poteaux-en-terre house

French Vernacular architecture

In America, architecture found primarily in Louisiana and in many early settlements along the Mississippi River; it exhibits the influences of two major French-speaking immigrant populations. The first group, from Canada, the Acadians, whose descendants are now known as Cajuns, settled in the bayou districts of Louisiana during the last half of the 18th century in modest houses known as Cajun cottages. The second major ethnic group consisted of the Creoles, persons of European ancestry born in the Mississippi Valley, the Gulf Coast, or the West Indies, who usually spoke a French patois; their dwellings are known as Creole houses. For specific aspects of this architecture see abat-vent, banquette cottage, barreaux, bluffland house, bonnet roof, bousillage, briquette-entre-poteaux, cabanne, columbage, faux bois, faux marbre, pièce sur pièce construction, pierrotage, pilier, plaunch debout en terre construction, poteaux-en-terre house, poteauxsur-solle house, raised house.