Before the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, trade between Europe and America was limited, and houses built in America had no style. Once trade commenced, European styles flooded American soil for centuries, hindering the development of a rational American architecture or Architecture. Jefferson built Monticello following Palladian principles, but the thousands of cheap stick framed houses clad in a brick veneer with columns and a pediment on front pay no attention to principles of any sort besides basic economics. Meanwhile, pre-1713 houses propose an alternative, a hybrid between indigenous ingenuity and European adaptability.
