The humble chattel house, icon of 19th and 20th century Barbados and a ubiquitous feature of the Barbadian landscape, has been rapidly disappearing. It is being progressively replaced by more modern wooden and stone structures, often of less aesthetic appeal.  Nevertheless, perhaps as a result of admiration of artists and visitors, the academic interest in folk architecture world-wide, (including the Southern United States,) and the advocacy of the Barbados National Trust, and perhaps because of a more general interest locally in our heritage, there is a growing pride and interest, both in Barbados and beyond, in this unique and creative design.

The term chattel house refers, as the name implies, to a movable wooden house, built in sections, which can be quickly taken apart and re-erected on a new site, traditionally on a foundation of loosely packed coral stones. (Chattel was the old English word for movable possessions. The word is derived from Old French chatel and Latin capitale, meaning property or capital, and in turn movable property, as opposed to land.) Although such timber houses were first documented before the end of slavery (1834 / 38), they became ubiquitous after emancipation, so that workers could move from one plantation to another if they changed jobs, with their house, which occupied tenantry lands rented from the plantation.

Traditionally, a chattel house grew with increasing wealth or family size, from a single rectangular structure, by addition of units at the back of the "front house", culminating in a “lean to” or "shed roof" at the very back, accommodating the kitchen. The initial unit was a rectangular structure, with four “walls” of pine boards, a floor and either two panels for a gable roof or four for a hip roof. All were constructed so that they could be quickly taken apart and stacked for transporting to a different site – originally on an oxcart, and later on a flatbed truck. Coral stones  provided a foundation to raise the house a foot or two above the ground.

Older houses in the nineteenth century usually had a four-hip roof on each unit (all four sides of the roof sloping towards a central ridge) , but this gave way by the twentieth century to the more popular gable roof, with only two sloping sides. Houses would begin as a single, two room unit, with additional units added with time. The other key feature of a Barbadian chattel house was its invariable symmetry, with a central front door, windows on each side, and in later years, with improved incomes and sophistication of workers who travelled to Panama to build the Panama  Canal in the early 20 th century, decorated with bell pelmet window hoods and elegant fretwork.

With greater affluence came various expansions, but always according to certain styles and practices, although differing in decorative detail.  Barbadian chattel houses are unique examples of creative folk architecture. While early houses were small and basic, and clearly a most humble mode of abode for landless workers, there are many larger, expanded and highly decorated examples, which are now proudly maintained by their owners. But many more are crying out for restoration, or may be beyond realistic repair, while some are converted into shops, small offices or restaurants, serving as a valuable link with the past and the future, and earning a living while doing so. 

Folk architecture in many countries has been extensively studied and written about – from the more primitive wattle and daub, clay or mud huts, stone huts (which were the accommodations built for the slaves in Barbados in the 18 th century) and timber houses. But the almost pre- fabricated nature of the Barbadian chattel house, for quick and easy re-location, distinguishes it. 

Aesthetically, its symmetry, decoration with fretwork, elegant little front portico’s, and jalousied windows for ventilation when closed at night are all striking architectural features. An important climatic element is the roof design, where a gable angle of almost forty-five degrees deflects hurricane windows, while the high roof helps to keep the house cool. A further social point is the fact that the design of one unit added to another as families grew created a pattern which was emulated in much larger suburban houses.

In an exhibition of platinum-palladium prints of the chattel houses of Barbados in Charleston some five years ago, an accompanying suite of photographs compared the folk architecture of the Carolinas and particularly the sea islands off Charleston, where many elements of the Barbadian settlement survive, including the Gullah dialect. And it is an interesting historical fact that the single house design so famous in the historic district of Charleston appears to have been derived from the single house of Barbados in the mid 17 th century, described just before the settlement of Charleston in 1670, proposed to King Charles the Second in 1663 by Sir John Colleton of the famous Colleton House in Barbados and led by Barbadians, with English financing. The term single house, for a long, narrow house a single room wide, originated in Barbados and survives only in Charleston!

It was the apparent threat of the disappearance of the chattel houses a decade or two ago that led to a project by photographer Bob Kiss of capturing these artistic and architectural gems through the hallowed, traditional medium of archival quality platinum-palladium prints. A compilation of more than a hundred of these beautiful photos form the core of the book “Barbados Chattel Houses”. The book is divided into a “baker’s dozen” chapters or themes. The text describes the origins and evolution of the chattel house, the architectural details, the context of other folk architecture, and its present and future status as an icon of Barbadian architecture and culture – a creative design that overcomes many challenges – social, economic and climatic.

- Essay by Sir Henry Fraser

Professor Emeritus Sir Henry Fraser is an Independent Senator in the Parliament of Barbados.

Bob Kiss is a distinguished New York born photographer who has made his home in Barbados

References: Vernacular Architecture of Barbados, in The Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World. Pub. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, 1997 

Barbados Chattel Houses, Fraser, Henry and Kiss, Bob; 2011, Toute Bagai Publishing Limited, Port of Spain.