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Traditional and Popular Forms (2.1.1.1.1)

L- and T-plan (2.1.1.1.1.3)

The L- and T-plan houses in Elizabeth City date from the late nineteenth century through the 1910s. The type consists of two, gable-roofed sections placed at right angles to each other, with one section projecting toward the street. The distinction between the L- and the T- plan is relatively minor, depending on whether the section that projects perpendicularly toward the street terminates at the rear wall of the other section--resulting in an L-plan--or extends beyond the other section--resulting in a T-plan; the latter is more common. Houses of both types are built exclusively in frame and are two stones tall. All Elizabeth City examples have interior or interior end chimneys (usually one of each), a porch that is either two bays wide or wraps around the entire front, and a rear ell either one or two stories in height, usually with a service porch. These houses, while found throughout the city, are concentrated in those sections experiencing the greatest growth during the 1880s and 1890s, namely West Main, West Feanng, East Burgess, West Burgess, North Road, and South Road streets and West Colonial Avenue.

This house form, second in popularity only to the two-story gable-front, double-pile, side-hall-plan house, was embellished with a wide range of decorative millwork. It is typified by the turned porch posts and wood-shingled gables which invigorate the Grice-Jackson House (509 West Fearing Street, ca. 1899). The L- and T-form is often elaborated upon with a front bay window, such as the J. J. White House (507 Cedar Street, ca. 1892). More complex versions of the form are derived when a short projeering gable is added on the side of the section that is perpendicular to the street to create a sort of cross-gable-roof house form. This form was especially suitable for larger homes as it not only provided more interior space, but another gable for exterior ornamentation, as illustrated by the W. E. Pappendick House (601 West Main Street, 1892).