Jerkinhead Roof Origin

A jerkinhead roof may also be called a jerkin head roof a half hipped roof a clipped gable or even a jerkinhead gable.

Jerkinhead roof origin.

The jerkinhead gable roof design was commonly used in the mid 1920s by gilbert stanley underwood a park lodge designer for the utah parks company. Disappointment reigned as the oed informed me that jerkinhead is of uncertain origin. The end of a roof that is hipped sloped for only part of its height leaving a truncated gable. A hip roof hip roof or hipped roof is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls usually with a fairly gentle slope although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak.

But it is of an unknown origin. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Though this word has uncertain origins the oed explains that it could have been a variation of kirkin head in which we find kirk an old scots variation of the word church. Perhaps sloped gables first appeared on the heads or roofs of churches but there seems to be no clear evidence of this.

According to the oxford english dictionary jerkinhead originated in the mid 19c. Jerkinhead roofs are sometimes found on american bungalows and cottages small american houses from the 1920s and 1930s and assorted victorian house styles. The oed draws a possible connection between jerkinhead and kirkinhead. The effect is a roof line that folds or leans back into the ridge.

Perhaps for jerking as if the slope were jerkily interrupted an earlier and even more obscure reference is kirkin head dating from 1703 which may suggest that jerkinhead is a corruption of that earlier term. The term jerkin is much older dating from the 16c. Although the origin of the word doesn t seem to be known a jerkin is a close fitting jacket usually with cropped sleeves which may have inspired the use of the term for this clipped off gable. Thus a hipped roof house has no gables or other vertical sides to the roof.

This house in the 1700 block of south delaware has three jerkinheads. These names all attempt to describe the roof as a. A jerkinhead is a truncated gable at the end of a roof. Jerkinhead definition is a hipped part of a roof which is hipped only for a part of its height leaving a truncated gable.