The Grant House in Brevard County was transported by boat from Jacksonville and erected on its site on the Indian River in 1916. Described locally as a Cracker house, the wood-frame building is a museum of life in Florida before air- conditioning. In these days of 'shabby chic' home decor and 'grunge' fashion, 'Cracker' houses are making a comeback in the Deep South.

Florida developers are trying to capture the casual, homey style with modern developments sporting metal roofs, cedar siding and deep shade porches. Petersburg Times dubs the mini building boom, 'Cracker Chic.' While pioneers to the Deep South found an inhospitable land of searing heat, merciless biting insects and semi-tropical rains, settlers to these new 'rustic' deed-restricted, gated communities leave air-conditioned homes to stroll on paved streets and sidewalks leading to swimming pools and clubhouses. Promotional literature for one of the planned developments, Riverwalk, near Gainesville, boats of a 'Key West style of architecture in keeping with the charm of the old Florida Cracker homes.' Another, Seaside, claims that the pricey development is 'more than design.

It is a way of life.' Long time regarded as a poor relative in the family of American architecture, Cracker style is now being celebrated for its inventiveness and energy efficiency. Cracker Style In its simplest form, a Cracker house is a wooden shelter built by the early Florida and Georgia settlers. Lured to Florida by cheap and plentiful land, these pioneers arrived with few provisions and needed to erect shelter quickly and cheaply. The brush provided abundant supplies of cedar and cypress. Rocks or bricks made of oyster shell and lime served as pilings to keep the shelters off the ground.

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A wide shade porch wasn't just an embellishment. In pre-air-conditioned Florida, the porches provided relief from the relentless sun. The Florida Cooperative Extension Service notes the energy efficiency of the style it calls 'Florida Vernacular:' Site orientation for shade, wide, covered porches, crawl spaces beneath the homes for ventilation, and windows that took advantage of cross breezes. Floor cracks 'helped with house cleaning, and raised first floor was used to keep hounds (hunting) and chickens (food), which in turn provided service of consuming fleas and other pests,' according to an extension publication on energy efficiency. The simplest of these cabins were called single pen houses. As money permitted and family size dictated, these 'single pen' square cabins often were added to, producing such fanciful names as 'saddlebag' and 'dog-trot' house.

Transplanted Yankee Ronald W. Haase has done much in the past decade to publicize -- and preserve -- the homes of Florida's early pioneers.

Haase moved from New Hampshire to take a job as a professor of architecture at the University of Florida in the 1980s. His book, 'Classic Cracker' is an enthusiastic and detailed account of Haase's search for these wood-frame homes. Haase's research inspired him to design contemporary homes based on the energy efficiency and environmental synergy of Cracker farmhouses. Patch Francais Pour Crazy Talk 6. Autotask Outlook Add In there. Types of Cracker Houses Single Pen: A log cabin with a single room with one door and a few windows. Window glass was often not readily available and mosquito netting or shutters were employed to keep out insects, making for a dark interior.