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Windows in Colonial Times

OK, I love windows and their history. I just have to bring this up.

In modern times we sometimes think of window glass as being universal. After all, didn't churches have stained glass in medieval times?

But the art of making sheets of glass wasn't figured out until the late 1600s / early 1700s, and even then it was generally for wealthier families.

Most people simply left the window-holes open until inclement weather struck. Then they would close up the wooden shutters outside and pull closed heavy drapes on the inside, to seal the space as best they could.

Part of what fascinates me about this is that I grew up in New England. I was surrounded by historic saltbox homes. I've lived in a traditional "colonial" style house these past twenty-plus years.

Most houses around here have decorative wooden shutters.

It's just the way houses look. They have shutters. But in nearly every case here, nobody USES their shutters for their stated purpose any more. They're something pretty to put around windows.

These pieces of wood used to have an actual function :). And, heck, given the kind of damage that windstorm and hail can cause, it wouldn't be a bad idea if we did have functioning shutters on all of the houses around here again, to close them up when storms came through.

Instead we just replace the glass and consider it a quick, easy fix.

We don't consider that, a few hundred years ago, people didn't even have glass windows.