Rising from the ashes: The transformation of nineteenth-century building culture in Charlestown, Massachusetts

The capitalist transformation underway in the United States in the early nineteenth century redefined urban New England building culture. This dissertation examines the actions of several generations of Charlestown building craftsmen as they actively engaged with the socioeconomic changes in the period 1789-1873, and the urban vernacular house forms they constructed. The cash economy, the commodification of land and housing, the standardization of urban residential development, and evolving notions of domesticity in the housing market inform the discussion.; Charlestown's destruction in June 1775, at the Battle of Bunker Hill, produced an architectural tabula rasa and created significant opportunities for large numbers of building craftsmen to practice their craft. The first chapter sets the stage, describing the social, economic, and physical character of eighteenth-century Charlestown in order to understand the extent of continuity and change in the nineteenth century. Chapter Two examines the work culture of a group of 155 building craftsmen first active in Charlestown between 1789 and 1819. The town's need to rebuild and the booming economy allowed many of these men to achieve propertied independence. The third chapter focuses on the activities of two additional groups of building craftsmen, those who petitioned for a mechanics' lien law in the summer of 1819 and a sample of those who used the lien law between 1820 and 1862. The lien law signals a building culture in flux and building craftsmen negotiating the transition to entrepreneurs in pursuit of a profit. Speculative development and debt assumption, with mortgages, for business purposes provided a means to navigate the capitalist transformation.; The final two chapters concentrate on housing development and urban vernacular house forms. Chapter Four explores the emergence of the development process and the "modern" house forms selected by returning and newly settled residents. The final chapter studies the rationalization of housing development in the period 1820 to 1873, including the regularization of land development and how the speculative market and emerging notions of domesticity influenced the popularization of particular house forms. By the time of Charlestown's annexation to Boston in 1873 the capitalist transformation had fully reshaped its building culture.