During the period of time when the European pioneers were moving across the United States and Canada, they adapted a Scandinavian method of building houses called mortise-and-tenon construction, in which the projecting tenon at the end of one log was fitted into the mortise, or notch, of another to form a corner joint. This technique required more lumber than other methods that used one log to make several boards, but it provided a simple way to construct homes--the familiar log cabins--in the forests of timber-rich North America.
By the 1830s, however, city dwellers were exploring new a type of construction, the balloon frame. The balloon frame was developed at a time when North American cities were growing and as the mass production of nails to standard specifications allowed carpenters and architects to specify the type of nail for each particular job required. The balloon frame borrowed its essential elements from the log cabin. Most other structures required an internal skeleton for support, but the log cabin's integrity was based on the fact that its interlocking logs created a "shell" that could support itself and the roof. Like the mortar-and-tenon cabin, the balloon frame structure required only its wooden "exoskeleton" for its support, hence its name--internal walls were nothing more than room partitions.
The new technique used milled timbers instead of the traditional heavy timbers and raw logs. In the 1820s, sawmills began creating lumber in standard sizes, which made it easier to transport, and also to design houses ahead of their construction. Instead of having to be interlocked in the mortar-and-tenon way or fastened by large wooden pegs, the milled timbers were small enough to receive nails. Joining them required little skill and only a few hand tools, and was also inexpensive. The job of joining them became significantly easier. The exterior of the balloon frame building could be of any veneer, or covering: wood, brick, stone or stucco for walls, shingle, ceramic tile or tin for roofs.
The person generally credited with the invention of the balloon frame was Chicagoan George W. Snow. Snow built a balloon-frame warehouse in Chicago in 1832. This building employed the now classic two-by-four (inch) vertical building stud, and established the standard 16-inch spacing between them. The studs supported two-by-ten inch roof and floor joists. A year later, carpenter Augustus D. Taylor used the balloon frame in the construction of Chicago's St. Mary's Church. The church was taken down and reassembled three times during its existence.
The frame-support system was later adopted by James Bogardus and the architects that followed him in the late 1800s for the construction of office buildings. The frames were of iron and steel beams and columns and were fastened with steel bolts and rivets. Balloon frame construction of residential and commercial buildings increased in the twentieth century and continues to be the standard building form for ranch houses, "garden" apartments and other small-building construction. The early 1900s marked the height of popularity for balloon frame construction when Sears, Roebuck and Company offered frame house kits in its mail order catalogs. The offer has long been discontinued, but thousands of the neat, white, two-story Sears and Roebuck houses remain in towns and cities throughout Illinois, Iowa, and other Midwestern states.
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