We're doing a survey of a rather large property that has multiple houses, dating presumably from the middle of the 19th century to the first quarter of the 20th. The early dates are tentative as the structures are log cabins. Three of these with seemingly widely disparate dates, have no front windows. The door is typically placed centrally. Two of these are two story buildings that also have no windows on the upper front. Two of them have centrally placed side windows or doors depending. The log cabin has no windows, period (most of the back wall was chainsawed out earlier so we can't tell if there were any kind of piercings in that wall).

The log cabin is whitewashed on the interior and then painted. The other two are balloon built and are entirely wooden planked on the interior (floors, walls and ceiling).

Has anyone else seen structures like that? This set is in Pittsylvania County, VA on the central Southside on the NC border. The former owners had the highest number of slaves of any family in the country and then did the sharecropper/tenant farmer routine after the Civil War.

Two of these buildings are in the back of beyond while the other is 100' off a major arterial connector then and now.

Proposals about African-American building forms with lighting schemes at a minimum have been put forth, but have these gained traction?

Any help gratefully received.

Thanks in advance,

Lyle Browning