastened to a heavy plate placed on the inside line of the masonry
wall. These rafters were tied over interior walls or partitions by long
ties at the plate level, but elsewhere by ties placed too high up for
structurally efficient service, with consequent thrust at the ends and
irregular sagging of rafters. This was done for the purpose of allowing
the ceilings of the rooms enclosed to run well up into what otherwise
would have been dead roofspace, giving the rooms a surprising height
and airiness in spite of low eaves. This form of ceiling, finished
either in plaster or wood, gives rise to the not ungraceful, so-called
"tray" ceilings, from a fancied resemblance to a serving tray. These, I
think, are peculiar to old Bermuda, and Bermudians point them out with
pride to visitors.
In the carpentry of many of the roofs, construction details of the
shipwright rather than the carpenter prevail. Bermudians of the
older days were well known for the excellence of their sloops and
smaller sailing vessels, and one sees constantly the introduction of
shipbuilding ideas in their houses—cedar knees locking at the angles,
the timbers serving as roof plates, and tie-beams with the gentle curve
or camber of a deck beam, are not infrequent.
The surface of the roof is constructed of sawn slabs or tiles of
Bermuda stone about one and a half inches thick, by some ten inches
to a foot in width with a length slightly greater, known locally
as "slates." These are fastened to strips of cedar set transversely
to the rafters at proper intervals. An occasional slate is slightly
raised, to secure necessary ventilation of enclosed roof space. These
roof tiles usually overlap in the fashion of slates or shingles in
horizontally parallel rows, but sometimes are laid flat with butting
edges. The eaves have but a small projection of six to ten inches, and
are supported on stubby square sectioned jack-rafters projecting from
above the plate line to the edge of the tiling above. With the plate
on the inside of the wall, this arrangement gives a shadow at the eave
line that is decorative in its varying intensity, without the use of
any mouldings whatever. In all likelihood, however, this type of eave,
so different from the greatly projecting eaves of other sunny climates,
was adopted to prevent the occasional hurricanes from unroofing the
houses.[1]
The whole roof surface is heavily coated with semi-liquid cement, which
when it hardens serves to make the roof water-tight and softens the
edges and angles to the eye. This, when freshly whitewashed, gives to
the roofs the resemblance to "icing on a cake" spoken of by Mark Twain.
From the engineering point of view, the construction of the roofs may
not be mechanically scientific, but whatever the deficiencies, the
lack of precision and exactness has given to them that delightful
quality of accidental irregularity and unevenness that is the despair
of architects for new work, and can hardly be obtained by even obvious
affectation.
One of the characteristic and frequent adjuncts to Bermuda dwellings
are the butteries. These are sometimes joined to the main building, but
are often detached elements, and are, I believe, in the form that they
appear on the islands, peculiar to Bermuda though Sicily is said to
have somewhat similar out buildings. They are small two-story buildings
with thick walls and small openings, with high pyramidal roofs, built
by a series of inwardly encorbled courses of heavy masonry and present
a decidedly monumental appearance. They were built before the days of
ice, as a place to keep perishable food cool. Elevated and pierced with
small shuttered openings to catch the breezes, they had thick walls and
roofs as defense against the sun's rays.
The chimneys area prominent feature, particularly in the smaller
houses. Open fireplaces with hearths waist high were used for cooking,
and are still in use for this purpose in some places, although oil
stoves are generally replacing them.
The kitchen fireplace was accompanied by a built-in stone oven with
its own flue, sometimes beside the kitchen fireplace, with independent
chimney, and sometimes opening into it. The sides of these fireplaces
sloped gently to a flue, so large and deep, that it carried off heat
as well as the acrid smoke of burning cedar. Where the slave quarters
were in the basement or cellar, there was a separate cooking fireplace
for their use, so that even many of the small houses had two chimneys.
In the larger houses of the more well-to-do, where slaves were owned
in greater numbers, they were lodged in a separate building, and the
owner's house usually had fireplaces to warm and dry the house during
the colder weeks of winter. These fireplaces were of large size, with
a raised hearth and no outer hearth. With the soft stone, the walls
of the chimneys were necessarily thick, which gives them a prominence
at first somewhat surprising for a sub-tropical climate. Chimneys
projecting from the roof seemingly became a necessity to satisfy
appearances, even when no real chimney existed. In many of the smallest
houses, little false chimneys placed at the point of the hip are used
as ornament to the roof.
Buttresses occur not infrequently and add to the character of the
houses as well as having the structural function of overcoming the
outward thrust of the rafters, that might otherwise be too great for
the stability of the walls. These buttresses are sometimes reduced to
salient pilasters on the thinner walls of the second story or pilasters
of decided projection the full height of the house.
The ground plan of the smaller house presents little of great interest;
in most cases a simple succession of intercommunicating rectangular
rooms on the living floor; the kitchen dining room at one end
distinguished by a large open cooking fireplace and built-in oven.
A greater number of rooms was obtained by adding projecting wings to
the original plan. This was usually done in a rather haphazard fashion,
but frequently with a distinct feeling of symmetry and order. The
following diagrams show a number of such results that recur time and
again with variations of gable and hip. The irregular additions were
of great variety, sometimes producing by chance masses that composed
in picturesque fashion. At other times the final outcome of successive
additions was less fortunate with its complication of roofs and
gutters. But the usual luxuriance of surrounding planting, the patina
of age, and the very naïveté of arrangement makes even these acceptable.
Where the house was located on sloping ground, which was a frequent and
deliberate choice of site as protection from the force of hurricanes
the living floor was approximately at the higher level of the slope,
necessitating a high basement wall on the lower side. This basement
space, partially cut out from the natural rock, damp and almost totally
dark, and with no direct connection to the floor above, was originally
used for slave quarters with its own cooking fireplace, or for storage
purposes. In the present day this lower part is little used. In some
cases it makes shift for a stable, and more rarely, where conditions
have permitted, is made into habitable rooms and connected by a
stairway with the main floor.
Plate 3. Diagrams of Typical Houses.
This form of building on a slope gives rise to another feature of
many of the older houses, namely, the long flight of exterior steps,
connecting the living floor with the lower ground level. These have
brick risers and treads and substantial stone parapets with the landing
at the top sometimes expanded to form a small terrace, or more rarely
a covered veranda. These steps are as a rule much wider at the bottom
than the top, with consequent diverging railing or parapet wall. On
the landing itself, the walls have frequently an outward slant, giving
a peculiar, tub-like effect. This stairway, or "stoop," as it would
be called in some parts of America, with the outstretching sidewalls
is known in Bermuda as "Welcoming Arms," significant of Bermudian
hospitality.
Another frequent feature was the projecting vestibule or waiting room
in many of the houses of early date. This was a small room, square or
half octagon in plan, that stood open to the visitor at all times, for
shelter from sun and rain. The door from this to the rest of the house
was the occupant's protection from intrusion. This room is said to have
been furnished with chairs and table, and a hand bell, with which the
caller announced his presence.
The infrequency of verandas or other roofed-over outdoor space is
noticeable to the visitor from America, to whom this seems a very
modest luxury, if not a necessity for ordinary comfort. In many cases
where verandas now exist, they are additions to the house as first
built. The original occupant and builder of these houses found indoors
cooler and more comfortable in hot weather than any veranda, as
screening against insects was then unknown. If he preferred outdoors,
the shade of a tree or the north side of the house was sufficient. The
sunshine was welcome in the winter to warm and dry the house, and in
summer the prevailing wind was from the south and equally desirable.
Many of the houses of the nineteenth century have verandas screened
by shutters or lattice, some two-story ones. These are more common
perhaps in the towns, where the houses were more crowded and the shade
trees fewer. They seem more tropical or West Indian in character than
the earlier houses, peculiarly Bermudian, and have a quite different
interest. A few are shown in the photographs.
Bermuda from its earliest history as a proprietary settlement by the
Virginia Company, throughout its development to its present condition
as a self-governing Colony, has been uninterruptedly English. What
tradition there is that has been an influence in its buildings is
English. Some of the waved and stepped gable ends suggest at first
sight a contact with Spanish America, but similar forms of gables in
the domestic architecture of England, adapted to Bermudian materials,
might well have produced the same result.
Though known to exist by the Spaniards before the English settled
there, it was never occupied by them, and there seems no warrant for
assuming there was Spanish influence at any time in the Islands.
Slave labor, cheap and plentiful, but unskilled, seems also to have
been a contributory influence in the older houses, both in their
planning and building and still more markedly in road building. Deep
cuts through rock, and extensive building of substantial walls, that in
the present day would be out of proportion in cost for the advantage
gained, are frequent. Even the more modest smaller houses, with their
dependent outhouses, butteries and garden walls, all in massive
masonry, create an appearance of permanence and solidity, that is
striking to one accustomed to the flimsier frame construction so common
in modern America.
Through the general mechanical progress of the world and particularly
through modern means of transportation and consequent contact with
the outside world, Bermuda has no longer its isolation, and has lost
perhaps much that was picturesque and interesting in the life that
formerly existed there, and which naturally and without conscious
effort had its expression and reflection in the architecture of its
dwellings.
Other activities have replaced the largely seafaring life that many
of the old Bermudians followed and the agriculture though important
has changed its character. Small farms have replaced the larger
plantations, and Bermuda exports to northern markets, vegetables,
potatoes and onions chiefly, and imports for its own use fruit and
other foods formerly produced on the Island.
A new and important source of revenue, the tourist trade, has sprung
up, has made great strides in the last years and is still increasing.
Great and ugly hotels have been built to accommodate the thousands of
visitors and more hotels are in prospect. The climate and the sea are
inherent assets and attractions of Bermuda, which may not be changed,
but there are other things perhaps less obvious that help to draw
people there, which Bermuda alone possesses. Among these and not the
least, is Bermuda's own architecture; the little white houses that fit
so well in the landscape, and which appeal to the imagination with
suggestions of a life apart from the rest of the world, one in which
peace and ease replace the confusion and strenuousness of the more
energetic North.
The number of regular winter residents is increasing, both those who
have acquired property and those who annually rent houses. Some of
these have adapted and altered older houses to modern needs, and in
the changes made have kept to the spirit of Bermuda with no loss of
material comfort. In other houses one sees changes made with little
thought or care for appearances; iron tanks perched on roofs in
conspicuous places, very much exposed plumbing, and corrugated iron
roofs, are hard to ignore, Some of the newer houses are commonplace and
vulgar, and impair the island's richness in beauty in direct proportion
to their frequency; still others, large, pretentious, exotic in style,
and out of keeping with all that makes for charm in Bermuda, are a
positive detriment not only to their Vicinity but to Bermuda as a
whole.
Bermuda's present and future needs in building can be satisfied, by
thoughtful planning, in constructions adapted in form and spirit from
the architecture that has evolved in the Islands. May those who control
future building there either for personal use or in business ventures
be persuaded that this is true—and that this will make not only for
the enjoyment of future visitors but in the long run for the material
prosperity of the Island and its inhabitants.
PLAN OF GROUND FLOOR
A—Dining Room, originally the Kitchen
B—Stairhall
C—Side Entrance, possibly originally a buttery or
some other service
D—Living Room, with "Powdering Rooms," alcoves
each side of fireplace
E—Present Library
F—Entrance Vestibule
G and H—Modern Kitchen and Pantry
Inwood is a very well-preserved example of one of the earlier two-story
dwellings in Bermuda. It has always been the house of the owner of a
plantation large for Bermuda. It represents a certain degree of wealth
and luxury. Its second story has now four good-sized bedrooms and two
bathrooms. Three of the bedrooms have fireplaces with Dutch or English
picture tiles and cedar mantles. This house was built about 1650 and
was occupied by one of the early Governors when Bermuda was still a
proprietary colony. Here he entertained and transacted business. It
has a walled garden for fruits and flowers and another large piece now
used as a vegetable garden surrounded by a high stonewall, said to have
been built to prevent the depredations of wild hogs. The slave quarters
are a separate building back of the house; other individual cottages
were built for favorite slaves. Many interesting stories are told in
connection with this place.
Plate 4. "Inwood," Paget. Plan of Ground
Floor.
Plate 5. "Inwood," Paget.
Plate 6. "Inwood," Paget. Garden Gate.
Plate 7. "Inwood," Paget. Dining Room.
Plate 8. "Inwood," Paget. Vestibule.
Plate 9. "Inwood," Paget. Drawing-room.
