In the 17th-18th centuries, the so called Old Baltic type manor house was widely used in Estonian manors (and partly also in settlements/towns). This one-storey building is characterized by a kitchen/mantel chimney in the middle and four rooms around the chimney, in the corners of the building. In the chimney-side corners of the rooms, there were tiled stoves, the smoke flues of which ran above the ceiling into the chimney.

The oldest Old Baltic type manor houses date back to the 17th century (Vana-Pääla in Keila parish), but this kind of planning could also be older. The Old Baltic planning in manor houses started to recede in the 18th and 19th centuries and was replaced by a more majestic types of building.

At the same time, the Old Baltic type was still used for the surrounding buildings (residences of manor officials) until the middle of the 19th century. As one of the peaks of Old Baltic manor house was in the Baroque period, these buildings are often characterized by Baroque elements on the outside (in the case they have not been rebuilt at a later stage).