What is the difference between a "widow's walk" and a "captain's walk" that are found on the tops of some old houses?
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Widow's Walk
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- Wordweaver
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A widow's walk is roofed. A captain's walk isn't.
Edit: But I'm not sure anybody cares anymore -- they seem to be used interchangeably. I got the information from a book on New England architecture, which I don't think I have any longer.
Edit: But I'm not sure anybody cares anymore -- they seem to be used interchangeably. I got the information from a book on New England architecture, which I don't think I have any longer.
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- SteveS.
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I was going to reply with the same answer...a Captains walk is open aired and a widows walk is enclosed. Most of the houses in New Bedford have a widows walk. If you remember the tv show "Ghost and Mrs. Muir" they had a good example of a captains walk...where a captain can look out to see with his spyglas. A widows walk was enclosed because she spent alot of time up there looking out to sea to see if her husbands ship is comming in.
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Yes, many people get these all mixed up: cupolas, widow's walk, captian's walk, etc.
The captian's walk and widow's walk is really the same thing. First ones to appear along the American coast were just a platform with a railing. Though they were referred to as Widow's Walks, they were used for other reasons, such as, for just viewing the sea, and/or to gain access to the chimney for maintenance reasons, such as cleaning or putting out a chimney fire.
In the middle of the 19th century the widow's walk became very popular. They are all over Fall River, New Bedford and New England at large. Many of them inland and nowhere near the sea. Most were built for decorative reasons, having little practical use aside from a pleasant place to sit and look over the top of trees and other buildings. Most of these were large cupolas and the large Victorian ones are better referred to as Belvederes.
But, the first captain's walks or widow's walks were just a railing and platform. Below are a couple of Nantucket homes with widow's walks. One of them is the Maria Mitchell house, built in 1790. Maria was known as the first women astronomer. In the 1840s Maria would sit at night on her widow's walk inspecting the stars with her telescope. Could this be why this widow's walk was built?
The photo of the big stately home is the Alanson Remington Paine house built in the early 1900s and smack dab in the middle of Massachusetts, no where near the ocean.
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