A fairly close synonym is gazebo, a word of troy used a coup
years ago but did not define. A pavilion can be a similar
construction. Somewhat related is the widow's walk, a small
structure on roof top, with sheltered place to sit or stand,
with view of harbor.

For a picturte of a "widow's walk" see: (scroll down 1/3)
http://www.intandem.com/NewPrideSite/MD/Logs/Log13.html

I understood gazebo to mean, a pergola on a roof.....

Dear maahey: my dictionary supports you, but also says
"summerhouse" which is the usage I have seen most often.

pavillions, gazebos, and a pergola with a roof!
http://www.finehouse.net/Plans Pavilions.htm

Well, jazzo can come and correct me, but a pergola is a flat top structure (almost always) the has upright columns, and cross structures like joists, but no roofing material. I have only seen them made of wood, but they could be made of metal, (i can envision one that way, don't know if they ever have been done, but i see no reason why not!) or stone(real or concrete to look like stone) I don't think brick would work...

it is often adjecent to a house but I have seen them free standing.. Last year, Martha Stewart living had instructions on how to build a free standing one to support a wisteria vine, and very frequently, pergola's are covered with flower or fruiting vines. here in NY, grapes would be most common. a home support for table grapes grown in the back yard.

a gazebo is always a free standing structure, I have never seen one attached to a house or other building.

they are round, or square, or octoganal, and no doubt, also pentigons, or hexigons.. and septigons and many other shapes.
They are covered -- they have roof.. sometimes it is slatted, and not rain-proof, but most often it is a real roof. and 99% of the time, it is a pitched roof, not a flat one. The sides are open or half open or screened in..They are made of wood or cast iron, or stone, or brick. or any other building material, including metal and glass.

Gazebo's have floors too, some times just grade level poured concrete, sometimes fancy brick, sometimes wood decking, but they all have a sense of a 'building'.

Norm Thomas, (of This Old House fame) has build both on TOH shows. pergola's tend to be square/rectangle-ish, some are like covered passages, some as large as parking spaces.. pergola's are about 50/50 for floors, some do, some don't.

I think they are different things, not just different names for almost the same thing a veranda/porch/terrace/covered deck/deck -- each could be very very similar to each other and the words could be used somewhat interchangably, but a pergola and gazebo are different.

helen? I'm laughing like a chopped Mantle.
-mickey bfstplk

Hey, my post time..
Posted by of troy (Carpal Tunnel)
Posted on Thu Jul 17 16:25:49 2003

Your post time was 2 minutes before that.. i was busy typing up my post as you were posting..

it's hardly a mantle!

and yeah, the first one is a pergola, (with, as they point out a extra gazebo like roof structure!) and the others are gazebo's.
(part of the problems, is i previewed my post, but didn't chech the thread after i posted, so i never saw your post)

hardly a mantle

In the language of the board from which the term mantle was borrowed, helen did not mantle tsuwm, tsuwm pipped helen.

Don't forget the history of the gloriette, an architectural structure we examined about a year and a half ago on the board. The gloriette developed into a huge, truly enormous at times, freestanding structure used as a focal point at the end of a lake on an estate, for example, or as a focal point in a garden. In researching the development of the gloriette when the topic came up on AWAD, I learned that the gloriette was originally a structure within the castle gates and could even, in some examples, be attached to the castle itself. The gloriette migrated into gardens over time and in the late 18th century there were examples of the gloriette far away from the residence. Of the photographs of gloriettes online, I saw ones that looked like guest houses and one in particular somewhere in Europe that was a truly glorious gloriette with enough glass to furnish the Crystal Palace. Yes, I exaggerate. But that gloriette was expansive and full of windows and rooms.

Anyway, since we're talking about structures that enhance residences, let's not forget the gloriette.

helen, in truth it was more a picture, thousand words sort of juxtaposition that had me laughing.