What is place? What is location? These words do not mean the same thing. For instance, every place has a location, but not every location is a place. A location is a name on a map or a series of numbers. A place is a piece of a whole environment that is painted with emotions and memories. What things make up the place where you live? What do you see when you’re walking your dog, playing baseball, or visiting a friend?

The answers to the above questions will fall into three categories: buildings, people, and nature. Every place is made up of these three things. So, if every place is made up of the same things, why is each place you visit different? Well, just as every person has a different personality, every building, every block, every town, has its own personality, or using an architectural term: style. Styles change over time and country, but the elements that make up style always stay the same: color, shape, and material. The different combinations of these elements used together make up different categories of style. Time plays an important factor in style, for as time goes by, new technology is created that allows buildings to change their shape, use new materials, or develop new colors. The earliest houses in America had very small windows because glass was hard to make and very expensive. As technology advanced, architects were able to build entire buildings out of glass.

We can find almost every 20th century style of building in The Wildwoods. Recognizing these styles is important to understanding the place in which we live. If you want to know more about the architectural styles of The Wildwoods, a donation of $10 or more will get you our gift of a copy of our coloring book Historic Architectural Styles of the Wildwoods.

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