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Although it's called New England, the housing styles are not similar to England at all. The main difference being since England chopped down all of its primeval forest centuries ago, there are virtually no wood houses in England. The vernacular housing style was typically brick, and usually (even in smaller cities) attached brick houses - rowhouses basically, although in England they were called terraced houses.
The one thing New England has in common with England more so than Eastern Pennsylvania is the lack of grid system in the towns and cities, making the center of towns feel a bit more similar. The old mill architecture has some similarities, too.
Maybe, but the colonial era rowhomes have a distinctly American look. Some later more generic ones could probably pass as English better.
Eh. The examples I showed were Georgian, which was used on both sides of the Atlantic roughly concurrently. The federalist style immediately after the Georgian era wasn't much derived either.
It's true that some of the more common industrial-era vernaculars aren't too different however. In general Britain seemed to like symmetrical facades less than the U.S. did. You see many examples like these:
In the U.S. in almost all typical rowhouse designs (unless remuddled) you'd have a window above the doorway. I've seen ones with slightly offset windows from the first/second floor in Baltimore and Philly, but they're rare, and seldom to never have only one, off-center window on the second floor.
This is a neat little thread, I constantly ask myself this question in reverse so ima answer it backwards (even though this thread is old now).
In terms of Landscape I think whoever said Maryland might be on to something. Maryland with it's patchwork fields and gentle hills reminded me a lot of the South East of England.
I always thought the South Downs (Sussex, Hampshire) could probably sneak into Maryland, lie down and go unnoticed.
Here's (hopefully) a picture of the Weald of Sussex and another of rural Maryland:
I definitely agree with parts of maryland, virginia and horse and hound country like loudoun county, (middleburg, warrenton ,etc) has definitely an aristocratic and equestrian and english feel . Some english live there for riding.
The one thing New England has in common with England more so than Eastern Pennsylvania is the lack of grid system in the towns and cities, making the center of towns feel a bit more similar. The old mill architecture has some similarities, too.
That is true. Although I'd have to agree that the very prevalent "salt box" style of architecture in New England is unique to the region and not something you'd find in the UK.
Specifically, the prevalent use of brick and stone (especially the stone farmhouses you'll find scattered throughout the Pennsylvania countryside) really does lend to a strong Western European influence.
Overall, I think there are strong English influences throughout the Eastern US.
Location: Northern Ireland and temporarily England
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fjjy500
This is a neat little thread, I constantly ask myself this question in reverse so ima answer it backwards (even though this thread is old now).
In terms of Landscape I think whoever said Maryland might be on to something. Maryland with it's patchwork fields and gentle hills reminded me a lot of the South East of England.
I always thought the South Downs (Sussex, Hampshire) could probably sneak into Maryland, lie down and go unnoticed.
Here's (hopefully) a picture of the Weald of Sussex and another of rural Maryland:
The weather is the Pacific NW - damp marine air, lots of clouds, rarely gets too hot (a/c is rare in Seattle) or too cold (except I hate that damp cold! I need a Irish wool sweater all winter!). Also, we're super white, like Britain. But the terrain and housing definitely aren't like Britain. We used wood to build (most available resource) and stone won't hold up to our earthquakes. Also, the west coast is too new to have similar architecture. In that respect, we are more Scandinavian.
This is a neat little thread, I constantly ask myself this question in reverse so ima answer it backwards (even though this thread is old now).
In terms of Landscape I think whoever said Maryland might be on to something. Maryland with it's patchwork fields and gentle hills reminded me a lot of the South East of England.
I always thought the South Downs (Sussex, Hampshire) could probably sneak into Maryland, lie down and go unnoticed.
Here's (hopefully) a picture of the Weald of Sussex and another of rural Maryland:
I hope those pictures show up.
I'm English too so my vote counts for double.
These pictures show the problem when trying to compare parts of the United States or Canada to England. England is much more intensively farmed and much less forested then much of the Eastern United States or Canada. And the English farm fields are much more random and different sizes and shapes then the areas of the USA/Canada that are intensively farmed like the Midwest. And finally England is too green when compared to large parts of the West.
There are definitely parts of central KY that look like the UK countryside.
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That's crazy!!
