Architecture: gables, dormers

[skdadl]

What is the difference between a gable and a dormer?

[Toedancer]

Jeebus what a question! I can picture them, but I can't describe them. I also thought the words were just interchangeable. This is what I found:

Roof dormers
Pop up from the main roofline, like a small house with its own walls, roof, and window. Roof dormers provide light, added space, and ventilation to the topmost spaces in the house.

Wall dormers
Rise up from the roofline at the roof-to-wall junction but, unlike gables, have walls.

A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used (which is often related to climate and availability of materials) and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable.
The House of the 7 Gables, built in 1668 for Capt. John Turner

But I like dormers better.

typical cape cod dormer

[deBeauxOs]

That 20th century Cape Cod looks like a copy of traditional houses built in Lower Canada in the 19th century.

[skdadl]

I've seen the House of the Seven Gables -- it's across the street and down a bit from the wonderful Customs House on the Salem harbour, which I did tour. I should have gone into the gabled house too, as well as Hawthorne's childhood home, but I ran out of time.

I think that stone and brick are more inland building materials than they are on the east coast. From Massachusetts to Nova Scotia, the old harbour houses I've seen are usually frame buildings (often painted pretty pastels), and they mostly resemble one another. They're usually more vertical than the Cape Cod, which is wider and has more of a cottage-y effect, I guess, although it looks very different made of stone, as in Lower Canada.