Gambrel

{{Short description|Four-sloped roof}} {{About||the hook used to suspend a carcass|Gambrel hook|the quadruped joint|Hock (anatomy)}}

thumb|Barn with a gambrel roof thumb|A cross-sectional diagram of a mansard roof, which is a hipped gambrel roof

A '''gambrel''', or '''gambrel roof''', is a usually symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, while the lower slope is steep. This design provides the advantages of a sloped roof while maximizing headroom inside the building's upper level and shortening what would otherwise be a tall roof, as well as reducing the span of each set of rafters. The name comes from the Medieval Latin word {{lang|la|gamba}}, meaning 'horse's hock or leg'.<ref name="etym-gambrel"/><ref name="etym-gambol"/> The term ''gambrel'' is of American origin,<ref>''O English Dictionary'', 2nd ed., "Gambrel:4".</ref> the older, European English name being ''curb roof'' (''kerb roof'', ''kirb roof'').

Europeans historically did not distinguish between a gambrel roof and a mansard roof but called both types ''mansard roofs''. In the United States, various shapes of gambrel roofs are sometimes called ''Dutch gambrels'', ''Dutch Colonial gambrels'',<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=Thematic Survey of Dutch Heritage Resources in the Greater Hudson Valley |url=https://online.fliphtml5.com/uyvk/zsfg/ |access-date=January 26, 2026 |website=New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation}}</ref> or ''Swedish'', ''German'', ''English'', ''French'', or ''New England gambrels'', or ''bell-cast eaves''.

The cross-section of a gambrel roof is similar to that of a mansard roof, but a gambrel has vertical gable ends instead of being hipped at the four corners of the building. A gambrel roof overhangs the façade, whereas a mansard normally does not.

==Origin and use of the term== ''Gambrel'' is a Norman English word, sometimes spelled ''gambol'', such as in the 1774 Boston carpenters' price book (revised 1800). Other spellings include ''gamerel'', ''gamrel'', ''gambril'', ''gameral'', ''gambering'', ''cambrel'', ''cambering'', ''chambrel''<ref>A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: Founded Mainly ..., Volume 4. p. 36.</ref> referring to a wooden bar used by butchers to hang the carcasses of slaughtered animals.<ref name="etym-gambrel"/> Butcher's gambrels, later made of metal, resembled the two-sloped appearance of a gambrel roof when in use.<ref name="patent"/>

''Gambrel'' is also a term for the joint in the upper part of a horse's hind leg, the hock.

In 1858, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. wrote:

{{Quote|<poem>Know old Cambridge? Hope you do.— Born there? Don't say so! I was, too. (Born in a house with a gambrel-roof,— Standing still, if you must have proof.— "Gambrel?—Gambrel?"—Let me beg You'll look at a horse's hinder leg,— First great angle above the hoof,— That's the gambrel; hence gambrel-roof.)<ref>{{cite wikisource |first=Oliver Wendell Sr |last=Holmes |title=The Professor Under Chloroform |wslink=The Atlantic Monthly/Volume 2/No. 5/The Professor Under Chloroform |magazine=The Atlantic Monthly |volume=2 |issue=5 |date=October 1858 |publisher=Jay Lauf |location=Washington D.C.}}</ref></poem> }}  An earlier reference from the ''Dictionary of Americanisms'', published in 1848, defines ''gambrel'' as "A hipped roof of a house, so called from the resemblance to the hind leg of a horse which by farriers is termed the ''gambrel''."<ref name="americanisms"/> Webster's Dictionary also confusingly used the term ''hip'' in the definition of this roof.

The term is also used for a single mansard roof in France and Germany. In Dutch the term {{lang|nl|tweezijdige mansardekap}}, 'two-sided mansard roof', is used for gambrel roofs.

==Origins of the gambrel in North America== The origin of the gambrel roof form in North America is unknown.<ref>Kelly, John Frederick. ''Early domestic architecture of Connecticut''. Unknown: 1924, Dover Publications, Inc. reprint 1963. p. 63.</ref> The oldest known gambrel roof in America was on the second Harvard Hall at Harvard University built in 1677.<ref>Harris, Cyril M. ''American architecture: An Illustrated Encyclopedia''. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998. p. 144. {{ISBN|0393731030}}.</ref> Possibly the oldest surviving house in the U.S. with a gambrel roof is the c. 1677–78 Peter Tufts House. The oldest surviving framed house in North America, the Fairbanks House, has an ell with a gambrel roof, but this roof was a later addition.

Claims to the origin of the gambrel roof form in North America include:

# Indigenous tribes of the Pacific Northwest, the Coast Salish, used gambrel roof form (Suttle & Lane (1990), p. 491).<ref>Indigenous tribes of the Pacific Northwest, the Coast Salish, used gambrel roof form (Suttle & Lane (1990), p. 491).</ref> # Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and English mariners and traders had visited or settled into the area of southeast Asia now called Indonesia prior to permanent European settlement in America. In Indonesia, they saw dwellings with a roof style where the end of a roof started as a hip and finished as a gable end at the ridge. The gable end was an opening, to allow smoke to dissipate from the cooking fires. This roof design was brought back to Europe and the American Colonies, and adapted to local conditions. The roof style is still in use around the world today;<ref name="dummies"/> # seamen who traveled to the Netherlands brought the design back to North America;<ref>{{cite web|title=Atwood House Restoration Project Documentary Video|url=http://www.chathamhistoricalsociety.org/AHM_restoration/AHP_video1.htm|publisher=Atwood House Museum|access-date=5 August 2013|archive-date=7 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307050836/http://www.chathamhistoricalsociety.org/AHM_restoration/AHP_video1.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> # or practical reasons such as a way to allow wider buildings, the use of shorter rafters, or to avoid taxes.<ref>Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation. Stratford: Colonial Home and Plantation, Westmoreland county, Virginia: birthplace of Robert E. Lee and of two signers of the Declaration of Independence. Press of B. S. Adams, 1940. 27.</ref>

==Image gallery== <gallery> File:Amityville house.JPG|Dwelling with gambrel roof in Amityville, New York, made famous by ''The Amityville Horror'' File:Henry Bull House Newport Rhode Island 1639.jpg|If the date of construction and the roof of the Henry Bull House was original to the circa 1639 date this would be the oldest known example of a gambrel in America. File:Alexander Standish House in Duxbury MA.jpg|Another candidate for oldest gambrel roof, said to be from 1666, Alexander Standish House File:Appletons' Harvard John - Harvard hall.jpg|The first Harvard Hall, Harvard University, credited to be the oldest known example of a gambrel roof in North America, built c. 1677, burned 1766 File:Block Card 1 Nevada Street - DPLA - e031fea1dd9f33dd7e9cb400265d6cc2.jpg|Gambrel roof seen on an East Toledo home in approximately 1937 </gallery>

== See also == * List of roof shapes

==References== {{Reflist | 1=2 | refs = <ref name="etym-gambrel">{{cite web | url = http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gambrel | title = gambrel | work = Online Etymology Dictionary | last = Harper | first = Douglas | access-date = 2010-11-13 }}</ref> <ref name="etym-gambol">{{cite web | url = http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gambol | title = gambol | work = Online Etymology Dictionary | last = Harper | first = Douglas | access-date = 2010-11-13 }}</ref> <ref name="dummies">{{cite book | title = Statics for Dummies | last = Allen | first = James H. | publisher = Wiley | location = Hoboken, New Jersey | year = 2010 | series = For Dummies | isbn = 978-0-470-59894-8 | oclc = 505422830 | page = 255 }}</ref> <ref name="patent">{{US patent reference | number = 1345112 | y = 1920 | m = 06 | d = 29 | inventor = W. A. Andrew | title = Release gambrel }}</ref> <ref name="americanisms">{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia = Dictionary of Americanisms: a glossary of words and phrases, usually regarded as peculiar to the United States | last = Bartlett | first = John Russell | publisher = Bartlett and Welford | year = 1848 | location = New York | oclc = 6758564 | series = American culture | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=t9ktAAAAYAAJ&q=Dictionary%20of%20Americanisms%3A%20A%20Glossary%20of%20Words%20and%20Phrases%2C%20Usually%20Regarded%20as%20Peculiar%20to%20the%20United%20States&pg=PR1 | page = 153 | title = GAMBREL }}</ref> }}

== Bibliography == * {{cite encyclopedia | last = Corkhill | first = Thomas | year = 1982 | title = Gambrel roof | encyclopedia = The Complete Dictionary of Wood | edition = 1st | series = Scarborough Books | location = New York | publisher = Stein and Day | isbn =0-8128-6142-6 | page = 211 | oclc = 12610712 }}

== External links == * {{Wiktionary inline|gambrel}} * {{Commons category inline|Gambrels}}

Category:Roofs Category:Structural system