Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

6-1986

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Geography

Major Professor

Leonard W. Brinkman

Committee Members

Sidney R. Jumper, John B. Rehder, Frank O. Leuthold

Abstract

The log house is an important element of architectural heritage of much of the eastern United States. In some areas, such as East Tennessee, log construction was not replaced by frame construction until the late nineteenth century.

Several reasons have been presented in the literature for the decline of log house construction, but none of them had been tested empirically. This study determined to what extent the reasons given for the decline of the log house construction explain the decline of log dwelling construction in Blount County, Tennessee. The study analyzed the influence of five factors: (1) relative affluence of house builder, (2) a changing in agricultural economy, (3) social stigma, (4) changes in sawmilling and lumbering, and (5) innovations in frame construction.

Two of the factors, changes in sawmilling and lumbering and innovations in frame construction, played major roles in the decline of log construction in the study area, while changes in the agricultural economy appear to have been of little importance in the shift from log to frame construction. It is difficult to assess the influence of relative affluence and the social stigma of living in a log house, although both were responsible for the abandonment of some log structures as well as construction of some frame dwellings in Blount County.

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