Editing Cottage (section)

===North America===
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2021}}
[[File:Nothnagle Log House.JPG|thumb|right|Cottage built {{Circa|1640}}, near [[Swedesboro, New Jersey]]]]
[[File:Wolters Filling Davenport.jpg|thumb|right|[[Wolters Filling Station]] in [[Davenport, Iowa]]; an example of an English Cottage-style gas station]]
Although the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' states that the term ''cottage'' is used in North America to represent "a summer residence (often on a large and sumptuous scale) at a watering-place or a health or pleasure resort," most Americans expect a cottage, particularly a summer cottage, to be a relatively small, possibly unfinished house. Various editions of the quintessentially American ''[[Webster's Dictionary]]'' define it as "a small house; any modest country or suburban dwelling," (fifth edition) with the eleventh edition describing even a vacation cottage as "a usu. small house for vacation use."

In North America, most buildings known as cottages are used for weekend or summer getaways by city dwellers. Cottage owners often rent their properties to tourists as a source of revenue. In [[Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands]], most cottages are vacation rentals used for weekend or summer getaways. In Michigan, a cottage normally means a summer residence farther north near or on a lake. An example of a [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial era]] cottage in North America is a small [[fieldstone]] house called [[Boelson Cottage]] in [[Fairmount Park]], [[Philadelphia]]—one of the oldest extant houses within the city (c.1678–84).

In the jargon of [[English-speaking Quebecer|English-speaking]] [[Quebec]]'s real-estate industry, a cottage is any two-storey house, as opposed to a [[bungalow]]. However, "cottages" in Eastern Canada are generally located next to lakes, rivers, or the ocean in forested areas. They are used as a place to spend holidays with friends and family; common activities include swimming, canoeing, waterskiing, fishing, [[hiking]], and [[sailing]]. There are also many well-known [[summer colony|summer colonies]]. Cottage living is one of the most popular tourist draws in [[Ontario]], Canada, parts of which have come to be known as [[cottage country]]. This term typically refers to the north and south shores of [[Georgian Bay, Ontario]]; [[Muskoka, Ontario]]; [[Haliburton, Ontario]]; and the [[Kawartha Lakes, Ontario]]; but has also been used to describe several other Canadian regions. The practice of renting cottages has become widespread in these regions, especially with rising property taxes for waterfront property.

What Eastern Canadians refer to as "cottages" (seasonal-use dwellings), are generally referred to as "cabins" in most of North America. This is most notable in the [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]] and the Western United States, and Western Canada. In much of [[Northern Ontario]], [[New England]], and [[upstate New York]], a summer house near a body of water is known as a camp.{{citation needed|date=September 2011}} In the 1960s and 1970s, the [[A-Frame house]] became a popular cottage style in North America.

In the 1920s and 30s many [[gas station]]s were built in the style of Old World cottages. Comprising about a third of the stations built in the United States in those years, cottage-patterned facilities evoked a picturesque homeyness and were easier to gain approval for than the more stylized or attention-grabbing designs also commonly used at the dawn of the automobile era.<ref>{{citation |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/86001356_text|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form: Lundring Service Station|publisher=United States Department of the Interior - National Park Service|date=20 June 1986|access-date=20 July 2024}}</ref>