Viewpoint: The Balloon Frame, George Snow, Augustine Taylor, and All That.

A View from
Abroad
Author(s): IAIN BRUCE
Source: Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, Vol. 16, No. 1
(SPRING 2009), pp. 1-8
Published by: University of Minnesota Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27804893 .
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IAIN BRUCE
Viewpoint: The Balloon Frame, George
Snow, Augustine Taylor, and All That
A ViewfromAbroad
It is common currency among architectural his
torians that Scotland's high style and vernacu
lar building is characterised by stone-and-lime
technology with timber verymuch confined to
themargins. As a result of the fieldwork and the
unexpected evidence of balloon frame construc
tion in Scotland, this perception now requires
r??valuation. The strong similarities between
posthole, braced, stud, and post-and-rail frames
that the study revealed provided sufficientmate
rial to offer this contribution to the debate on the
origins of the balloon frame.
The study is based on a taxonomic methodol
ogy using a comparative analysis inwhich frame
typologies and their characteristics are examined
with a selection of case studies. Prompted by a
professional inquisitiveness about the concen
tration of timber buildings in both Deeside and
Speyside, two of Highland Scotland's significant
river valleys, initial assumptions were based on
the association of timber construction and the
history of timber extraction in the respective river
systems. Predominately but not exclusively of
lateVictorian vintage, the buildings in the survey
range from the esoteric Swiss Cottage of 1837 at
Fochabers on Speyside to a former aircraft han
gar near Aberdeen built one hundred years later.
Apart from the unexpected extent of tim
ber-framed buildings, diversity is a feature of
the fieldwork: diversity of frame type and size,
and of both history and geography. There are
railway buildings, sports buildings, commer
cial buildings, as well as dwellings, a range
that encompasses single-chamber bothies?
with remarkable similarities to slave quarters
in Virginia?family houses, and the imposing
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Edwardian Forest Lodge in the depths of the
Abernethy forest. Although the cladding of these
buildings varies from timber board and batten
to corrugated iron and roughcast cement render,
the common denominator is that they are all
framed buildings inwhich a timber structure is
themeans of transmitting both dead and super
imposed loads to the foundations.
As there isno body of literature on the subject,
the study attempted to bring into focus the dispa
rate elements by comparing and contrasting the
varying approaches to building timber frames on
both sides of theAtlantic. Figure i,which was con
structed from the variety of sources,1 places these
differing forms of construction on the same page
for the first time. In addition, the study seeks to
demonstrate Sigfried Gideon's idea that "History
is not simply the repository of unchanging facts,
but a process, a pattern of living and changing
attitudes and interpretations."2 In so doing, the
study simultaneously contradicts Gideon's asser
tion that George Snow was the inventor of the
balloon frame.
As American economic development spread
west in the early nineteenth century, successive
waves of emigrants from the northeast of Scot
land were in the vanguard and consequently had
access to the continuing development and refine
ment of American frame techniques, culminat
ing in Chicago in 1834. Individuals of particular
note are George "Chicago" Smith and Alexander
White. With this background of two-way connec
tions between the communities in Scotland's
northeast and the development of American
frame technology, the studywas able to demon
strate that the apparent lack of a timber frame
 post hole construction greator Englishframe brazedframe baloon frame

studframe cruckframe post and railframe

Figure i. Comparative tradition in Scotland was not founded on the conduit for the knowledge for timber frame
illustration of frame lack of knowledge. techniques being developed contemporaneously
types in Scotland and Smith first set foot in Chicago in 1834, in America, however no evidence was found to
America. This composite

compares the returning home to rural Aberdeenshire substantiate this.

drawing
of American three years later,having made his firstfor Alexander White was born in Elgin, Moray
development
frame systems from the tune as a land speculator and lumber mer shire, and reached Chicago in 1837, starting his
posthole and great frame chant.3Unable to settle, he returned in 1839 career as a painter ofwagons before making his
methods of the original to found the Illinois Investment Company, fortune as a property developer, which was a pre
settlers through to the
which was a prelude to his much more suc lude to becoming one of the greatest collectors
balloon frame. In the
lower section, the frame
cessful Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insur of art in nineteenth-century America. He, like
in Scotland ance Company. According to the American Smith, would undoubtedly have been knowledge
systems used
are illustrated
beginning Dictionary ofBiography, "During the trouble able of balloon frame technology through the
with the stud frame, with some days of wildcat money, the credit of early development of his property interests and
its Saxon antecedents
as used in urban centres
George Smith & Company was as good as in particular his retail and wholesale premises in
the Government's and better than that of the frenetic development of early Chicago.5
and in contrast to the
archaic form of the cruck most States.'"4 A question that arose early for the Scot
frame used in rural areas. He was a cousin to Sir Alexander Ander tish study was, if the balloon frame was indeed
The post-and-rail frame, son, pre-eminent Victorian
Aberdeen's invented in Chicago, did these individuals con
with itspossible palisade as tribute to its introduction in their native north
entrepreneur promoter of the North of
connections, completes
Scotland Bank and the Great North of Scot east Scotland?
the collection. Based on
an illustration compiled
land Railway Company among other ven In the debate on Sigfried Gideon's assertion
tures. The close association between these that "the balloon frame was invented in Chicago
by author as part of a
studyfora
fieldwork two cousins in the Aberdeen North Ameri in 1834 by George Snow in his construction of
PhD thesis submitted can Investment Company and the North of St Mary's Church,"6 it is difficult to accept that
to the Robert Gordon
Scotland North America Investment Com a single-storey church can be credited as the
University.
pany was initially considered to have been threshold between themedieval heritage of tim

2
I BUILDINGS &l LANDSCAPES 16, no. 1, SPRING 2009

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ber construction and itsmodern lineage. For his
evidence Gideon relied on the report by John
Mills van Odsel, who in 1883 wrote, "Mr. Snow
was the inventor of the balloon frame method of
constructing wooden buildings which in Chicago
completely superseded the old style of framing
with posts, girts, beams, and braces."7 Subse
quent work by Paul E. Sprague and Walker Field
debated whether itwas Snow orAugustine Taylor
and whether itwas the Saint Mary's Church or a
warehouse near Lakeshore. Inmore recent work,
Cavanagh uses an etymological basis to examine
the origins of the system, claiming that "if bal
loon was a popular term that already identified a
distinct way of building, then perhaps itwas an
use in the French
Anglicised version of a term in
settlements along theMississippi River" and pro
ceeds to provide several possibilities.8
The fieldwork evidence from the Scottish
study amply demonstrates that such is the
commonality of elements described as studs,
sill plates, and head plates in posthole, braced
frame, and balloon frame construction as to
make the distinction between the stud and bal
loon frames somewhat artificial. The case is
well illustrated by the esoteric Swiss cottage
(Figure 2). Sited not far from the banks of the
River Spey and built in 1837 in the Swiss style
prevalent in the pattern books of the time, this
was a two-storey family home. The 1841 census
records the occupant as JeanAnsermet, a Swiss
national whose occupation was park keeper and
servant to theMarquisof Huntly.
The frame consists of 5" x 2" studs continu
ous over two storeys at 18" centres and spans
17'6" from ground to eaves. This elegant struc
ture is clad in checked weatherboarding, and
close inspection at the firstfloor reveals no led
ger plate, with the joists nailed to the cheeks of
the studs. This compares with the railway shed
at Blacksboat (Figure 3) further upstream on the
River Spey and deep in the heart ofmalt whisky
country. More properly described as a braced
frame, the studs are ?3// x 3" at 2'9" centres and
spanning i4'6" to the eaves.
In contrast, the classic balloon frame was
found in a private house in Braemar, twelve
miles from Balmoral castle in rural Aberdeen
shire. The house, Downfield Cottage (Figure 4),
was built by the great-grandfather of the present

2. Swiss Cottage
Figure
near Fochabers.

Photograph by author.

:A

* -

.
..s ss -~~ - s- .A ~ ~~~.r. -.-a.s..,.-I ,s

:* -

,AA ** ..

R,

....... ....

.eO

IAIN BRUCE, THE BALLOON FRAME, GEORGE SNOW, AUGUSTINE TAYLOR, AND ALL THAT 3
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*427
I-My
Figure 3. Former goods owners some fifteen years prior to Queen Victo
shed at Blacksboat upper ria's love affairwith Deeside. In search of work
Speyside.Photographby
author.
he had walked through the hills from Dundee to
take up employment as a joiner in the village in
the early 1830s. The history of the house iswell
documented and contemporaneous photographs
show the various stages in itsdevelopment. Studs,
6" x 2" in this example, are at 18" centres and
fixed to the sill plate laid directly on the ground,
there are 6" x 6" corner posts. The 4" x 2" led
ger plate fully checked to the studs supports the
first-floorjoists. On the north elevation the origi
nal tongued and grooved boarding had a layer of
lathing between the inside face of the board and
the outside face of the stud, compared with the
4 I BUILDINGS ?f LANDSCAPES 16, no. 1, SPRING 2009
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conventional lapped weatherboarding on all the
other elevations. The substantial central chimney
is particularly unusual in the Braemar collection
of timber houses, where gable flues predominate.
Such are the similarities to the style of the Cape
Cod cottage that it suggests that the design was
imported to the area despite obvious limitations
of communications of the period.
The former Elgin station signal box, built circa
x
1890, is a two-storey rectangular 31' io' 9" plan
with projecting entrance porch and toilet to the
west at first-floor level. It is a standard design,
large Great North Railway signal box with typical
rectangular, slated gable roof. The balloon frame
consists of 6" x 3" studs at 3' centres on a 6" X4W'
bottom plate with 73/8Mx 772" corner posts and
674" x 272" ledger board along the long eleva
tions. Floor joists of 6 72" x 2 72" at variable 1872"
centres span between the frame and the interme
diate longitudinal 1074" x 774" summer beam,
" "
which in turn is attached to 9 x 3 end beams fixed
to the corner posts. This substantial structure is
clearly secondary to the envelope and appears to
be in support of the signaling apparatus.
If the description "balloon" is taken as a term
of disparagement or as designating something
ephemeral in nature, then the post-and-rail
frame with considerably more space between the
principal elements could be described as more
"balloon" than the balloon frame.
This is a frame type not recorded in nine
teenth-century construction textbooks. Despite
its prevalence in different building types and
throughout the survey area, there appears to
be no reference to this form of construction in
either the American literature or in British con
structionmanuals dating from Peter Nicholson's
The Carpenter's New Guide, published in 1792, to
the twentieth century.
Figure 5 illustrates the Fishermens' Store,
built in the 1880s to serve the expanding fishing
fleet atwhat was then the recently opened Cluny
harbor in Buckie. It is one of three interlinked
2
gabled buildings. The 7" x 72" posts but at 6'6"
centres and make for a significantly different
frame from that of the stud. The horizontal rails
spanning the posts in the style of purlins are gen
erally at equal intervals between the sill plate and
eaves. This creates a distinctly horizontal rect
 Figure 4. Dowanfield
Cottage Braemar.

Photograph by author.

*m- .;.i

a. -M
"QP.

*M.

Amp-.
. . Yt- - . -

.. --. --4n

-c -
-..*.
--.-.....-".-.

angular form in contrast to the verticality of the

stud frame. In the case of the unlined industrial Figure 5. Illustration of
a post-and-rail frame.
sheds, which represent the definitive examples
of this type of frame, it appears that an irregular Drawing by Stuart J.
Anderson.
number of bays is a distinguishing feature. Post
sizes vary from 6" x 5" at 9' centers, 6" x 6" at
io'io" centres, to themore generally 7" x 2 72" at
6'6" centres (see Figure 6).
The similarity tomedieval defensive palisade
construction (Figure 7) is striking,with the earth
fast posts and the horizontal rails providing sup
port for the pales nailed vertically to them.
Despite the lack of a written record, this frame
type was used by at least three generations of
joiners and wrights in northeast Scotland in a
variety of buildings from 1843 t0 r937- Clad in
both board and batten and corrugated iron sheet
ing, the survey evidence is of amore diverse geo
graphical and typological distribution than the presenting the logical means of fixing verti
other frame types. cal boarding, it is similarly inconceivable tha t
Carson, Barka, et al., in their study "Imper this frame was not known to Andrew Jacksor
?
manent Architecture in the Southern American Downing in his deliberations on the "stick built1
Colonies," noted, "To be told that the seven aesthetic and who considered board-and-battei 1
teenth-century civilisation of England's largest siding as symbolic or expressive of the timbe: r
and most populous American dominion, the frame that it covered.10
Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland, As the literature deals in discrete element!
has vanished almost without trace above ground, such as the great or English frame or the bal
challenges credulity."9With its horizontal rails, loon frame, the value of the Scottish field stud 1

IAIN BRUCE, THE BALLOON FRAME, GEORGE SNOW, AUGUSTINE TAYLOR, AND ALL THAT 5
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 GoodsShed Blacksboal -
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"r x 6" poxt in B structural bays

r x " posts o
at1'1"entes xTS ,4 ad"eavs
I" x 2W rIsr acetrss 4 d 4'
vartcal

Figure 6. Comparative
illustration of frame
types found in field study.
Illustration by author for
a PhD thesis submitted
to the Robert Gordon
can only be appreciated within the context of the would fill such excavations to the surface;drainage
generality of timber frame buildings. By bringing was out of thequestion owing to the low and level
together the detailed knowledge available on the surface of the ground and owing to thewatertight
American side of theAtlantic with themuch more stratum of the blue clay, alreadymentioned. The
fragmented information on timber construction only
recourse was to wait until the ground became

University.
in Scotland, the study postulates that, far from
being invented, the balloon frame emerged
merely in the continuum of the development and
refinement of construction techniques.
In greater consideration of Gideon's
dry and firmby the slow process of evaporation. In
consequence of these difficulties,buildings were
sunk into the ground and restingon thehard clay,
which under the circumstances furnished thebest
source foundations to be had."

material, subsurface drainage conditions were

particularly difficult in embryonic Chicago. A. T. As a consequence, "many of the earlier framed
Andreas describes the soil as buildings of Chicago were built on posts"12 in the
manner of block construction.
a black loam soil, varying in depth from 1-2 ft.; Such clear evidence of responsive modifica
underneath was a bed of quick sand 3-4 ft. resting tion to meet particular foundation conditions
might suggest that the ledger plate of the bal
on a stratum of blue was
clay which almost imper
vious to water. In wet seasons itwas almost impos loon frame was a simple modification to the stud
sible to dig trenches for foundations, as thewater frame tomeet particular load conditions.

6 I BUILDINGS &l LANDSCAPES 16, no. 1, SPRING 2009

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 Perhaps however William Hoskins, Esq., a
contributor to the seventh edition of Encyclopedia
Britannica, published in Edinburgh in 1832,may
have the lastword with his description of histori
cal construction methods:
*X
44+
- x
built up the walls as far as he can conve
Having

niently from the ground and from a scaffold on

tressels perhaps, he plants a row of poles which
vary in height from thirty,to fortyand even fifty
feet,parallel to and at a distance of about four feet
six inches from thewalls and from twelve to four
teen feet apart. To these, which are called standards,
are attached bymeans of ropes other poles called

ledgers,horizontally and on the inside,with their

upper surfaceon a levelwith thehighest course of
thewall yet laid; and on the ledgers and wall, short of Massachusetts Bay, 1625-1725 (Cambridge, Mass.: Figure 7. Replica
transversepoles called putlogs or putlocks are laid Harvard University Press, 1979). Braced frame: palisade fence at
Fort George near
as joists to carrythe floorof scaffoldboards. These reproduced from Paul E. Buchanan, "The Eighteenth
Inverness Scotland.
are about six or seven feet apart Frame Houses of Tidewater in
putlocks placed century Virginia,"
Photographby
according to the length and strengthof the scaf Building EarlyAmerica: ContributionstowardstheHis author.
fold boards; and the ends which rest on thewalls tory of a Great Industry, ed. Charles E. Petersen, 54-73
are carefully laid on themiddle of a stretcher,so (Radnor, Penn.: The Carpenters' Company of the City

as to occupy the place of a header brickwhich is and County of Philadelphia, 1976). Balloon frame:
insertedwhen the scaffolds are struck after the reproduced fromRaymond P. Jonesand JohnE. Ball,
work is finished.13
Framing, Sheathing, and Insulation (Albany, N.Y.: Del

mar Publishing, 1970). Stud frame: reproduced from

Some one hundred and sixtyyears later, the Pen Peter Nicholson, Mechanical Exercises of theElements

ofBuilding(1995edition)defines
guinDictionary and PracticesofCarpentry, Masonry
Joinery,Bricklaying,
ledgeras "a horizontal framing member, either (London: J.Taylor, 1812). Cruck frame: Cruck-framed

a ribbon board or a tube in a scaffold to carry cottage,Torthowald, Dumfriesshire, by Geoffrey Stell

putlogs." A ribbon board in turn is defined as "a (Crown copyright,RCAHMS). Post-and-rail frame:
horizontal beam fixed to a wall or housed into fromunpublished drawing by StuartAnderson.
studs to carry the ends of floor joists." 2. SigfriedGideon, Space, Time, and Architecture
Is itnot possible, therefore, that, far from the (Cambridge, Mass.: n.p., 1941), 260.

balloon frame being "invented" in Chicago on a 3. There are a number of land parcels attributed to

specific site in a specific year by either George a George Smith entered or patented between 1828 and
Snow orAugustine Taylor, the balloon frame was 1836 on theplan attached to the Book ofOriginal Entry
merely an expedient adaptation of the scaffolding for Chicago.

techniques used for the construction ofmasonry 4. Entry for George Smith, February 10,1806-Oc

buildings of the period? tober 1899, Dictionary ofAmerican Biography,ed. by

Allen Johnson (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1955-1964).
NOTES 5. EntryforAlexander White, Dictionary ofAmeri
i. The sources are as follows. Posthole construction: can
Biography.

drawing by Cary Carsen and Ching Hoang, repro 6. SigfriedGideon, Space, Time, and Architecture,
duced fromWinterthurPortfolio16,nos. 2/3 (Summer/ 83.
Autumn 1981). Great or English frame: reproduced 7. Ibid.
from Abbot Lowell Cummings, The Frame House

IAIN BRUCE, THE BALLOON FRAME, GEORGE SNOW, AUGUSTINE TAYLOR, AND ALL THAT 7
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 8. See Paul E. Sprague, "The Origin of Balloon

Framing," Journal of the Society of Architectural Histo

rians 40, no. 4 (1981); Walker Field, "A Re-examination

into the Invention of the Balloon Frame," The Journal

of the Society ofArchitectural Historians 2, no. 4 (1942):

3-29; Ted Cavanagh, "Balloon Houses: The Original

Aspects of Wood Frame Construction Re-examined,"

1
Journal ofArchitectural Education 51, no. (September

1977)- 5-"5

9. Cary Carson, Norman F. Barka, William M.

Kelso, Gary Wheeler Stone, and Dell Upton, "Imper

manent Architecture in the Southern American

Colonies," Winterthur Portfolio 16, no. 25 (Summer/

Autumn 1981): 138.
10. See Vincent Jr., "Romantic Rationalism
Scully
and the Expression of Structure in Wood: Downing,
Wheeler, Gardner and the 'Stick Style,' 1841-1876,"
Art Bulletin35 (June1953): 121-42.
11. A. T. Andreas, n.p.,
History of Chicago (Chicago:

1884), 505.
12. Ibid.

13. William Hoskins, "Treatises on Architecture

and Building," The Encyclopedia Britannica, 7th ed.

(Edinburgh:Adam Black, 1832), 77.

8 BUILDINGS &i LANDSCAPES 16, no. 1 , SPRING 2009

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