Seminole Palmetto Roofs

The chickee style of architecture palmetto thatch over a cypress log frame was born during the early 1800s when seminole indians pursued by u s.

Seminole palmetto roofs.

The chickee style of architecture palmetto thatch over a cypress log frame was born during the early 1800s as a quick and disposable dwelling while they were avoiding american troops. The traditional seminole house called a chikkee was a simple open shelter of cypress poles with a thatched palmetto roof cool and comfortable in the summer heat. The same fronds can also be used to thatch chickee roofs. As used in this paragraph the term chickee means an open sided wooden hut that has a thatched roof of palm or palmetto or other traditional materials and that does not incorporate any electrical plumbing or other nonwood features.

A chickee was usually about nine feet wide and sixteen feet long with a wooden platform which served as the floor and a thatched roof. The florida building code states. The chickee style of architecture palmetto thatch over a cypress log frame was born during the early 1800s when seminole indians pursued by u s. The term chickee means an open sided wooden hut that has a thatched roof of palm or palmetto or other traditional materials and that does not incorporate any electrical plumbing.

According to the seminole tribe of florida s website chickee is the word seminole indians use for house. Troops needed fast disposable shelter while on the run. I love the smell of a new chickee. Troops needed fast disposable shelter while on the run.

Nearly everything used to build a chickee came from the palmetto tree which was common in the southeastern united states. Some people in big cypress still live in family camps with a cooking shed and separate chikkees for sleeping and storage. A chickee was a house built on stilts usually about three or four feet above the ground.