Saying Cape Cod house means much more than just a home on Massachusetts’s coast. Though the term does certainly have a geographic connection, it speaks more to a distinct architectural style rather than the location of a property. “It embodies the idea embedded in everybody’s subconscious about what a summer home is, what summer vacation is,” Douglas C. Wright, a New York–based architect and founder of his namesake firm, tells AD. “A lot of that’s about a feeling and the ocean air, the sea breezes, the dunes, the sand, and the grass struggling to survive.”
Perhaps best described as the quintessential American summer house, the homes evoke daydreams of slower days and beachside New England retreats. To learn more about the look, AD spoke with Wright as well as Peter McDonald, an architect based in Cape Cod, about the unique house style.
What is a Cape Cod style house?
As Wright explains, Cape Cod houses are often imagined as the classic American beach house. Traditionally, they’re small, single- or one-and-a-half-story homes with steeply pitched, side-gabled roofs, central chimneys, dormer windows, and clad in shingles. “It’s got either shingle siding or white clabbered siding, a single story in the front, a central front door, and a big roof sometimes with dormers,” Wright says. Often built around simple, rectangular floor plans, their shape is nearly identical to the silhouette a child might come up with if prompted to draw a house.
Most easily identified based on the placement of doors and windows, traditional Cape Cod homes can often be categorized into one of three sub-styles: a half Cape, three-quarter Cape, or full Cape. Half Capes feature two windows on the side of the door, three-quarter Capes feature a door with two windows on one side and a single window on the other, and full Capes consist of a central front door flanked by two windows on each side. A fourth, though rare, categorization also existed: a quarter Cape, which included a single door and window.
“Cape Cod is a seasonal destination where the summer population increases by at least 5–10 times than that of the year-round population,” McDonald adds. Like many beach towns throughout the northern coast, plenty of the homes are only used 12 weeks out of the year—and even those that are used year-round get the most action in the summer months. “Seasonal homes like many of these are designed for outdoor and beach living. As such, people want houses connected to the outdoors, to porches and decks and to views,” McDonald explains, noting that you’ll often find these indoor-outdoor living spaces in this style of home design.
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Though the style gets its name from the region where it’s most popular, a home doesn’t need to be in Cape Cod to be considered within the architectural vernacular. Likewise, just because a house is in Cape Cod, that doesn’t necessarily mean it falls within the style. Generally, any home that makes use of the architectural elements outlined above could be called a Cape Cod house. Still, these homes are most often found throughout the New England coast including areas like Cape Cod; Martha’s Vineyard; Nantucket; Watch Hill, Rhode Island; or even the Hamptons in New York.
History of Cape Cod houses
Though Cape Cod cottages may, at times, come with the connotation of old money or coastal elite homeowners, they didn’t start like this. “The first settlers came from Plymouth and were just trying to survive,” McDonald explains. Back in the 17th century, when colonists first came to what would become the United States, the rocky terrain and cold winters didn’t make the New England coast an ideal place to live. “It was very cold in the winters, beautiful in the summers, [so] they had to make all their money in the summers and then survive through the winter,” Wright says. Most of the inhabitants were sailors, lobstermen, or fishermen, and their houses were designed to withstand the harsh temperament of the region. “The houses reflected that; it’s a very efficient type of house,” Wright adds.
“Houses were built around big center chimneys, rooms were small, and ceilings were low,” McDonald says. Of the most common traditional Cape homes—half Cape, three-quarter Cape, or full Cape—the layouts were all extremely similar. Small rooms for children were often found on an upper half-story (if more than one level existed) and living spaces as well as a primary bedroom were contained on the first floor. “Once the railroad came in [in the late 1840s] and went all the way to Provincetown, things opened up for tourism and people began spending summer here,” McDonald explains. “The big change in the homes happened when people stopped worrying about surviving winters.”
As the region became more accessible to tourists, Cape Cod houses evolved. Gone were the days of exclusively tiny houses as additional wings were added (or newer homes were simply built bigger), front porches and decks became more common, and dormers were appended to create more light and space. In the 1920s, America experienced a wave of Cape Cod revival homes, which channeled the spirit of the originals and were often created as starter homes for first-time home buyers. While less evocative of the coast or New England, these revival houses can be seen throughout much of the United States. “We see a lot of takes on a modern ‘shingle style’ house now,” McDonald explains. “You’ll see wood shingles, steep pitched roofs, porches, dormers, windows with grilles, open spaces, and informal layouts. There is less symmetry but more care about balance and proportion.”
Defining elements and characteristics of a Cape Cod house
In the most traditional sense, Cape Cod homes include the following elements:
- One or one-and-a-half stories
- Rectangular floor plan
- Shingle cladding
- Gabled roof
- Front façade with a door and windows and little ornamentation
- Central staircase
- Central chimney
- Small square footage
As the style evolved, Cape Cod homes have come to include the following features:
- Decks and covered porches
- Dormer windows
- Outdoor showers
- Larger square footage
- Outdoor showers
- More sophisticated floor plans
- Expanded windows
Frequently Asked Questions
Colonial homes are historically considered an offshoot of the original Cape Cod homes and are usually bigger. They feature similar rectangular floor plans, though they often include at least two stories. Aside from the square footage, colonial homes typically employ gambrel roofs—a main feature of Dutch colonials—while Cape Cod houses traditionally make use of gable roofs. Colonial houses may also include more ornamentation, like the use of columns, which is less common on traditional Cape Cod homes.
Though Cape Cod houses had humble beginnings, they’ve evolved into coveted, beloved structures. According to Wright, it’s the “cultural knowledge” of what the homes represent that keep them so popular. “The style is so warm and comfortable, and it just says summer,” Wright says. “It just screams summer.” Seen in movies and TV shows, the style is further embedded into pop culture as emblematic of warm weather and easy living.
According to McDonald, when in their native setting, there are little disadvantages to living in a Cape Cod house. “Homes here evolved with the climate and the need,” he explains. “These houses would be at home in nearly any seasonal resort type area in Southern New England.” However, the small footprint of this type of house—in its most traditional sense—can be disadvantageous for some. Traditional Cape Cod homes also tend to have low ceilings and less natural light from the relatively small windows; however, this might not be an issue with remodeled homes or new ones that channel the sprit of the Cape Cod style without focusing on the literal.
“I don’t think there are disadvantages to this style,” Wright says. Modern makeovers can usually help smooth out any issues for older homes while retaining their charm and significance. “We’ve all seen it: the bright white house with divided light windows and dark green shutters and an American flag on a flagpole,” he adds. “It’s summer; that’s an iconic image.”
