The Architecture of the New Sweden Colony: Scandinavian Design’s Influence on the USA
A simple internet search of “New Sweden architecture” or “New Sweden art history” will not guide someone to understanding the aesthetic productions of the small colony on the Delaware River.
This is not surprising considering that most Americans do not know about New Sweden and most American historians only know about it peripherally, if even at all. Nevertheless, influential cultural, aesthetic, and architectural developments occurred in New Sweden.
This short paper intents to argue that New Swedish architectural developments are relevant to the mainstream discourse on American art history and inform the reader about contemporary understandings of New Sweden’s contributions to America. Although many forms of art and craftsmanship exist, New Sweden’s most important artistic benefactions to American art history come from its architecture, most notably, its churches and residential log cabins.
The first permanent European inhabitants of what is now Pennsylvania, Delaware, and western New Jersey were Swedes and Finns. Settlers established the colony of New Sweden in 1638 and the colony was absorbed into New Netherland in 1655. In 1674, Britain possessed the entire Mid-Atlantic, and in 1681 the province of Pennsylvania was created and granted to the Penn family.
Despite the short seventeen years of New Sweden’s independence, the colony and its settlers had a considerable impact on the history of the Delaware Valley. Contemporary historians see New Sweden existing as an influential and vibrant community far after its political absorption into the British Empire and even sometimes into the United States.
The first notable artistic element the Swedes brought to America was the architecture of their churches. The majority of New Swedish settlers belonged to the state-sponsored Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden, so when communities pulled enough resources together as well as gained financial support from the Swedish monarchy, they built distinctively Swedish-style churches in what is now the American Mid-Atlantic. A number of these churches still stand and are still in use.
A prime example of an existing church from New Sweden is the Holy Trinity Church (often called the “Old Swede’s Church” like many other surviving New Sweden Churches) located at East 7th and Church Street in Wilmington, Delaware. This church was built between 1698 and 1699 by 81 people: Swedes, Dutchmen, and early English Philadelphians.
The result was a stout, but modest rectangular-shaped building. The walls are made of large local stones. The roof is shingled and hipped. Thanks to the influence of the Swede’s neighbors, its sturdiness and unpretentiousness somewhat resemble a Quaker meetinghouse.
The interior is mostly bare and spacious with a high ceiling. The interior also featured straight and narrow, confined and geometric pews. The pulpit of black walnut is still in use to this day.
Although it may have adapted to elements of other groups in the New World (most notably the Quakers), the building still retains a form that is typical of medieval Swedish stone churches. A non-matching red-brick bell tower was added in 1802 and stained glass replaced regular glass in 1899.
Another example of a surviving church from the Swedish colony is the Gloria Dei Church located in South Philadelphia by Queen Village (which is named after Queen Christina of Sweden). This is the oldest church in Pennsylvania and the oldest continuously attended church in the United States.
Gloria Dei was built in 1700 as a replacement for a Swedish log church by the same construction crew that built the Holy Trinity Church. It blends in well with other colonial Philadelphia buildings. Without a hard study, it may be difficult for someone to distinguish it from any other church in Philadelphia.
It is made of red brick and features a large semicircular apse. The roof on the side of the extended entrance is at a perfect right angle. It has the same medieval and gothic features that distinguish English vernacular church designs commonly seen in Philadelphia.
Despite the architectural convergence from the Holy Trinity Church, there’s also some similarities. Its construction is the exact same proportion as the Holy Trinity Church (about 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 20 feet high) and similar to Swedish churches in Scandinavia. The interior floorplan is very similar, the pews in the same position, and the nucleus of the church is just as spacious and open as that of the Holy Trinity Chuch in Wilmington.
These New Sweden churches demonstrate the persistence of Swedish influence in the English colonies half a century after the colony was absorbed. Many buildings from New Sweden before this point were either destroyed by warring European powers and Native Americans and many buildings were evacuated so saw natural disrepair. Additionally, early and independent New Sweden settlements were somewhat rudimentary.
Swedish and Finnish settlers made crude shacks of earth and wood. Interestingly, absorption into more influential and wealthy political entities allowed for Swedish architectural styles to have a longer life. The churches of New Sweden may not have been an intrinsically important development in the history of American art, but the Swedish residential architectural style certainly is.
Log cabins are exactly what these aforementioned “crude shacks of earth and wood” were. Interestingly enough, the Swedes turned these impermanent makeshift shacks into one of America’s most dominant and iconic architectural styles.
New Sweden was dispersed and far more rural and agrarian than anywhere in the continent today. Settlements only converged around trading and defense forts along waterways. The population was small and spread between these isolated locations.
New Sweden somewhat resembled the forested frontiers in Sweden and Finland. Swedes then, naturally employed the same techniques they did to settle these parts of Europe. Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov and Matti E. Kaups argue in their 1992 book, The American Backwoods Frontier: An Ethical and Ecological Interpretation, that the particular techniques Swedes employed in agriculture, carpentry, and architecture set a precedent for American pioneer culture and future colonization of the Eastern Woodlands. One of these techniques of colonization was the log cabin.
The C. A. Nothnagle Log House is often considered the oldest surviving log cabin in the United States. The house was built around 1638, the exact year the Swedes landed in the New World. The site was found with Scandinavian-style ironware of the 1590s.
Additionally, it features a fireplace in the corner of the building, which is distinctly how Swedish homes were constructed at this time. Despite being a one-room building and looking primitive (especially because of the building being nearly half a millennium old), the original settlers would have been comparatively wealthy and the design shows signs of sophistication and of traditional Swedish nail-less chinking and notching techniques.
Another prime example of a surviving New Sweden log cabin is the Lower Swedish Cabin in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. It was built around 1640 and is the oldest building in Pennsylvania. It also includes a corner fireplace. The logs were also arranged in a similar v-notch manner. This building, however, has multiple rooms and even two floors.
The settlers of New Sweden were responsible for introducing log cabins to North America. Through the Delaware Valley, Swedes and Finns taught new immigrants, especially the Germans and English, how to build Scandinavian-style log cabins. Log cabins became an essential part of American architectural culture and identity thanks to the happenstance of the New Sweden Colony.
Hopefully, this article succeeded in informing the reader about two of the most successful forms of architecture in New Sweden. Centuries-old Swedish churches and residential log cabins still exist in America so it is important to make sure they are represented as part of American art history.
