Weather Board House:

The earliest adaptation of English building practices to American conditions made by the East Anglian settlers in New England was the use of clapboard or weatherboard as a cladding to their timber-framed buildings. The technique was not unknown in England, and surviving examples suggest that weatherboards had been pegged to the framed walls of barns and other farm buildings at least from the late 16C., and to timber-framed church towers earlier still. But the technique never seems to have been popular for domestic buildings until weatherboarding was adopted as one of the cladding materials for lightweight timber-framed construction in South Eastern England towards the end of the 18C. Even then, use was practically confined to Cottages, and a few Small Houses, in domestic architecture, though the technique was popular for the timber-framed buildings for agriculture, transport and commerce.

Early weatherboarding was of oak or elm and was pegged to the timbers, but traditional covering, nailed to studs, was used in the later phases. In England, horizontal weatherboarding was customary, though vertical boarding with a cover strip was sometimes used and vertical boarding had been used for the church towers.

There are a few examples in this country of the use of planed and painted timber in imitation of ashlar masonry, a technique used on thc front elevation of a house with weatherboarding elsewhere. It is a technique which was widely used in North America. George Washington's house at Mount Vernon is a famous example.

This is one model that will go with just about any theme you may choose for your layout. Weather boarding (or clapboard) buildings can be found anywhere you find trees. This one's quite easy to put together.