Dutch Roof. I've heard that term my whole life, and I thought it was a commonly known and strictly defined architectural element. To my surprise, when I began writing this article and looked up "Dutch Roof" I couldn't find it in our home dictionary. There were references to:

• Dutch courage (being encouraged by drink)
• Dutch door (a door split horizontally often used in a stable)
• Dutch gold (alloy of copper and zinc)
• Dutch oven (tin utensil for roasting meat)
• Dutch treat (an entertainment in which each person pays for himself)
• Dutch uncle (someone unsparing in candor and criticism)

But no "Dutch Roof", even though there are a lot of them in the Chautauqua County. Two classic turn of the century examples are the barns shown above and below.

Storage barn on Route 430 near Point Chautauqua

I even looked up "Dutch Roof" in two architectural dictionaries: A Dictionary of Architecture by John Fleming, Hugh Honour and Nikolaus Pevsner from Penguin Books 1966, and A Dictionary of Building by John Scott from Penguin Books 1964. Within those volumes are wonderfully obscure usages of words like

• breast: the wall under the sill of a window
• going: that part of the stair tread below and not overhung by the nosing above
• ropiness: a surface on which brush strokes have not flowed smooth has ropiness
• shoulder: the surface at the root of the tenon which abuts on the wood beside the mortise

However, neither book offered an explanation of Dutch Roof. What A Dictionary of Building did illustrate was that what I have always called a Dutch Roof was what the British call a Mansard Roof and the Americans call a Gambrel Roof.

Horse barn on Route 33 near Webber Road

The Internet has yielded more information. From my queries to Google I found 17,976 references to "Dutch Roof" in .21 seconds. Roof shapes are like apples and oranges. Not necessarily comparable or in the same category. Depending on if the source were American or British, historical or contemporary, the words Gable Roof, Hip Roof, Gambrel Roof, and Mansard Roof have different meanings.

Gabled Roof	Hipped Roof

British Gambrel Roof	American Gambrel Roof

Mansard Roof

From what I can tell the following is generally agreed on.

The "gable" in Gable Roof is really a reference to the triangular section of wall under the roof, and not part of the roof itself.

The "hip" in Hipped Roof" refers to the edge formed by the meeting of two roof surfaces of different angles.

The "gambel" was defined by the British as a roof that was both "gabled" and "hipped", whereas the Americans defined "gambrel" as a roof divided into two sections of unequal slope. Before 1800 the more common term for this was Dutch Roof. Both cultures agree that a "gambel" roof has more than one sloped section of roof.

The "mansard" roof has two inclined planes on all sides. It is named for the 17th century French architect Francois Mansart who first employed them. For Americans then the "mansard" roof can therefore be "hipped" and "gambreled" but not "gabled".

Dairy & hay barn on Route 33

It is also evident that there is a practical reason why the two sloped roof was a popular format for buildings used for storage. It maximized headroom on the floor space under the roof. The steeper lower part of the roof acts almost as a wall. In the example above the roof of the barn appears to be over three quarters of its external surface. In the context of what I read it seems that it is the steep slope of the roof near floor that applies the term "Dutch" to the building form.

I spent an afternoon driving around the south and central part of the county to photograph some Dutch Roofs. Incidentally, just about all the working Dutch Roof barns I found were painted red. The Dutch Roof buildings fell into three general categories: Barns, Homes and Tool Sheds. I saw many collapsed Gable Roof barns that came down due to roof failure.

Abandoned barn on Route 33 near Interstate 86

The Dutch Roof barns seemed a bit tougher. This may be because steeper sections of these roofs shed the greatest enemy of the barn in our climate--snow. Although the small upper part of the roof is shallow and may hold snow, the load is greatly reduced on a large portion of the roof.

Converted barn on Route 430

There seems to be a general loss of barns in the county due to the long downturn in dairy farming and other agriculture businesses. Some structures have survived through gentrification. The barn shown above is a charming example.

Home on Route 430 near Dewittville

Although there were practical reasons for the Dutch Roof on the farm, there were certainly advantages in residential structures as well. Many smaller homes use the Dutch Roof to make second floor bedrooms more spacious. In conjuncture with dormers the Dutch Roof allow a visually pleasant low eave line with fully usable second floor. It is my impression that there was an acceptance of the Dutch Roof as a style for residential construction in the 1930's. This may have been a result of cultural and stylistic changes during the Depression.

Recreational home near Hartfield

In any case, the Dutch Roof seems to have gained in popularity in recent years, and is used in our area not only in modest homes but in larger and more expensive ones. It does seem that the use of the Dutch Roof in these larger homes is often accompanied by a rustic aesthetic. This is epitomized in the Dutch Roof log cabin.

Home on Route 33 near Stowe

There are two features of the Dutch Roof style that I have not mentioned. First is the outward flare on the eave of some roofs. About half the Dutch Roof structures I found had the flare. The flare is steeper than the upper roof and shallower than the lower section and appears strictly decorative, although it might have protected the sides of the buildings from hanging ice. The second feature is a projection of the ridge beam that extended the roof in a triangle over what would be the hay door in a typical barn. These projections were called door hoods. The projected ridge beam would often have a pulley wheel hooked on it for raising heavy items to the second floor. The door hood also protected the pulley from the weather. Now these door hoods have become decorative accessories on residences that don't have pulley wheels or hay doors.

Tool shed on Route 33

Another use of the Dutch Roof is seen on the Tool Shed. Again, it appears that the popularity of this application is the result of headroom in a modest structure. There are manufactured Dutch Roof tool sheds made of sheet metal and plastic as well as more rustic hand made examples like the lovely shed above.

Perhaps the most unusual Dutch Roof structure I discovered in Chautauqua County was near Stedman Corners. The building is made largely of plywood and was of undetermined use. I don't think it is a dog house. Its lack of windows and its proportions suggest the storage of something inanimate and uncommonly tall and narrow... but what?