Historic roof pitches varied regionally, too, and with time. In
Virginia, in the late eighteenth century, roofs were still being
built quite steep. I remember my disorientation, moving from Virginia
to Delaware, where the eighteenth-century roofs were much
lower-pitched. The 1770 houses here had rooflines that in Virginia
would have been typical of 1820. Meanwhile, in New England, flatter
roofs prevailed in spite of the greater snow load.

But roofs went up and down with style, remember. An Italianate of the
middle nineteenth century has a very low, almost flat, roof, while a
big Richardsonian roof of the late century will be a slate-covered
toboggan slide. Try mounting a TV antenna on one!

Urban roofs tended to be flatter than rural roofs. Look out over the
great rowhouse cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore, and you will
see acres of relatively flat roofs on two-story brick houses.

Right now, the manufactured housing industry is trending toward
steeper roofs in a public-relations move.  Flatter roofs are
associated in the public mind with trailer homes, so the developers
of double-wide subdivisions are bragging about how steep their roofs
are.  And a modular home, as opposed to a mere double-wide, will have
a roof that is steeper yet.

So given the vast range of local variations, changes in style, and
just plain peculiarities, it's folly to put too much credence on roof
pitch.


At 10:27 AM -0400 5/16/03, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>In a message dated 5/16/2003 1:25:15 AM Mountain Daylight Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
>>Mike,
>>
>>Of course, there was a reason for steep roof angles. Between 1949 and 1989,
>>your area in the Great Basin experienced relatively light winters. Older
>>buildings had steeper roof gables, but by the 1970s some of the commercial
>>buildings were practically flat. About 1989 or 1990, there was one heck of a
>>blizzard (if you recall) and I recall dropping in to visit family and reading
>>about all those flat roofs collapsing under tons of snow or the idiot who
>>pulled a ton on top of him trying to pull it off with a garden rake.
>>
>>Ron
>>
>
>
>Well, unless you get up to higher elevations than here (at 4500 ft),
>there are so few years like 1983 when people bought snow rakes to
>get the weight off of their roof, that architecture here doesn't
>deviate much from what one finds in LA, Chicago or Atlanta.  Post
>World War II, Minimal Traditional houses were widespread as well as
>ranches and split level flat roofed residential units.  My point is
>long term - over the last 150 years - one can see a gradual trend
>from very steep roof lines (not always, but often, with these roofs
>having to do with stylistic concerns, tradition and construction
>constraints) in the Picturesque and Victorian Periods of the late
>1800s and early 1900s to a less steep pitch (and completely flat
>roofs as you mention) by the mid 20th Century.  This is a measurable
>trend which is valuable, in a general way, in identifying age and
>architectural style.
>
>Mike Polk
>Sagebrush Consultants
>Ogden, Utah


--
    Ned Heite  ([log in to unmask])
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*                              *
*           Winter             *
* The principal form of winter *
* precipitation in Delaware is *
* fog, although there are some *
* reports of mud falling from  *
* the sky.                     *
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