Tidewater Architecture

Tidewater architecture is a style of

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

found mostly in coastal areas of the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. These homes, with large wraparound

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

es (or galleries) and

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thu ...

s, were designed for wet, hot climates. Tidewater homes have extensive porches sheltered by a broad hipped roof. The main roof extends over the porches without interruption. A crawlspace foundation allows for air circulation and protects the home from low-level flooding (this was important since tropical cyclones often flooded low-lying areas on middle and south Atlantic coasts). The large porches of Tidewater homes were also a reflection of the low-lying warm subtropical climate of the lower Atlantic coast – providing a breezy spot to enjoy the cooler air of the evening. Tidewater style homes can be found along the Atlantic coastal plain from southeast Connecticut south to northern eastern Florida. However, they are the most common form of southern Delaware through south Georgia. American architectural styles {{arch-style-stub It provided more opportunities with a porch and revolutionized houses at that time.