Historic Neighborhoods Hold the Blueprint for NC’s Future

How vernacular design and single-stair homes can guide growth and contribute to the character existing neighborhoods

Small apartment buildings have always been a vital part of our historic neighborhoods.

Let’s take a walk through one of North Carolina’s older neighborhoods… perhaps beneath tall oaks in Raleigh, along breezy streets in Wilmington, or up in the mountain towns near Asheville. You’ll notice something subtle but powerful as you stroll through the streets: the houses seem to belong there. Deep porches offer a moment of invitation and onlooking. Rooflines echo the slope of the land, while creating a visual rhythm down the street. Uniquely decorated homes reflect the character of the people who live there, offering glimpses into their lives. Alleyways aren’t trash collectors, but instead offer semi-private courtyards for neighbors to gather. These places feel settled, as though they grew out of their communities rather than being placed upon them.

Our walk through Raleigh’s historic neighborhoods showcased porches, rooflines, and streets that feel lived-in.

This sense of belonging is not accidental. Historic homes across North Carolina were shaped by climate, craft, and daily life. Now, as the state faces housing shortages and rising demand for walkable neighborhoods, many communities are introducing new building types; especially small, single-stair homes such as multiplexes, courtyard buildings, and house-scale apartments. The encouraging reality is that these new homes don’t have to look or feel out of place. When they draw inspiration from the state’s residential vernacular traditions, they can fit comfortably into existing neighborhoods while meeting contemporary needs.

What vernacular architecture means for homebuyers

The term “vernacular architecture” sounds academic, but its meaning is simple. Vernacular houses emerged from local materials, regional climate, and ordinary, functional life. Carpenters and residents built what made sense: structures that stayed cool in summer, shed rain and snow, used the timber at hand, and reflected the rhythm of family and farm life. They were not designed as showpieces, instead they were designed to work and serve the needs of those who lived there.

Vernacular architecture is adaptable, and there was evidence of that along our walk through Raleigh’s historic neighborhoods. We saw additions to many of the homes, with evidence of renovations throughout the decades. As families grow throughout the years, vernacular houses are able to expand and adapt to the new needs of their occupants. Looking towards the future, homes designed with vernacular principles feel more comfortable and offer room for expansion as needed.

For prospective homebuyers, this matters more than you might expect. Homes shaped by vernacular principles often age gracefully, because their forms are based on function and proportion rather than trends. They anchor neighborhood character, which can strengthen long-term resale value. They bring a sense of continuity… you aren’t just purchasing square footage, but joining an ongoing architectural story rooted in the buildings’ site.

Single-stair apartment buildings inherently follow many vernacular principles, such as fitting on small, existing lots and having an abundance of windows for ventilation. When we design single-stair buildings with historic, vernacular architecture as our inspiration, we allow the building to adapt for its residents, evolving and growing to fit the needs of those who live there.

A journey through North Carolina’s historic home types

Across the Piedmont, many early homes followed the I-house or hall-and-parlor floor plan. These houses were simple and practical: two stories tall, usually one room deep, with a central passage and chimneys at the center or ends. Builders used abundant local timber, sheathing exteriors in weatherboards and framing large porches facing south to capture breezes and shade. Even today, when you walk through traditional neighborhoods in cities like Raleigh or Durham, the rhythm of symmetrical façades, elevated entries, and front porches still shapes the experience of the street.

On North Carolina’s coast, architecture tells a different but equally climate-aware story. Houses rise on piers or stilts to protect against flooding and shifting soils. Wide porches wrap around living areas, softening sunlight and giving residents a place to watch storms roll in or feel evening air after heat-filled days. Large windows encourage cross-ventilation, turning wind into a natural cooling system long before air-conditioning was commonplace.

In the mountains, the landscape itself guided design decisions. Log cabins and Appalachian farmhouses grew out of the resources at hand: timber from nearby forests and stone dug from the ground. Roofs pitch steeply here, shedding snow and rain, and homes nestle into slopes in ways that feel anchored and protective. These structures read as sturdy companions to the terrain rather than objects imposed upon it.

Representative examples of North Carolina’s piedmont, coastal, and mountain housing typologies (left to right), each shaped by climate and geography.

Even North Carolina’s towns and small cities generated their own vernacular forms. Shotgun houses appear in mill villages and railroad communities; narrow and efficient, they speak to working-class histories. Craftsman bungalows spread in the early twentieth century, celebrating porches, exposed rafters, and handcrafted details. In these homes, living space extends into the outdoors, blurring the boundary between house, yard, and street life.

Porch spaces that extend living areas outward and encourage interaction with the surrounding neighborhood.

What these homes teach us about comfort and livability

Although these historic houses differ in region and material, they share common ideas that future residents can still feel today. Most were shaped to respond to climate before mechanical systems existed: high ceilings invite warm air to rise, windows on multiple sides pull breezes through rooms, and deep porches provide shade and flexible outdoor living. Roofs are typically simple in form — gable, shed, or hipped — making repair and maintenance straightforward. Entryways are scaled to people, not cars, and homes sit on their sites with care, following the contours of hills or orienting toward light.

These aren’t merely aesthetic choices; they are practical qualities that directly affect everyday life. A well-shaded porch becomes an extra room. Good cross-ventilation lowers energy bills. Thoughtful siting protects privacy and enhances comfort. The enduring popularity of these elements reflects the wisdom embedded in vernacular design.

Historic Raleigh homes show how porches, breezes, and shade shape everyday comfort.

Historic typologies and single-stair homes naturally fit together

A single-stair building typically contains a small number of homes, stacked two to four stories in height, organized around one shared stair rather than hotel-style corridors. At first, this may sound like an urban or contemporary concept. But in reality, it aligns closely with historic North Carolina house patterns.

Traditional homes were usually narrow, vertically organized, and oriented toward the street or yard. Circulation was focused around a single stair or central passage. Massing was compact and legible; readily understood as “a house,” not a sprawling apartment complex. This means that today’s single-stair multiplexes and small apartment buildings can echo familiar forms without pretending to be historic replicas. A building can borrow the proportions of an I-house or Craftsman bungalow while accommodating multiple households within.

In North Carolina, small multifamily buildings can borrow the massing and porch language of traditional houses, making them at home beside single-family neighbors.

For residents, the result feels intuitive. You enter through a porch or stoop rather than a vast lobby. You share a stair with only a few neighbors, supporting the community without sacrificing privacy. From the street, the building reads as part of the neighborhood fabric, not as an out-of-scale intrusion.

Single stair is vernacular, and it already exists in our neighborhoods

Throughout our walk, we noticed many multi-family homes in what we assumed were exclusively single-family neighborhoods. When duplexes, quads, townhomes, or small apartments are built as one-offs on small lots, they are forced to adapt to the character of a smaller scale neighborhood. In contrast, the rise of large scale developments and subdivision master plans has limited the adaptability of a neighborhood to grow as density requires it. Single-stair buildings offer the opportunity for neighborhoods to grow and adapt as cities become more populated, without requiring such large plots of land for their construction.

For existing residents, density growth through single-stair buildings doesn’t feel as intrusive. The rhythm of the buildings and the character of the neighborhood can be preserved through the use of porches, gardens, pitched rooflines, shuttered windows, and more.

Recognizing the vernacular origins of new construction

When touring new homes or multiplexes, it helps to look beyond finishes and appliances and instead ask how the building participates in its setting. Does the porch feel like a true living space rather than decoration? Do the rooflines and window patterns relate to nearby houses, or do they ignore them entirely? Are brick, wood, or fiber cement materials appropriate to the region, or purely synthetic cladding features that gesture toward style? Does the building respond to climate with shade, cross-ventilation, and orientation, or rely entirely on mechanical systems?

Multifamily homes that integrate into their neighborhoods through familiar vernacular features.

Attention to circulation is equally revealing. In well-designed single-stair buildings, entries and stairs feel residential, rather than industrial. Shared porches or small landings encourage neighborly interaction without forcing it. Light and air reach the stairway, keeping the heart of the building connected to its surroundings instead of sealed off.

Thoughtful, vernacular-inspired, multifamily housing already exists in both of the neighborhoods we walked through in Raleigh. These buildings respond well to the constraints of their sites, while integrating porches, windows, and unique rooflines that blend them in with the surrounding single-family homes. Increasing housing availability in an existing neighborhood doesn’t have to mean bulldozing a street to build a huge apartment complex… it could simply mean allowing for single-stair buildings to gently enhance your favorite, charming places.

Why vernacular matters for homebuyers and communities alike

Choosing homes shaped by vernacular principles has practical benefits. These buildings often prove more energy-efficient because they take advantage of passive cooling and shading, which was essential to comfort at the time of their construction. Their compatibility with surrounding homes supports neighborhood identity, which contributes to long-term property value. And perhaps most importantly, they help expand housing choices without sacrificing the qualities that make older North Carolina neighborhoods so loved.

As municipalities increasingly permit small-scale multiplexes and single-stair buildings, vernacular traditions provide a common language. Change will happen… new families will move in, new buildings will rise, but those changes can feel additive rather than disruptive when guided by the lessons of historic architecture.

High-rise housing behind an established neighborhood on the left contrasted with a multifamily home that fits the scale and character of surrounding houses on the right.

The character and longevity of a historic neighborhood creates a strong sense of community among the residents. These residents love where they live, and find great pride in their unique, historic homes. Such neighborhoods often do not have large plots of land available for development, but there are small lots that provide opportunities for new mid-rise multifamily structures. Prospective developers may appreciate this sense of community and belonging, but to preserve it, we must allow for single-stair buildings: the building type that makes medium-scale, character-filled development feasible.

A final thought for prospective buyers

When you look for a home in North Carolina, it’s easy to focus on countertops, bedroom counts, or square footage. Those things matter, but there’s another question that’s just as important: Does this building belong to its place? Does it echo the quiet farmhouse of the Piedmont, acknowledge the winds and waters of the coast, or sit confidently into the folds of mountain land? Does its scale and character feel in conversation with the street around it?

Historic typologies are not just relics of the past; they are design tools for the future. Applied thoughtfully, they will continue to shape new single-stair homes that are comfortable, sustainable, and genuinely rooted in North Carolina’s identity. When you choose a home built with these principles in mind, you are not only finding somewhere to live; you are stepping into a living tradition of how North Carolinians build, adapt, and make a place their own.