If anything distinguishes Cape Cod nationally, it’s a house style. Essentially the Cape Cod House is a modest story-and-a-half frame structure that hugs the ground and has a steep roof that sheds the rain and snow and provides protection from buffeting winds. Usually the wooden shingles on the sides are left unpainted, and thus the sides—and the roof—take on a natural grayish to dark brown patina depending on the effects of the sun and wind-driven sands and salt. Sometimes the front, shingle or clapboard, may be painted, and if so most likely white. Many of the oldest Capes were built in stages. A half house might become a three-quarter and later on a full house, depending on the needs or wealth of the family. A full Cape, such as the park’s Atwood-Higgins House (right and cutaway below), is deceiving: it has much more room than you might expect from its external appearance. Inside the front door is a small hallway or entryway. To the left and the right are small parlors. In the center of the back is a large keeping room, or kitchen, that later was divided into 2 rooms, where most of the daily household activity took place. At both ends of the kitchen are a buttery, or pantry, and a bedroom, or a borning room. At the center of the house is an intricately-designed brick chimney serving fireplaces in the parlors, kitchen, and front hall. The chimney divides the upstairs into 2 bedrooms, probably for children. The eastern part (right) of the Atwood-Higgins House was built in Wellfleet about 1730 by Thomas Higgins; the western side was built about the same time but attached later. The house remained in the Higgins family until 1805, when Thomas Atwood became the owner. The Higgins family later regained ownership. _The half house version of the Cape Cod House has 2 windows to the left or right of the front door. The three-quarter house has a third on the other side of the door, and the full Cape has 2 on each side._ _The post-and-beam construction method used in the Atwood-Higgins House was commonly used on Cape Cod until the early 1800s. Posts and beams were put together by mortising a hole in one and inserting a tenon from the other._ ############################################# Whaling’s Heyday [Illustration: (A sperm whale overturns a whaleboat. Early harpoons. The Penniman house. Scrimshaw objects. Whaling-trip logs.)]