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Footprints In History: Traditional Architecture

Mar 1, 2010

Cayman’s first settlers in the 1700s brought their own home-building traditions with them. The English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish had memories of timber-framed, brick or stone houses; and the African slaves’ knowledge was of mud-walled homes with grass roofs. These diverse traditions combined to develop a uniquely Caymanian building style.

The earlier dwellings used timber and Silver Thatch Palm leaves for both walls and roofs whereas the more permanent buildings were constructed using the “wattle and daub” technique. Vertical ironwood posts were sunk into the ground, with horizontal beams running across top to bottom, the spaces between the posts were filled with woven panels known as "wattles" and covered with a plaster-like substance called "daub".

Floors were raised off the ground to deal with storm surges and, since roofs had to withstand heavy rainfall, all four sides were sloped away from a short, narrow central ridge, with an overhang to help keep the walls dry – creating a "hipped" roof.

Over time thatch palm roofs were replaced by corrugated zinc that had a practical purpose, as rainwater was collected from the roof and stored in a cistern beneath the house.

By the end of the nineteenth century, timber houses were common and often featured verandahs, which kept the walls of the house cool and provided an airy place to sit. Caymanians soon developed intricate patterns of fretwork to decorate their verandahs and brightened their homes with pastel-colored paint.