This activity about historic housing can be incorporated into any unit of study from the ancient world to colonial America.
Essential / Compelling Questions
How did daily home life of pre-industrial families differ from life today?
How did geography influence homes of pre-industrial families?
Create a pre-industrial home plan in the classroom
Before students arrive, measure and mark a space approximately 16 x 20 feet using masking tape to resemble a floor plan of a pre-industrial home. Divide the space into two rooms labeled hall and parlor. Later in the activity, students will explore this pre-industrial dwelling.
Analyzing how climate and lifestyles impact modern homes
After students arrive, ask students, in small groups, to list the names of the rooms and spaces inside and outside a dwelling of a 21st century family in their community. Do this prior to calling students’ attention to the area marked with masking tape. Ask students to list the activities that take typically take place in each room and the most common appliances and furniture. Ask students to consider how climate and location influence how homes are built and the family activities occurring inside the home.
Alternatively, to save time, the teacher can compile a list of rooms and spaces, assign a room to each group, and ask student to list the activities and objects in an assigned room. Lists of modern rooms and spaces might include kitchen, living or family room, dining room, bedroom, bathroom, basement, indoor or outdoor storage spaces such as garages or attics, porches, yards or gardens as well as specialized spaces such as home offices, craft or hobby rooms, play or game rooms, laundry rooms, or man caves.
A “visit” to a pre-industrial home
After students have considered the functions of modern dwellings and how location and climate influence housing styles, ask them to “step inside a two room pre-industrial house” marked on the floor and imagine the daily life of a household of six people, the average household size of free Americans between 1790 and 1840. Ask student groups to brainstorm what furniture might have been in the house, where it would have been located, and in what areas the daily activities such as eating, cooking, sleeping, working, or relaxing would have taken place. Ask them to consider how these rooms would have been heated or cooled in the winter and summer. Encourage students to consider what local materials would have been available for home building in the pre-industrial era.
Primary source analysis and research activities
At this point, the activity can be adapted in various ways to focus upon the functions of rooms and furnishings and how they have changed over time or how culture, geography, and climate influence housing styles and construction.
- Images and texts related to housing or households from a specific historical era can be provided by the teacher for student analysis.
- Historic American Buildings Survey is a searchable database of historical housing images and floor plans with 581,000 measured drawings, large-format photographs, and written histories for more than 43,000 historic structures and sites dating from Pre-Columbian times to the twentieth century.
- To find historic homes by state and county with the National Register of Historic Places database.
- For more information and floor plans of the 18th, 19th and early 20th century hall and parlor style homes common in the central and southern regions of the United States.
- For more about the climate in Tennessee impacted housing, see Early Vernacular Plan Houses
- Through questioning and primary source analysis, students can analyze how technological change impacts people in a culture (pre-industrial or modern) at different rates and in different ways depending culture, location, and climate.
- As a follow up activity, individuals or groups can research and present how various household tasks were accomplished in a specific pre-industrial era:
- the layout and construction of dwellings
- heating or cooling the home
- how water was obtained and sewage disposed of
- food production, preservation and preparation
- clothing production, cleaning and laundry
- the work that supported the household, and entertainment.
- Be sure to create an assignment requiring students go beyond just reporting or copy/pasting facts. Research projects should focus on larger essential or supporting questions such as
- How did daily home life of pre-industrial families differ from life today?
- How did geography influence homes of pre-industrial families?
For more about historic housing of average people through history incorporating daily life themes in the classroom:
- Exploring Vacation and Etiquette Themes in Social Studies
- Discovering Quacks, Utopias, and Cemeteries: Modern Lessons from Historical Themes
- Investigating Family, Food, and Housing Themes in Social Studies
- BLOG: Primary Source Bazaar
Visit folk life and living history museums in your area to see examples of the homes of average working people.