Once you know how to date a house and "read" its architectural style, any walk or drive becomes a heritage adventure. New England vernacular houses are a good place to begin, because Yankee carpenter-builders followed strict formal structural rules and altered existing buildings to fit successive waves of style. They always added their own individual choices and variations, so you'll never be bored. Use any of these excellent online resources to get an overview.

Architecture for Kids: New England Colonial uses actual examples to illustrate the Colonial style for younger readers. Nova Scotia Planter Architecture The Planter Studies Centre examines the building styles of the 8000 New England residents who migrated between 1759 and 1774 Vermont and New England Architecture comprehensive bibliography The Preservation Coalition of Erie County discusses the impact of the Greek Revival in America.

The Architecture of New England and the Southern Colonies (by Valerie Ann Polino for the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute) will start you on your way to discovering Colonial architecture. Vernacular House Forms in Seventeenth Century Plymouth Colony by Patricia Scott Deetz and James Deetz (U. of Va.), looks for meaning in the architectural innovations of early New England. The Preservation Coalition of Erie County has published an Illustrated Architecture Dictionary and a page of styles. See the Kidder-Smith collection (MIT) of New England Architecture Images. Boston College's take on the Greek Revival.

One way geographers trace the Yankee migration is by noting the style of buildings remaining on the land. First check the Yankee footprint on our culture map. Then follow the state by state listings below.

CONNECTICUT

• Take a walking tour of one of Connecticut's oldest settlements, Old Saybrook.
• Walk the routes and trails of Deep River
• Historic Deerfield is a village of meticulously preserved 18th and 19th century homes, including the Flynt Center of Early New England Life - a museum of regional artifacts made between 1650 and 1850.
• Farmington, Connecticut, along with agriculture, is well known for its early New England architecture. The Stanley-Whitman House at 37 High Street is one of the best known examples of early New England framed architecture.

• Witness the classic architecture of New England churches in the Old Stone Church of Lemont, IL.

• See some of the earliest Yankee classics in Salem, Massachusetts illustrated architecture tour .
• Boston's architecture and history tour covers buildings from Colonial to contemporary.

• Visit Taylors Falls, a New England-style village, and the historic Folsom House

• Discover Concord's historic district.

• Start your architectural tour of the Adirondacks with this illustrated guide to styles.
• Buffalo as an Architectural Museum.
• The Genesee Country Village Museum is a collection of early houses built by Yankee, German, Scots and Hudson Valley English pioneers. For a classic New England colonial, see Amherst Humphrey's 1797 frame house.
• The Landmark Society of Western New York Guide to Landmark Properties and Museums; and Virtual Walking Tours.
• Tour the Schenectady Stocade area and read about it's history.
• Experience the Classic Revival and Victorian architecture of Angelica with a virtual walking tour
• Take a landmark tour through Salem - the Village of Peace.
• Oneida Community Mansion House: Historic Structure Report

• Tallmadge Church
• Hidden Victorian Architecture of Lakewood, Ohio.
• Take a heritage tour through Peninsula Village in the Connecticut/Ohio Western Reserve.

• Town of East Greenwhich Rhode Island, History of Town Hall

• Visit Vermont State Historic Sites
• An architectural tour of Newfane
• Vermonters of energy and vision have lived and worked in Bellows Falls for more than 200 years; take a self-guided walking tour through the historic district.
• The Union Church of New Haven Mills, Vermont, built in 1851; wood frame Greek Revival