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VAF-New England 2026 Annual Meeting Call for Papers
Vernacular Architecture Forum - New England Chapter 2026 Annual Meeting
Portsmouth Historical Society
10 Middle Street, Portsmouth, NH
Saturday, April 11, 2026
The New England Chapter of the VAF welcomes submissions for our 2026 Annual Meeting. Each spring, the chapter’s annual meeting delves into New England’s rich and diverse vernacular architecture and landscapes in pursuit of a deeper understanding and appreciation of the everyday spaces and places that characterize the region.
With a focus on community learning and mutual exchange, we invite topics that examine vernacular buildings and landscapes from the seacoast to the mountains, from milltowns to agricultural areas, and from small towns to cities. We encourage proposals across a broad spectrum of research and fieldwork, welcoming not only thesis-driven papers but also works-in-progress, field reports, and exploratory studies from students, scholars, researchers, and practitioners. This inclusive approach allows for a dynamic exchange of ideas and insights, promoting innovative perspectives and methodologies in the study of New England’s built and natural heritage.
Submission Guidelines:
● Title and Contact Information: Include a title for the presentation and the author’s contact information (name, address, email address, and telephone number[s]).
● Presentation Description: Explain the nature of your presentation in a maximum of 400 words, including up to two images. Please indicate if your presentation is thesis-driven, a work-in-progress, a field report, or another form of presentation/exploratory study, and if you are proposing a 10- or 20-minute presentation.
● Curriculum Vitae: Provide a one-page C.V. or resume.
Submission Deadline:
Please send your proposals to VAFnewengland@gmail.com by January 12, 2026 with the subject line “2026 Annual Meeting Paper Submission.” All submissions will be acknowledged upon receipt, with presenters notified by January 26, 2026.
We look forward to your contributions and to advancing the understanding of New England’s unique architectural and landscape heritage.
Previous Annual Meetings
VAF-NE Annual Meeting 2025, Providence, RI
"Copying Perfection: Analysis and Inspiration for Subdivisions on Nantucket Island," Hillary Hedges Rayport, Boston University
"The Architecture of Childhood at the Rhode Island State Home and School," Elizabeth Warburton, Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc., Pawtucket, RI
"Introduction of Arched Window Openings in New England's Nineteenth-Century Textile Factories," Sara Wermeil, Boston University
"A Tale of Two Farms: The Translation of an 1816 Farmhouse into a Contemporary Connecticut River Valley," Elisha Bettencourt, Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum, Hadley, MA
"Rhode Island's Enduring Camp Meeting: The History and Development of the Portsmouth Camp Meeting Association, Portsmouth, RI," Erin LoMonaco and Cameron Cutler, Roger Williams University
"Playhouses and Privilege: The Architecture of Elite Childhood," Abigail Van Slyck, Keynote Speaker
Roundtable: The Shape of Regional Cultural Resource Survey, Kelsey Mullen, RI Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission; Elizabeth Peebles, Vermont Division for Historic Preservation; Jenny Scofield, CT Dept. of Economic and Community Development; James Sexton, AHS, Inc.
"An Enhanced Intensive-Level Field Survey of Early Dwellings in Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts," Walter Wheeler, Hartgen Archaeological Associates
VAF-NE Annual Meeting 2024, Providence, RI
"Portland, Maine’s Most Popular House: The Flexible, Adaptable Side-Hall," Thomas Hubka, University of Oregon
‘Strangers and Outcasts in a Strange Land:’ The Struggle for African American Civil Rights in Rhode Island, 1652–1976, Gretchen Pineo, Public Archaeology Laboratory, Pawtucket, RI
"The Rural Gothic, Early Episcopalians, and Trinity Church, Wall Street," Judith Hull, Independent Scholar
"New England Immigrant Synagogues 1880–1930: A Mix of Old and New World Vernacular," Samuel Gruber, Independent Scholar
"Ghosts, Paper Chains, and Starlight: Materiality and Mysticism in the Sukkah," Hannah Muhlfelder, Boston University
"Fighting Cultural Genocide: Documenting Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage in a Time of War," Myron Stachiw, Independent Scholar
VAF-NE Annual Meeting 2020
“Framing the Old Colony: Early Plymouth Architecture in Context” James Kelleher, Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in American Material Culture
“The New England Squash Barn” Sally McMurry, Penn State University
“Marblehead Land Company, A Well-Documented Residential Subdivision of the 1880s John D Clemson, Independent Scholar
A Look Back at a WWI Housing Effort Lorna Condon, Historic New England
Introducing the Royal Barry Wills Associates Archives Lorna Condon, Historic New England
Destination “Magic Town”: Capitalism, Corporate Branding, and the Trackside Architecture of the Portland & Rumford Falls Railway, 1890-1895 C. Ian Stevenson, Independent Scholar
FORUM: Recovering Urban Vernacular Spaces in Boston and New York City
“They Persisted: Women Confront the Corporate Improvement of Boston’s Waterfront, 1790-1820” Kathryn Lasdow, Suffolk University
“Real Estate and Reimagining African American Free Space in New York City” Alexander Manevitz, New York Historical Society
VAF-NE Annual Meeting 2019
“Imaging New Netherland: Origins and Survival of Netherlandic Architecture in North America,” Jeroen Van Den Hurk, Salve Regina University
Building English Houses: Evidence from the Mashantucket Pequot and Hassanamisco Nipmuc Reservations, Myron Stachiw, Independent Scholar/Consultant in Social and Architectural History and Holly Izard, Worcester Historical Museum
VAF 2021 Conference in Plymouth, MA, J. Ritchie Garrison, University of Delaware
The Architecture of La Survivance: Creating Quebecois Community in Early Twentieth-century New Hampshire, Peter Michaud, Cultural Resources Manager, United States Navy
The World in One Square Mile: The Cultural Landscape of Central Falls, Rhode Island, Gretchen Pineo and Virginia H. Adams, Public Archaeology Laboratory
New England’s Connected Farmhouse Architecture: An Investigation for the National Historic Landmarks Program, Roger Reed, National Register and National Historic Landmarks Programs
http://www.vafweb.org/event-3291088
| VAF-NE Annual Meeting 2018 |
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Vernacular Building Science at the Gropius House David Fannon, Northeastern University The House was Demolished: The Role of Cultural Bias in the Loss of Modern American Residential Architecture Anna Marcum, Tulane University The Mid-Century Modern Lexington Center Pedestrian Promenade, 1967-1970 Virginia Adams & Gretchen Pineo, Public Archaeology Laboratory Mid-Century Mormon Modern: Creating a Mormon Cultural Landscape Among the Eastern Establishment Sam Palfreyman, Boston University Just Add Water: Midcentury Transformations of the Pondside Vernacular David Foxe, Epstein Joslin Architects Suburban Design Thinking: Home Builders and House Design in the Mid-Twentieth Century Elaine B. Stiles, Roger Williams University David Fried: Mysterious Modernist of the CCC Devin Colman, Vermont Division for Historic Preservation Lovett's Inn: A Jewelbox of Modern Design Tucked into Franconia Notch Nicole Benjamin-Ma, VHB Works-in-Progress |
| VAF-NE Annual Meeting 2017 |
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http://www.vafweb.org/event-2469706 Pedaling Vacationland: Bicycles, Architecture, and the Leisure Landscape in Maine 1878-1902 Sam Shupe Building Reform at the Connecticut Industrial School for Girls 1870-1900 Catherine Zipf Works-in-Progress State of the Chapter |
| VAF-NE Annual Meeting 2016 |
Kim Hoagland
Panel: Educating about the Vernacular
Moderator: Zachary Violette with Betsy Cromley, Kim Hoagland, Robert Russell, Myron Stachiw
Ian Stevenson, Richard E. Greenwood Young Scholar Award
A Damming Problem: The Relocation and Modern Planning of Hill, NH's New Village
Andrew Cushing
Moderator: Elizabeth Igleheart with Betsy Friedberg, Peter Michaud, Christi Mitchell, Jenny Scofield, and Laura Trieschmann
| VAF-NE Annual Meeting 2015 |
Don Cyr
The "Block," a Three-Decker Variant in Berlin, New Hampshire
Laura Driemeyer
Zachary Violette
The Career of the Double Parlor in Boston, 1800-1850
Jeffrey Klee, Richard E. Greenwood Young Scholar Award
| VAF-NE Annual Meeting 2014 |
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The Backstory of Planning: The Olmsted Firm and Brookline Landscape Keith Morgan Early Suburban Architecture in Newton, MA, 1830-1850 Milda Richardson Early African-American Meetinghouses of New England Aaron Sturgis Mapping Colonial Newport: The Challenges and Triumphs of Digital Research |
| VAF-NE Annual Meeting 2013 |
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VAF-NE meets March 16 at Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA. "...make it neer the Culler of Chelmsford meeting-house": Painted Surfaces on Early New England Houses of Worship A Duxbury Joiner’s Shop What can and can’t be said: Civil Rights and African-American History in the New New South Assessing the Cultural Significance of Stone Piles Defining New England House Types, Part 3 |
| VAF-NE Annual Meeting 2012 |
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VAF-NE meets March 31, 2012 at Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA. Chain of Tools: Supply Chains, Lumber, and Vernacular Communities in Northern California, 1850-1930 Interpreting the Shakers: Opening the Villages to the Public, 1955-1965 A New North Shore House Type 'Tenement Canyons': Methods for Managing the Data on a Common Building Type VAF 2011 - Jamaica Report Defining New England House Types |
| VAF-NE Annual Meeting 2011 |
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VAF-NE meets April 2, 2011 at Old Sturbridge Village, Sturbridge, MA. Architectural Remains of the 1607-1608 Popham Colony on the Kennebec River in Maine Out of the Attic: Inventing Antiques in Twentieth-Century New England A Study of 18th-19th century Powder Houses and Their Construction on the North Shore Within the Means of All: American Consumer Culture and the Rise of the Residential Funeral Home, 1915 – 1965 The Food Axis Understanding Massachusetts House Types |
| VAF-NE Winter Meeting 2010 |
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Early New England Buildings: Reflections on the Field The Framed Houses of Northern New England: An Archaeologist's View The Broad Chamfer School: Understanding the Client-Craftsman Relationship in Early 18th Century Guilford, Connecticut Recent Observations of Late First Period Construction Details in the Connecticut River Valley Sources for Reconstructing the Built Environment in the Connecticut Valley First Period Buildings in Eastern Massachusetts: Research in Progress ROUNDTABLE: Framing the Study of Early New England Architecture |
| VAF-NE Winter Meeting 2009 |
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Building Order on Beacon Hill Picturing Freedom: Pedro Tovookan Parris' Autobiographical Landscapes Marshall Street, Watertown, MA: A Charles Brigham Showroom Architecture and the Reproduction of Privilege: A Cultural Landscape Approach to the Children’s Cottage at the Breakers Gendered Landscapes in Turn-of-the-Century San Francisco Invisible Property: the Clothes Closet as Architectural Space |
| VAF-NE Winter Meeting 2008 |
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Preservation and Profit: Wallace Nutting and the Chain of Colonial Houses Norman Isham: Rhode Island’s Early Preservation Architect The Architect as Historian: Restoration Architecture of Joseph Everett Chandler Displaying American Decorative Arts: George Francis Dow’s Period Rooms in International Context Antiquarians and Economics: The Invention of Cushing’s Island Panel Discussion with Speakers |
| VAF-NE Winter Meeting 2007 |
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Finding Meaning in New England Churches: Researching Temples of Grace: The Material Transformation of Connecticut’s Churches, 1790-1840 Exhuming Old Ship: New Evidence for Original Features at the Hingham Meetinghouse Forum: The Orientation of Houses in the Village of Deerfield: Archeological and Documentary Evidence of Change in the Eighteenth Century Where We Lived: An Experiment in Accessible History The Building Frame Trade in Coastal New Hampshire |
| VAF-NE Winter Meeting 2006 |
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How the English Farmhouse Was Redesigned in British North America God is in the Details: The Transformation of Ecclesiastical Architecture in Early 19th Century America Invitation to Vernacular Architecture: Why We Said What We Said Collaboration in the Packaging of Boston and New England: The Encyclopedia of New England and The Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston Report from the VAF Annual Meeting: Tucson Overview Forum: Learning from the Coburn House |
| VAF-NE Winter Meeting 2005 |
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A Socioarchitectural Study of Seventeenth-Century Connecticut Valley Probate Inventories City Architect and Rural Builder: the Collaboration of Richard Upjohn and George Stearns in Brattleboro, Vermont, 1853-55 Report from the VAF Annual Meeting: Pennsylvania Overview Forum: Protocols for Dendrochronology |
| VAF-NE Winter Meeting 2004 |
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Landscape, People, and Architecture of the New England Tobacco Fields 'To Create an Old-Fashioned Garden': Archaeological Perspectives on the Restoration of Newport’s Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House Architecture in Early Maine: The View from the Chadbourne Archaeology Site (ca. 1643-1690) Report from the VAF Annual Meeting St. Pierre and Michelon: An Overview Graffiti in the Candia, NH, Schoolhouse at Old Sturbridge Village: The Identification of a Regional Vernacular Symbol |