Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth Century

One of the first serious scholarly studies of American colonial architecture, this book recovers a forgotten chapter in the built environment of what would become the United States. Forman, an architect and historian, approaches the subject with both technical expertise and deep reverence for structures that time and neglect have nearly erased. The book begins where honest history must: with the sophisticated architectural traditions of Virginia's Indigenous peoples. Before English colonists arrived, Native nations built permanent towns with palisaded fortifications, council houses, and diverse dwelling forms. These building traditions, developed over centuries, would profoundly influence what came after. Forman traces how settlers, often lacking materials and carpentry skills, adapted Indigenous techniques, creating a hybrid architecture that was neither purely European nor Native, but something entirely new. The text examines timber-frame houses, early brick construction, and the evolution of domestic and civic buildings across the colonial century. Essential reading for scholars of American architectural history, colonial Chesapeake culture, and anyone interested in the physical traces of the past.