On permanence: Thoughts about a historical reconstruction of a value basicto building

North Americans built houses differently in 1800 than they did in 1900. Dur ing the century cultural views were revised, particularly those dealing wit h the appearance and constitution of "permanent" buildings. This revision w as centered in the multicultural region west of the Appalachians. The regio n had a diversity of building possibilities greater than any place or time in history due to the variety of building traditions, an emergent culture o f commerce, changing contemporary technological practices, and a revised un derstanding of permanence as a time-based process. Historical descriptions written by Americans traveling or settling in this region are scrutinized f or ways they discriminated among the differences they encountered.