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Show precisely articulated and this feature of the landscape Francaviglia attributed to a conscious decision on the part of Mormons to avoid the fashions of the "world." Relying upon a narrow set of architectural ideas reflecting Mormon eastern experience and employed in Utah after they had passed from currency in other sections of the country, the Latter-day Saints achieved a distinctive building style largely by hanging on to older/ folk forms no longer found in non-Mormon, or Gentile, 11 commur.ities. Francaviglia found Mormon housing unique in its .. 18 remar kb, a e conserva t 1v1sm. 11 The question of convergence in Mormon folk architecture was also addressed by Leon Pitman in a geography dissertation at Louisiana State University. 19 After a wide-ranging survey of housing patterns within the Mormon culture region, Pitman found that the house types he encountered were not in and of themselves peculiar to Mormons--all had antecedents in the eastern United States--but be~ame distinctively Mormon through the repetition of a few simple designs. Remembering the diversity of the incoming population and therefore the potential for individual variation, Pitman found "that elements of house form or shape became similar throughout the culture region, indicating that an assimilation process occurred in folk housing concepts and that a common material folk trait complex emerged. 1120 What were the processes fostering uniformity in housing design? Pitman noted three: First, there was a reduction of architectural possibilties on the frontier, second, the mobility of the Mormon population spread architectural ideas quickly throughout the culture region; and, third, a "willingness and ability on the part of the Mormons to assimilate into an accepted mold, regardless of their diverse cultural origins. 1121 8 "Mormon culture,1 1 |
