This thesis argues that early nineteenth-century domestic architecture along Indiana's eastern National Road (Wayne, Henry and Hancock Counties) was a product of the available local materials, not a product of cultural influences traveling along the Road. While the first chapter drives in this point, the second and third chapters describe the local materials (builders and carpenters, wood, saw-mills, clay, brickmaking and limestone), and explain construction techniques in a series of case study buildings. The thesis concludes by not only confirming the proposition, but also by making a few conclusions regarding early nineteenth-century construction methods. / Department of Architecture