Publications

Discover the Architecture and Construction Behind the Ubiquitous Farmhouses of the Midwest. Homes in the Heartland offers a captivating explanation of the revolutionary balloon frame house construction that swept across Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin from 1850 to 1920, enabling the settlers of the upper Midwest to establish frontier homes. Fred W. Peterson leads readers through the technical aspects of farmhouse construction and discusses the social, economic, and aesthetic values of these familiar homes. An engrossing account of a fundamental episode in American history.

More than a book about houses and house types, Homes in the Heartland is a prolonged scrutiny of the building and structuring of a whole region, and a revelation of the extant treasures made manifest to the disciplined eye. Fred Peterson has written a very fine book indeed, one ballasted by common sense combined with erudition — a rare combination.

This is a pioneering study of an important chapter in American architectural history that has hitherto been almost entirely neglected. Years of meticulous research and on-the-spot investigation have resulted in a comprehensive description of the structural nature of the balloon frame house, its innovative features, and its wide appeal to farmers and other settlers who had outgrown their original primitive houses. Although Peterson limits his investigation to the upper midwest, it is clear that he recognizes the almost universal popularity of the balloon frame and its influence on other types of building. The effect of this book will be a radical and much needed re-writing of much vernacular architectural literature and theory.

Fascinating, valuable, and strongly recommended. Peterson’s analysis of the structures in this German Catholic community makes an important and original contribution both to the burgeoning scholarship on American vernacular building traditions and to an understanding of the Minnesota landscape.