Starke, Lewis, House
a.k.a. Shonts House;Delaney House
2103 Old County Rd., Daphne, ALThe Lewis Starke House is significant under National Register Criterion C as one of the finest Gulf Coast/Greek Revival Cottages in Baldwin County. Its octagonal columns, classical dormers, and eared architrave door and window surrounds are rare high style elements in a county dominated by vernacular building traditions.
Despite these high style elements, the Starke House is well within the tradition of the Creole/Gulf Coast Cottage folk type. The Creole and Gulf Coast Cottages of Baldwin County are significant as distinctive regional forms of Alabama vernacular architecture. The Creole style is distinctive for its massed floor plan with no interior passageways, a French building preference, whereas the Gulf Coast Style is distinctive for its central hall and exterior chimneys, Eastern Seaboard influences.
The Creole Cottage derives from a long tradition stretching back to the 17th century houses in Normandy. French settlers in the West Indies and Canada added full length galleries and more steeply pitched gable roofs to the house form they had known in Europe.
These houses featured central chimneys, one on the front slope and one on the rear slope of the roof. The lack of interior passageways was one of the most distinctive features of the style; four interconnected square rooms with smaller "cabinets" at the rear, often containing a stairway to the half story. Benjamin Henry Latrobe commented on this plan in 1819 and noted that the French employed their space to better advantage by excluding interior hallways. These Creole Cottages were popular in Mobile and New Orleans from 1790 to 1850 and continued to be built all along the Gulf Coast well into the 20th century.
The Gulf Coast Cottage is distinguished by its central hall and five bay facade which became popular in Alabama during the 1830s. This plan came from the Eastern Seaboard and owed its genesis to the Georgian architectural traditions of England. This American, or more popularly, Greek Revival, floor plan nevertheless continued Creole
traditions of building a full length recessed porch under a sweeping gable roof. Chimneys were located along or near outer walls as no heating was desired in the hall. Gulf Coast Cottages were generally of frame construction and were raised two to three feet off of the ground on brick piers. These houses were popular from 1830 to 1870.
Bibliography
Francis Scott. Daphne. Privately printed. No date.
Deed books, various. Baldwin County Courthouse, Bay Minette, Al.
1850 Free and Slave Schedules. Census. Baldwin County, Al.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.