Colonial Days in Old New York by Alice Morse Earle

The first log houses of the settlers, with their "reeden roofs," were soon supplanted by a more substantial form of edifice, Dutch, naturally, in outline. They were set with the gable-end to the street and were often built of Dutch brick, or, at any rate, the gable-ends were of brick.

Madam Knights' description of the city of New York and the houses is wonderfully clear, as is every account from her graphic pen, but very short: --