Here’s a 400-year history of the American single-family house, all in one image. It includes over 100 types of house and spans seven historical eras.

All images from Pop Chart Lab.

Artists at the Pop Chart Lab created a poster of houses that range from Spanish Colonials to mobile and A-frame homes to McMansions and row houses.

What American houses actually look like, along with how they have changed over history, can teach us a lot about how we got to where we are now. For example, people used to live a lot closer together, and in smaller homes. Lots of people now want bigger houses for smaller families, which affects how we use the land we’ve got.

Lots of house types have subsets, like these Second Empire houses.

Another great way to learn about the history of our homes is by visiting the House and Home exhibit at the National Building Museum.

Which house types do you see around our region? Which ones are in your neighborhood? What kind of house do you live in?

Tagged: history, housing

David Koch is a native of Silver Spring. He first discovered his love of transportation and planning through Greater Greater Washington and Just Up The Pike. He has a planning degree from Rutgers University. You might see him on his bike around Mount Pleasant.