England and the Middle Colonies, and a good carpenter and builder could do all that was needed. There were scores of houses in New England similar to Samuel Seabury's rectory at Hempstead,

a story and a half high in front, with a roof of a single pitch sloping down to one story in the rear, low ceilings everywhere, four rooms with a hall on the first floor, a kitchen behind, and three or four rooms on the second story.

The brick houses were more elaborate and were sometimes built with massive end chimneys, between which was a steep-pitched roof with dormers and a walk from chimney to chimney many feet wide. Other houses, made of wood as well as brick, had hipped roofs with end chimneys or roofs converging to a square center and a railed lookout. All the nearly 150 colonial houses still standing in Connecticut conform to a common type, though they differ greatly in the details of their paneling, mantels, cupboards, staircases, closed or open beamed ceilings, fireplaces, and the like. Some had slave quarters in the basement, others under the rafters in what was called in one instance "the Black Hole." Many of even the better houses were unpainted inside and out; many had paper, hung or tacked (afterwards pasted) on

the walls; and in a few noteworthy cases in New England the chimney breasts were adorned with paintings. The floors were usually bare or covered with matting; rugs were used chiefly at the bedside, but carpets were rare.

Philadelphia, which was famous for the uniformity of its architecture, must have contained in 1760 many houses of the style of that built for Provost Smith of the College of Philadelphia. In addition to a garret this dwelling had three stories respectively eleven, ten, and nine feet high. The brick outside walls were fourteen inches thick and the partition walls, of the same material, nine inches. There were windows and window glass, heavy shutters, a plain cornice, cedar gutters and pipes. The woodwork, inside and out, was painted white, and all the rooms were plastered. No mention is made of white marble steps, but there may have been such, for no Philadelphia house was complete without them.

The Southern houses, both on the plantations and in the towns, varied so widely in their style of architecture that no single description will serve to characterize all. Such buildings as the Governor's palace at Williamsburg, Tryon's palace at New Bern, and the Government House at Annapolis

were handsome buildings provided with conveniences for entertainment, and that at New Bern contained rooms for the gathering of assembly and council. The most representative Southern plantation house was of brick with wings, the kitchens on one side and the carriage house on the other, sometimes attached directly to the central mansion and sometimes entirely separate or connected only by a corridor. In the Carolinas and Georgia, however, there were many rectangular houses without wings, built of wood or brick, with rooms available for summer use in the basement. The roof was often capped with a cupola and commanded a wide prospect.

The dwelling houses of Charleston were among the most distinctive and quaint of all colonial structures. Some of them were divided into "tenements" quite unlike the tenements and flats of the present day, for, in addition to its independent portion of the house, each family had its own yard and garden. Overseers' houses were as a rule small, about twenty feet by twelve, with brick chimneys and plastered rooms. A typical Savannah house had two stories, with a handsome balcony in front and a piazza the whole length of the building in the rear, with a bedroom at one end and a storehouse at

the other. The dining room was on the second floor, and everywhere, for convenience and comfort, were to be found closets and fireplaces. Among the gentry in a country where storms were frequent, electrical rods were in use, and in 1763 one Alexander Bell of Virginia advertised a machine for protecting houses from being struck by lightning, though what his contrivance was we do not know.

The town halls and courthouses generally followed English models, with public offices and assembly rooms on the upper floor and a market and shops below. The Southern courthouses were at first built of wood and later of brick, with shingled roofs, heavy planked floors, and occasionally a cupola or belfry. Those of the eighteenth century either included the prison and pillory or were connected with them. The inadequacy of jail accommodation was a cause of constant complaint. Not only did grand juries and newspapers point out the need of quarters so arranged that debtors, felons, and negroes should not be thrown together, but the occupants themselves protested against the nauseating smells and odors. In some of the prisons, it is true, a separate cage was provided for the negroes, and in North Carolina prison bounds, covering some six acres about

the building, were laid out for the use of the prisoners, an arrangement which was not abolished till the nineteenth century.

In all the cities of the North and South stores and shops were to be found, occupying the first floor, while the family lived in the rooms above. As a rule, a shop meant a workshop where articles were made, a store a storehouse where goods were kept. But in practice usage varied, as "shop" was in common use in New England for any place where things were sold, and "store" was the usual term in Philadelphia and the South. An apprentice writing home to England in 1755 and trying to explain the use of the terms said: "Stores here [in Virginia] are much like shops in London, only with this difference, the shops sell but one kind or species of wares and stores all kinds.” Some of these stores, particularly in Maryland and Virginia, were located away from the urban centers, in the interior near the courthouses at the crossroads, along the rivers at the tobacco inspection houses, or wherever else men congregated for business or public duty. They were often controlled by English or Scottish firms and managed by agents sent to America. They received their supplies from Great Britain and they sold, for credit, cash,

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