Stockade Fence vs. Picket Fence: No "Picket Fence" Anywhere In Dealey Plaza

[Steve Barber]

Picket Fence

Purpose: Decorative boundary used primarily for aesthetics and keeping small children/pets contained.

Height: Typically shorter, usually measuring 3 to 4 feet tall.

Design: Features distinct spaces between the vertical boards. The tops are often pointed or feature intricate designs.

 
Stockade Fence

Purpose: Privacy, security, and acting as a sound/wind barrier.

Height: Much taller, commonly built to 6 or 8 feet high.

Design: Pickets are placed tightly together or overlap, creating a solid, impenetrable wall of wood. 

The tops are almost always pointed (dog-eared) or straight across.

[Royell Storing]

Picket Fence

Purpose: Decorative boundary used primarily for aesthetics and keeping small children/pets contained.

Height: Typically shorter, usually measuring 3 to 4 feet tall.

Design: Features distinct spaces between the vertical boards. The tops are often pointed or feature intricate designs.

 
Stockade Fence

Purpose: Privacy, security, and acting as a sound/wind barrier.

Height: Much taller, commonly built to 6 or 8 feet high.

Design: Pickets are placed tightly together or overlap, creating a solid, impenetrable wall of wood.

The tops are almost always pointed (dog-eared) or straight across.

Hey Steve - A "picket" is pointed or sharp. A stockade fence is Blunt or Oval at most.

I believe this is why "Picket" Fence is used to describe the Dealey Plaza fencing.

[John Corbett]

Hey Steve - A "picket" is pointed or sharp. A stockade fence is Blunt or Oval at most.

I believe this is why "Picket" Fence is used to describe the Dealey Plaza fencing.

I'm not one to quibble over the semantics one way or the other. I don't care if people call it a picket fence or a stockade fence. I think we all know which fence is being referred to.

[Lance Payette]

It would appear from Google Images that Steve is basically correct. That being said, out here in Arizona I've never heard the term "stockade fence" used. The "pointy headed" vs. "blunt headed" distinction is definitely incorrect. Stockade fence sounds vaguely military, and that in fact is the origin (military and frontier stockades) - so I would think CTers would prefer it. For that matter, I've never heard anyone call anything out here a "grassy knoll," either. I do have a "pergola" in my back yard, although I didn't know that's what it was called either until the contractor called it that.

Now that I'm working on a law review article on this topic, it seems that the logs of frontier stockade fences did have pointy bottoms to facilitate driving them into the ground. Beginning in approximately 1873 ... oh, never mind.