A Half-Cape or Cape Cod Half House
What is a “Cape Cod half house”? Why is it called a half house? It is only half of a Cape Cod house. The half-house is the first step or “starter home” when building a Cape Cod house. The traditional Cape half-house has two windows to one side of the door on the front and can be expanded to a three-quarter Cape, full Cape or larger as a family’s needs for more space dictate.
A full Cape Cod style house will have two windows on either side of the front door.
A three-quarter Cape would have two windows on one side of the door and one window on the other side.
A five-quarter Cape would have three windows on one side and two on the other.
During colonial times, for economic reasons, a newly married couple usually built a half a house, with two front windows, a door to one side of the windows, and a chimney behind the door.
Later, they built on to the house on the other side of the door, adding one window. This was called a three-quarter house.
Eventually, an extra window might be added, completing the transformation to a full Cape Cod house. -- Cape Half Houses
Original half Capes were always built with the chimney lined up with the door opening. This would allow the chimney to be centered in the house when the other "side" was added on to the house making it a full Cape. A central chimney was a must in colonial times because it was the only source of heat for the home.
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Keywords: half Cape, Cape Cod half house