THE CADMAN WHITE HANDY HOUSEARCHITECTURAL STUDY

OCTOBER 2011

WESTPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETYWESTPORT, MASSACHUSETTS

Preface 1

Introduction 3

Significance 5

Areas of Additional Research 6

Period I: c.1710 - c.1780 9

Period II: c.1780 - c.1812 19

Period III: c.1812 - 1911 47

Period IV: 1911 - 1937 65

Period V: 1937 - 1910 73

Inspection of Probes 79

CONTENTS

ERIC GRADOIAARCHITECTURAL HISTORY AND CONSERVATION

930 MELROSE VALLEY FALLS ROADSCHAGHTICOKE, NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT 2011

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Preface

Perhaps what makes the Cadman WhiteHandy house so interesting is that it is notsimply a well preserved old house, but ratherthree remarkable houses that correspondwith the first three significant trends to occurin this nation's architectural history. Eachcampaign -- from the original earlyeighteenth century house, to the mid-eighteenth century improvements in theGeorgian manner, to the Federal styleaddition -- speaks volumes about the people,place, and period they represent.Furthermore, what is equally fascinatingabout this building is what doesn't exist:those numerous, incremental modernimprovements and alterations performed by

recent occupants to update a house. Whilesmall changes have occurred, they are limitedin scale and have done little to damage thefabric of the building. This exceptional stateof preservation is largely the product of Louisand Eleanor Tripp's devotion to the property.Inasmuch as the significance of the CadmanWhite Handy house lies with the families andpeople that built and enlarged the house, it islikely it would not be here today, in thecondition that it is in, if not for the care andtreatment it received under the Tripps'ownership. Hopefully, many generations tocome will benefit from their stewardship ofthis fascinating property.

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Figure 1. South facade, July 2011.

Figure 2. West facade, July 2011.

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Introduction

This report documents the findingsgenerated by the author after a series of sitevisits to the Cadman White Handy housebetween June and September 2011. Thisarchitectural investigation wascommissionedfor thepurposeofstudyingthearchitectural fabric of the house in order tobegin to gain an accurate understanding ofthe chronological evolution of the house.While some general assumptions existedconcerning the age and development of thehouse, a formal examination of the houseaimed at understanding subtle changeswithin each space as well as the building as awhole had never been undertaken. Thisreport attempts to identify many of theprincipal changes that occurred to the housebetween its initial construction in the earlyyears of the eighteenth century to today. Thisreport is not intended to be definitive. Thepurpose of this exercise was to begin tounderstand the development of this building.The findings of this report are intended to actas the starting point for further study.

Owing to the limited scope of this project,heavyemphasiswasplacedonthestudyof thebuilding's architectural fabric. No physicaltesting of materials was undertaken. In twolocations where floor boards were lifted toexamine deflections in floors and ceilingplaster, a comprehensive examination ofthese probes were made. A limited amount ofarchival research was conducted; these werelargely limited to documents within theWestport Historical Society's collections.These included past reports and articles onthe Handy house and occupants, wills,probate inventories, and numerousphotographs.

The dates used in this report to identifyperiods should not be considered definitive;the precise dating of specific campaigns andfeatures requires further investigation and isbeyond the scope of this report. In someinstances, the dates assigned are born out ofpast research and have been accepted asproviding a generally accuraterepresentation of an era. In other instances,dates have been assigned that span a range intime that a feature or campaign may pertainto. These dates have been assigned based oncharacteristics, materials, or styles typical ofthose years.

The author would like to thank the membersof the Westport Historical Society's FacilitiesCommittee for their guidance and sharingtheir knowledge of the site. Foremostacknowledgements are due to Jenny O'Neill,Director of the Westport Historical Societyfor supplying the author with archivaldocumentation, providing access to thehouse, and introducing me to other like-minded individuals involved with the house.The author is indebted to Martha Werenfels,Principal, Durkee, Brown, Viveiros &Werenfels Architects, for allowing the use ofmeasured drawings developed by her and herproject team. I would especially like to thankPete Baker and Geraldine Millham for takingthe time to share their intimate knowledge ofthe building and personal records on the site.Many thanks to all of you.

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Figure 3. North facade, July 2011.

Figure 4. East facade, July 2011.

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Significance

The Cadman White Handy house is a remark-able artifact. It is significant on a number oflevels within a broad range of subjects. Con-sidering theageof thebuilding, thenumberofowners and inhabitants, and the improve-ments made to it through time, the house re-tains an extraordinarily high level of integri-ty. Though changes have been made to itthroughout the course of its existence, theyhave done little damage to the vital featuresandcharacteristics that tell thenear300-yearhistory of the building and site.

One of the most important features about thehouse is the quality of its interior; it remainslargely a representation of how it existed atthe time of the last significant building cam-paign, sometime around c. 1820 (Period III).This improvement was basically an additionto the west end of the house, leaving the earli-er portion of the house unaffected. So whiledecorative treatments (paint and wallpaper)have changed, the architectural fabric -- thefloor plan, wall surfaces, doors, woodwork,etc. -- are essentially intact and are represen-tative of the first three periods of the build-ing's life (c. 1710 - c. 1820).

What sets the Cadman White Handy houseapart from other historic buildings of its typeis both the degree to which these interior fin-ishes survive and the condition in which theyremain. In short, these features are excep-tional. Much of the Period II and Period IIIwoodwork has very little paint on it (and in afew instances none or only a single coat).This, incombinationwith the designandexe-cution of the architectural details result inunadulterated surfaces that, aside from theircolor, exhibit much their same appearance aswhen they were first built.

Additionally, the house retains unique fea-tures that, once common in dwelling houses,through time have have disappeared. Fea-tures such as the smoke chamber and storagespace in the chimney, cranes in every fireplace, and both stairs and a hatch into the at-tic -- all original to their periods and not re-constructions -- are rare details to find re-maining intact.

While the immediate significance of the Cad-man White Handy house lies with its ties toWestport (and Dartmouth), its value tran-scends locality, and like all historical docu-ments, its interpretation depends on the con-text inwhich it is studied.Owingto thequalityof the architecture and archival documenta-tionpertaining to the site,TheCadmanWhiteHandy house is a resource valuable locally,regionally, and nationally. The house may bestudied and/or interpreted in a number ofways. Relevant themes might include:

Locally

• Early settlement and development of Dart-mouth and Westport

• First Period architecture in Massachusetts

Regionally

• Domestic architecture and living arrange-ments in eighteenth and nineteenth centurysoutheastern Massachusetts/New England

• Vernacular building traditions and designaesthetics in southeastern Massachusetts/New England

Nationally

• Example of an American domestic resi-dence exhibiting 300 years of evolution

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• The adaptation of European building tradi-tions in the American colonies

While numerous house museums dot theNew England landscape, very few compara-ble examples rival the Cadman White Handyhouse in overall quality and completeness.The house is a unique architectural time cap-sule thatembodies the first threeprincipalar-chitectural trends tooccur in thisnation'shis-tory, as well as representing the story of ev-eryday life in Westport over the course ofthree centuries.

Areas of Additional Research

Based on observations made during thecourse of this investigation, the following listidentifies areas of additional research thatwill likely yield valuable informationregarding the construction and evolution ofthe house.

Probes

As the exercise performed during the courseof this investigation has shown, much can belearned from studying the areas of thebuilding hidden behind its finishes. Theremaining pieces of the Period I house likelycontain valuable information about theoriginal house plan, decorative treatments(both interior and exterior), and possiblyeven the fenestration of the original house.Whenever possible, whether as part of workperformed on the building or as anindependent undertaking, careful study anddocumentation of the building's framing andinner cavities should be made to gather whatinformation can be learned from these areas.

One area that is relatively accessible andlikely toyielda largeamountof information isthe attic framing. Study of the second floor

ceiling framing viewable here may indicatewhere partitions were located on the secondfloor, the location of an earlier attic stair, andadditional information concerning thechimney mass. With the attic floorboardsremoved, the framing system here could beaccurately measured and drawn as well.

Dendrochronology

Dendrochronology, the science of tree-ringdating, should be considered to date thevarious periods of construction. This processconsists of coring samples (about thediameter of a pencil) from select timbersthroughout each phase of construction, andwith the aid of computer software, analyzingthe pattern of the timber's growth rings. Thispattern is then compared to an establishedsequence allowing it to be accurately dated.

To perform this analysis, samples must betaken from timbers that have an accessiblewaney edge, that is to say, they must containa portion of the outer surface of the tree theywere fashioned from. While the author madenote of timbers that had the potential tosupplysamples foranalysis, those individualsexperienced with the removal of the samplescan better identify which timbers will yieldserviceable specimens. That said, a numberof framing members were observed thatappeared to be good candidates for thisprocess.

Archival Research

A concerted effort should be made to identify,evaluate and assemble all of the archivaldocumentation that exists on the building,site, and families associated with them. Thisinformation, correlated with what has beenlearned from the physical fabric of the

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building, will help illustrate a clearer historyof the site and, hopefully, answer questionsconcerning when and who made certainchanges to the house.

Understanding the occupants' economicconditions, social environments, andstandings within the community allows us tobetter comprehend the relationship betweenthe people living within the house and thearchitecture itself. Insomuch as the physicalfabric shows us the product of changes,archival documentation can inform us as towhen and why these improvements weremade.

Archaeology

When conditions allow, archaeology shouldbe performed in and around the perimeter ofthe house. Owing to the evolution of thehouse, a number of builders trenchespresumably exist around the building. Theseareas likely contain a variety of objectsrelating to both the construction andalteration of each phase of building, as well asthe people living and working on the site.Analysis of these objects will help inform andillustrate daily life in and around the housethroughout the course of its existence.

As easements are held on the site,archaeology may be a stipulated condition ofthese instruments prior to conducting workthat may disturb sensitive areas. This issueshould be considered when planning anywork that may include below-grounddisturbances. Consultation with anarchaeologist should help to determine thescope and scale of archaeology necessary tosatisfy local and state regulations governingthis matter.

Additional Investigation

In planning future work on the building,considerationshouldbemade toundertakingthe further investigation of spaces to betterunderstand them. This is largely confined tothose rooms that have been altered sincePeriod II, such as Rooms 100, 104, and 204(See Figures 36, 37, 44). These spaces showclear evidence of partitions and surfacetreatments that should be more closelyexamined.

Selective, targeted paint and mortar analysisare also useful tools for helping understandthe evolution of spaces. While paint analysiscan be employed for studying the colors offinish layers and determining decorativefinish schemes used within spaces, it isextremely useful as an analytical tool forunderstanding where and when certainarchitectural elements may have beenintroduced/altered within the context of anindividual space or the building as a whole.The same holds true for mortar analysis.These processes are most effective when theiruse is carefully considered and narrowlydefined, rather than spread thin over largeareas without a definitive goal in mind.

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Figure 5

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Chronological Evolution

Note - Numbers in parentheses identify cor-responding figure.

Period Ic. 1710 - c. 1780

Owing to the extensive degree of work per-formed on the house during the Period II im-provements, a large amount of Period I fabrichas been removed in its entirety or encapsu-lated under later finishes. Key elements suchas the Period I chimney mass, stairs, thesouthwest corner post and the post immedi-ately east of it were removed during the Peri-od II improvements. The loss of these fea-tures in addition to the majority of the PeriodI roof framing complicates understandinghow exactly the Period I house appeared.While the general form and mass of the build-ingcanbediscerned, features suchas theplanand fenestration of the building are difficultto determine.

What we do know about the Period I house isthat it was three bays wide by two piles deep,and two-stories high with a gable roof. Thechimney mass was located at or near the westend of the house somewhere in the first bay(19, 120, 121). Enough of the original framesurvives to illustrate the width, depth andheight of the Period I house (6,7,8). Whilepractically the entire roof framing has beenaltered and later replaced during Periods IVand V respectively, two pairs of originalrafters remain in situ. The replacementrafters match the pitch of the originals result-ing in a roof line that replicates that originallyfound on the building.

Those elements of the original house that areavailable for study confirm the building ex-hibited First Period characteristics. Exposedframing members in the second floor eastroom and north rooms are chamfered with

lambs tongue stops (7,8,10,11). Secondaryframing members, principally joists, thathave been exposed by lifting floor boards inthe attic and on the second floor reveal thatthese elements were planed smooth andtreated with a slight chamfer along theiredges, indicating the floor framing at bothstories was originally exposed in the house(117, 118). Close study of the summer beamrunning through rooms 200 and 201 revealschamfer stops on both sides of the wall thatpartitions these spaces, indicating that theywere originally two separate rooms (11).1

Accepting that the original house exhibitedmany First Period characteristics and givenits age, it it highly likely the plan of the PeriodI house was fairly simple, consisting princi-pally of one or two large spaces on each floorwith an equal number of smaller, secondaryspaces. In the seventeenth century and earlydecades of the eighteenth century, roomswould have served a variety of functions de-pending on the needs at hand. Large, multi-purpose rooms were necessary to accommo-date tasks such as the preparation and cook-ing of food, the production of household ne-cessities (soap, candles, cloth, etc.), laundry,etc., as well as the activities of daily life, eat-ing, sleeping, receiving guests. It would notbe until after the first quarter of the eigh-teenth century that specialized room use be-gins to introduce itself in the New Englanddwelling house.

AfairamountofPeriodI fabric remains in thehouse. Some of this material is readily dis-cernible (such as the flared posts, summerbeams, and braces), while others are lessreadilyevidentowing to their similarity toPe-riodIImaterialsorconcealed location(exam-ples of these would be plaster finishes andfloorboards).1 The door between them is a later addition. Furtherevidence supporting this room being an original spacecan be seen at the attic level. The west wall of this roomis plank construction. The boards run up past the plas-ter ceiling and are fastened to the west side of the tiebeam

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Some elements remaining in the house thatare clearly Period I include:

Two panel doors (38). Two of these doors re-main in the house, one in situ at the dooropening leading into the first floor northeastroom (Room 100) and a second that is nolonger in use and presently stored in the atticof the building. The design and constructionof this door is a good representation of seven-teenth century aesthetics. While the con-struction of the door is comparable to the lat-er four and six panel doors (stile and railframewith floatingpanels,mortiseand tenonjoinery pegged to secure it), stylistically, thetwo over two panel door is less decorative andsimpler. Thedoorretains itsperiodhardware(wrought iron HL hinges and Suffolk latch).

Timber frame - While some pieces of the Peri-od I house frame have been lost to improve-ments and repairs through the centuries, alarge amount of the frame remains. Thoughmuch of the framing system is concealed be-hind finishes, portions of it are exposed insome locations as it was intended to be whenthe house was originally constructed (6, 7, 8,10, 11). In First Period construction, the tim-ber frameof thebuildingwasnothiddenawaybehind plaster and casings, but rather deco-rated and treated a part of the interior finish.To enhance the appearance of these timbers,edges were chamfered or, in some instances,run with a decorative profile. To terminatethese treatments, equally decorative stopswere carved at the ends; these, too, appear ina wide range of styles. At the Handy house,those timbers seen on the second floor, east ofthe chimney stack provide a good representa-tions of this.

In the Hall Chamber (Room 201) the flaredposts, tie-beams, braces and part of the northplate all remain uncovered, unlike their cor-responding members one floor below whichwere hidden away behind casing during thePeriod II improvements (6, 7). It is curiousthat these second floor elements remainedexposed while nearly all others are covered byplaster or cased in finished woodwork. Gen-erally, if plaster had been applied or casingsnailed to them, one would see lime burns andghosts of lath or nails holes where treatmentswere fastened to them. A close inspection ofthe timbers surfaces showsnosigns theywereever covered here.

If one examines the chamfer stops on the tie-beams in both the Hall Chamber and theNortheast Room (200) you will notice thatthe chamfer is terminated at both ends ineach room; each room is treated as a separatespace. This tells us that each of these roomsexisted independent of the other at the timethe house was constructed.

While a doorway currently exists in the wallbetween these two spaces, it is a later addi-tion,dating toAbbottSmithandthePeriodIValterations (104). Disregarding this doorwayleaves us with the west doorway to the theroom (between rooms 200 and 202) (8, 9).This is the original door opening to the roomand retains a Period I architrave on the eastside of the door opening. This is the only ex-ample of this profile remaining in the house.

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Figure 6. Room 202 (Old Bedroom). All of the framing members we see in thenorth wall of the building here relate to the Period I house. The rising brace seen on theleft side of the image marks the northwest corner of the Period I house.

Figure 7. Room 201 (Hall Chamber). View looking southeast. All of the exposedframing members -- posts, tie beams and brace -- relate to the Period I house. Thecorner post marks the southeast corner of the house. Like Room 200, the corner posthere originally had a rising brace running up the east wall. This appears to have beenremoved during the Smith era (Period IV).

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Figure 8. Room 200 (Second floor northeast room). The architrave on the westdoor and the presence of chamfer stops at each end of the summer beam suggest thisroom dates to the Period I house. The corner post marks the northeast corner of thePeriod I house. Originally a corresponding brace was located in the east wall of thestructure. This appears to have been removed during the Smith era (Period IV).

Figure 9. Room 200, west door. This architrave dates to the Period I house. It isthe only one of its type remaining and makes for an interesting comparison to the laterGeorgian and Federal style architraves found elsewhere in the house.

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Figure 11. Room 201 (Hall Chamber), north wall. Chamfer stop at the north end ofthe summer beam. Room 200 on the opposite side of this wall has its own chamferstops, indicating it was always treated as a separate space.

Figure 10. Room 201 (Hall Chamber), south wall. Detail of the post head andsummer beam. The following image shows the corresponding chamfer stop at thenorth end of the room. Room 200 on the opposite side of the north wall has its ownchamfer stops, indicating it was always treated as a separate space.

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Figure 12. Room 202 (Old Bedroom), chimney closet. Looking west. The summerbeam is only chamfered on the east face suggesting the west side of it was neverintended to be seen. The beam may have been hidden behind paneling or somehowassociated with the Period I chimney system.

Figure 13. Room 202 (Old Bedroom), chimney closet. Looking south. The plasterceiling here predates the Period II improvements and relates to the Period I roomlocated in the southeast corner of the second floor. The ceiling had to be cut away toaccommodate the chimney and the Period II attic stair.

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Figure 14. Cellar. Joist under Old Kitchen, running north/south. Another exampleof reused materials incorporated into the Period II framing.

Figure 15. Cellar. Joist under Old Kitchen, running north/south. This timber runsimmediately next to the reused timber shown above; however, in this case a new timberwas hewn for the purpose. The cupped tool marks indicate an adze was used to surfacethis timber.

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Figure 16. Cellar. East wall. Remnants of seaweed used to fill the joints remainthroughout the cellar walls.

Figure 17. Cellar. Girder under Old Kitchen, running east/west. The bottom edgeof this timber has a chamfer and lambs tongue chamfer stop. This is likely a reusedtimber from either the Period I house or an entirely different building, installed duringthe Period II improvements. . The stop is closer to the end of the timber than normallyfound suggesting a portion of the timber has been removed.

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Figure 18. Crawl space under Lobby Entry. South wall. A section of sill has beenreplaced with salvage material. Since sills on timber buildings of this age get replacedmore frequently than other structural members, the vintage of this repair may not beextremely old.

Figure 19. Arrow points to an empty joist pocket. The pocket, now blocked by thePeriod II chimney, indicates a Period I joist was located here . No pockets wereobserved in the area of the tie beam encased by the chimney suggesting the Period Istack may have risen up through this location.

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Figure 20

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Period IIc. 1780 - c. 1812

Period II improvements greatly altered theform, plan, and finishes of the Period I house.In addition to enlarging the house during thiscampaign, the interiors were finished withfashionable Georgian details, no doubt atremendous contrast to the Period I finishes.By the time this work occurred (it is notknown if the work we see here is the result ofone single comprehensive campaign or theproduct of numerous incremental improve-ments over a period of years), the original Pe-riod I house with its First Period featureswould have been out of fashion for someyears, replaced by the classically inspiredGeorgian style of architecture.

Georgian architecture in the New Englandcolonies began to appear during the firstquarter of the eighteenth century. Intro-duced to the colonies chiefly by means of En-glish sources, the roots of Georgian architec-ture grew out of classicism and antiquity.Employing such design aesthetics as bilateralsymmetry, the use of classical orders and pro-portioning systems, architecture, at nearly allsocial levels, began to strive for formality. Be-ginning in England in the last quarter of theseventeenth century through works byChristopher Wren, by the dawn of the eigh-teenth century the English Baroque hadspread throughout the country. Individualsemigrating to the colonies, especially thosefrom urban areas and the upper ranks of soci-ety would have been well exposed to this styleof building and strove to imitate it.

The Period II improvements to the housetransformed it from a relatively humbledwelling house into a fashionable two story,five-bay, center chimney, double pile house(20,21,22). With the entry located in the cen-ter bay and the windows arranged evenlyacross the south facade at both stories, the

house exhibited the symmetry and propor-tion characteristic of Georgian architecture(22). It is almost certainly during this periodthat the triangular pedimented frontispiecewas added to the entry, further formalizingthe house’s appearance (92). The organizedcomposition of the window openings carriedthrough on the gable ends of the building;however,at therearof thebuilding(northele-vation), the placement of the windows be-came irregular (3). Here, room arrangementand the need for light and ventilation in thesespaces, combined with the back of the housebeing less prominent, allowed for a breakfrom the rigid symmetry strived for in thefront of the house.

It also appears that while the front and sidesof the house received larger twelve-over-twelve light sasheson the first floorandeight-over-twelve sashes on the second floor, theback of the house contained smaller nine-over-nine and six-over-nine sashes respec-tively (22, 93). All of the windows at this timewere single hung; that is to say the upper sashwere fixed in place, while the bottom operat-ed.

Changes to the interior were extensive. Theplan of the house revolved around the chim-ney mass (20, 21). Nearly centered in thehouse, all of the principal rooms were ar-ranged around it. While at first glance theplan of the house may appear relatively sim-ple, from a social perspective it is highly re-fined and carefully organized. Based on theexisting architectural finishes that date to Pe-riod II, it appears that the house was dividedinto two nearly identical living spaces be-tween floors. Drawing a line running east/west throughthecenterof theplanof thePeri-od II house, it neatly divides the spaces withthe most formal rooms in the front and sec-ondary spaces to the rear. It may be that thebasis for the Period II campaign was to en-large and update the house to accommodatetwo separate family units (possibly different

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Figure 21

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generations or different siblings' families)under one roof. If one studies the rooms andtheir finishes closely, it is readily apparentthat the two floors practically mirror eachother. The obvious exception to this is thekitchen (which would have been shared) andthe corresponding space on the second floor.

While the present appearance of the Period IIhouse suggests a classic “two front, threerear” arrangement of rooms, the rooms in thenorthwest corner on both floors and thenortheast room on the first floor were eachpartitioned into two spaces during Period II(36, 37, 44, 45). While period references toroom names and descriptions of rooms in thehouse have not yet been located, the arrange-ment of the rooms and their finishes provideus with some clues as to their use and func-tion.

Part of the Period II work included fitting outpractically the entire interior with new finish-es, including plaster ceiling and wall surfaces,casework, paneling, architraves and beaufatsorcorner cupboards (30,32,47,60). Perhapsbest representative of this work is the lobbyentry and staircase (37, 54, 55). In crossingone’s threshold, this is the first space experi-enced by guests entering the house and there-fore makes the first impression upon them.The lobby entry has a variety of functions.During this period and more specifically as itrelates to this plan type, the lobby housed thestair to the upper floors, acted as a weatherbreak between the exterior and inner roomsof the house, and perhaps most importantly,controlled the visitor's experience. If peopleentering the house at this location only expe-rienced this one space, they would see a spacetreated highly architecturally: raised andfieldedpanelingonthewallsandundersideofthe stair carriage, turned balusters, a moldedcornice, and likely painted finishes.

The rooms east and west of the lobby were thebetter rooms of the house with those on the

west side being the most formal of the two.This hierarchy to the spaces can be “read”from within the lobby by the doors to each ofthese rooms. If one looks carefully at thedoors to these rooms they will notice the westdoor is a six-panel door as opposed to a fourpanel door entering the east room (28). Thissame detail holds true at the second floor.This slight variation to the language of the ar-chitecture signals which space behind thisdoor is the more formal of the two rooms.

Owing to the locations, finishes, and spacesopening off of these two rooms, it suggeststhat the west rooms on the first and secondfloor were the best parlours and the rooms tothe east were what may have functioned as ahall (in the eighteenth century sense of theword) or chamber (sleeping quarters).2

Thebestparlouras thenamesuggestswas thefinest room in the house, often reserved forreceiving guests of high social standing, con-ducting business or ceremonial occasionssuch as weddings or funerals. The hall servedfor less formal use. This room may have ac-commodated more or less daily activitiessuch as eating, common socializing (reading,writing, sewing), and likely sleeping. Whatseparated these rooms from all others (ex-cepting the kitchen) was the presence of afireplace: a source of both light and heat.

If we are to compare these two rooms we willfind a number of key differences. First, itmust be understood that while the parlour onthe first floor remains largely intact, the fin-ishesonthe fireplacewallhavebeenreplaced,likely during Period III (discussion of theseFederal style elements are found below).

2 For a detailed discussion of eighteenth century roomnames together with their use and function, see AbbottLowell Cummings, Rural Household Inventories: Es-tablishing the Names, Uses, and Functions of Roomsin the Colonial New England Home, 1675 - 1775,TheSociety for the Preservation of New England Antiqui-ties (Portland: The Anthoensen Press, 1964), XIII-XL.

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Architecturally, the west rooms are finishedto a higher degree than their correspondingrooms to the east (47, 60). Here we have thebeaufats, flat plaster plaster ceilings (with noindication of the structure present), finely de-tailed cornices, surbases (the period term fora chair rail), and paneled chimney breasts.Additionally, these rooms contained slidinginterior shutters, commonly referred to todayas Indian shutters, a misrepresentation oftheir function (48). These shutters were mostlikelypaneledpiecesofstileandrail construc-tion used for privacy and also to help keep outwind and cold.

Theroomsto theeast,while treatedverynice-ly for theperiod, lack thedegreeof refinementseen to the west (30, 32, 56, 57). While boththe chimney walls are paneled, only the tim-bers in the first floor room are cased and, un-like in the parlours, project into the room.The timbers at the second floor may havebeen left exposed likely owing to the locationand use of the room. Being the second floorand having use of the parlour, it may very wellhave been felt that this room did not need tobe fitted out to the degree the room below itwas. Similarly, both east rooms lack full cor-nices and the sliding shutters found to thewest, further reinforcing the idea that theserooms were less public and more the privatedomain of the family.

In William White’s will he stipulates, “Item Igive and bequeath to my well beloved Daugh-ter Sarah Brown my Bed that standeth in thesoutheast corner of my Great Chamber to-gether with all the furniture belonging toit.” [italics added by author] The term cham-ber in the eighteenth century commonly re-ferred to a room for sleeping; however, attimes, it could also denote a second floorroom.3

Cummings in Rural Household Inventories,notes, “The second and third floor when it ex-isted, were almost entirely given over to bedchambers.” What is most interesting is thelocation of the bed. If this referred to a roomother than either of the east rooms, the south-east corner would place the bed in front of adoor opening; therefore, one of these tworooms was his “Great Chamber,” used at leastpartly for sleeping.

With respect to sleeping chambers, it is mostlikely that thesmall roomsimmediatelynorthof the front rooms on both sides of the chim-ney also served as sleeping chambers.4

Centered in the north side of the house on thefirst floor lies the Period II kitchen (38-43).Dominating the room is the large cookinghearth with beehive oven on the south wall.This room was essentially the “core” of thehouse. With six door openings (all openinginto this room) and the back stair to the sec-ond floor (originally located along the thenorth wall, east of the doorway), the kitchenwas linked topracticallyall partsof thehouse.If the house did in fact shelter two or morefamilies during this period of time, such com-munication would make sense. The vast ma-jorityof theexisting finishesdate to Period II.Of note is the paneling surrounding the fire-place which contains the only Period II man-tle shelf found in the house. The verticalboards used in the wainscot are all handplaned and are beaded along both verticaledges, forming a double bead when the twoboards are joined side by side.

3 Russell Sturgis in his definitive work, A Dictionary ofArchitecture and Building: Biographical, Historical,and Descriptive; Volume 1. (The MacmillianCompany:1901) 501, defines chamber as, “...in theUnited States it is restricted to the signification of abedroom.”

4 Further investigation onto the use and function ofthese spaces is necessary to definitively determine theuse of these spaces. While it is entirely reasonablethese rooms were used for sleeping, they could havepotentially served a number of functions.] Both ofthese rooms on the west side of the house were finelytreated with full cornices, surbases, and baseboards.Each room also contained a window in the west wallcomplete with sliding shutters.

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Note, especially on the east wall, that theboards are not uniform along their width(42). Evidence of early graining can be seenunder the topcoats of paint. What can be seenof this graining exhibits a somewhat crudenature and may be characteristic of an ama-teur painter rather than the fine grainingfound in Period III.

Thefireplaceandovenremainremarkably in-tact; however, the oven is suffering some de-flection in its arched dome. The overall formand treatment of the kitchen fireplace is rep-resentativeofamid-eighteenthcenturycook-ing fireplace (40, 41). By this point in time,the bake oven is located outside of the fireboxand when treated with panel-work, hiddenbehind a paneled door. The bake oven has itsown flue located at the top of the opening tothe oven. A removable tin or sheet iron doorwould have originally been set inside thisopening, covering it. When a fire was built toheat the oven, the door would have been keptjust to the outside of the flue, allowing it todraw and exhaust the smoke. When the ovenwas heated and in use, this door would bepushed in until it sat against the projectingcourse.

The cooking hearth retains all of its perioddetails: wrought iron crane used to hangcooking implements from (pots, trammelbars, etc.), an early masonry hearth laid inboth brick and stone, and a lathed and plas-tered chimney lintel. This last feature is ex-ceptionally rare and surprising to see remain-ing. On the west end of the fireplace opening,the lintel sits on a thin wooden sleeper. Whileit was originally thought that this memberwas simply present as a source to fasten nailsforhangingobjects from, itplaysamore func-tional role. Dr. Abbott Lowell Cummings de-scribes this feature in The Framed House ofMassachusetts Bay Colony;

“A still further structural refinement of thelintel occurs at the point of its support withinthe stack. The lintel ends are not seated di-rectly on the brick piers, but upon thin slabsof softwood, about two inches thick, whichextendback into thechimney. While inoneortwo instances the sleepers as they are calledare unexplainably of slate or stone, it is as-sumed nevertheless that the builders reliedon this expedient as a means of assuringsome elasticity in movement if the heavy oaklintel, installed green, should warp ortwist."5

The rooms in the northwest and northeastcorner of the house most likely supported thekitchen and activities performed in thekitchen. Based on the remaining finishes andghosts in the paint, the northwest room ap-pears to have been unplastered and con-tained shelves along the north and southwalls (44-46). It is quite possible that thisroom served as the scullery (the period termfor a pantry), for the keeping and storage ofplates, bowls, cooking implements, etc. Thenortheast room has been refinished; howev-er, scars in the flooring and sidewalls indicatewhereaplankwallwasoriginally located(37).Located in the northeast corner of the house,the coolest space owing to the least amount ofdirect sunlight, this area was traditionallywhere thebutteryordairywas located. Locat-ed immediately adjacent to the kitchen, thisspace would have provided storage andworkspace for dairying activities.

As previously mentioned, the second floor ofthe Period II house was likely devoted tosleeping chambers; however, the north roomoverthekitcheniscurious. Thepresentsizeofthis room is quite large in comparison to theaverage room size of the period.

5 Cummings, Dr. Abbott Lowell. The Framed Housesof Massachusetts Bay (Cambridge, MA: HarvardUniversity Press, 1979), 122.

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While this room may have served as a largesleeping chamber for a number of people,otherpossibilities exist. Nearlyall of theplas-ter in this room post-dates the Period II im-provements. It may be that this space wasonce partitioned into two or more smallerroomsonly toberenovated intoa largersingleroomata laterdate. While this isapossibility,one would expect to see some form of evi-dence for these earlier partitions, such asghost marks or nail holes in the flooring. An-

other possibility is that the room served afunction other than (or in addition to) sleep-ing. Seventeenthandeighteenthcenturypro-bate inventories from the area commonly listitems such as lumber (the period term formiscellaneous items, generally in storage),barrels, grain, spinning and weaving equip-ment, tools, etc. stored in upper floor rooms;listed along with these items may be foundbeds of lesser value, likely children’s or hiredhelp’s bedding.

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Figure 23. Pavilion III, University of Virginia, 1822. Typical door architrave. Thisarchitrave is shown to provide a comparison to those found in the Handy house.Though later in age, the architrave is composed of similar molding profiles. Noticehow generations of paint have distorted the profiles and edges of the moldings, atypical condition found in buildings of this age. .

Figure 22. South facade. The five easternmost bays offer a very accuraterepresentation of how the house appeared after the Period II improvements enlargedand updated the earlier house. The work transformed the house into a fashionable, fivebay, center entry, center chimney house. Embellishments included a classicalfrontispiece and molded window caps (no longer remaining) over the first floorwindows.

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Figure 24. First floor, lobby entry. Door to Hall (Study). The better rooms andpublic spaces (i.e,. the lobby entry and stair hall) have double fascia (the flats betweenthe molding profiles) architraves. Double fascia architraves are more formal anddecorative than single fascia architraves.

Figure 25. Second floor, Hall Chamber. Single fascia architrave. This architrave iscomposed of simply a backband with a fillet and cyma applied to the fascia. Thiswoodwork appears to never have had paint applied to it. The T-head wrought nailsused to fasten it can be seen along the upper portion of the cyma.

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Figure 26. South facade, east entry.

Figure 27. First floor, lobby entry. Both the spaces and the stair case built duringthe Period II improvements were finely treated and highly architectural. Aside frompaint finishes and early twentieth century repairs to restore the entry, the spaceappears essentially as it did when it was originally constructed in the mid-eighteenthcentury.

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Figure 28. First floor, lobby entry. Note the difference between the doors to each of theprincipal ground floor rooms. The door to the parlour (left), the better of the two rooms, has a sixpanel door as opposed to a slightly simpler four panel door leading into the hall (right). Thissame treatment occurs on the second floor as well.

Figure 29. First floor, Hall (Study). South wall. One portion of the Period IIimprovements was to cover the timber structure to hide it from view. In the Hall theposts and summer beam were cased in woodwork and the ceilings were plastered tohide the joists.

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Figure 30. First floor, Hall (Study). West wall. Period II paneling and case work.The signature patch of where a thimble for a stove pipe was run indicates a stove wasinstalled here, most likely sometime during the nineteenth century.

Figure 31. First floor, Hall (Study). The fireplaces do not appear to have beensignificantly altered since their construction. Since fireplaces were originally inconstant use, they needed periodic repairs to fix deteriorated brick and mortar. It islikely the masonry here has seen work done to it, but not since the nineteenth century.

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Figure 32. First floor, Hall (Study). North wall. The two door openings in thiselevation are original to Period II and connected the room to the kitchen and a smallroom immediately to the north (door to the right). The summer beam spans from frontto back walls. A small intermediate post located behind this wall supports it midwaythrough it length.

Figure 33. First floor, Hall (Study). West wall, door to lobby entry. The house hasan exceptional collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century hardware. The doors inthe "front" area of the house, areas the public would experience, have spring latcheswith brass handles. This type of latch was more expensive and fashionable than asimpler Suffolk latch found in spaces like the kitchen, buttery, and "back" rooms of thehouse.

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Figure 35. First floor, Hall (Study). Door to the kitchen. Representative example ofa wrought iron Suffolk latch found throughout the house.

Figure 34. First floor, Old Kitchen. East wall, south door. Botching, the use ofleather "washers" placed between the wrought nail and hardware can be seen in anumber of locations throughout the house. This is a typical eighteenth century detailused when clenched nails are employed.

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Figure 36. First floor, northeast room (Room 100). Now one single space, in PeriodII this was divided into two separate rooms by a plank wall located immediately northof the window opening and running in an east/west direction. The room sharing awall with the Hall likely served a mix of uses including sleeping and the storage ofvarious items.

Figure 37. First floor, northeast room (Room 100). Scar in the floor indicating thelocation of the plank wall that divided this space in two. The northeast room was likelya buttery and supported the kitchen and cooking/food preparation.

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Figure 38. First floor, Old Kitchen. East wall. In Period II each door would haveled to the two different rooms described in the previous images. The one-over-onepanel door is believed to date to the Period I house and has been retained in its originallocation.

Figure 39. First floor, Old Kitchen. South wall. The two principal features of thecooking fireplace are the open cook hearth and the bake oven located behind the doorleft of the hearth. Note the patch where a stove pipe was run through the panel. Unlikethe Hall, this room may have had a cast iron cook stove. By the 1830s cook stovesbegan to replace open hearths. Stoves used less fuel and brought cooking up off thehearth and up to a more comfortable level.

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Figure 40. First floor, Old Kitchen. The fireplace retains a number of early detailsthat have not been compromised such as the crane, brick and stone hearth, and brickjambs.

Figure 41. First floor, Old Kitchen. Bake oven. Originally a removable sheet irondoor would have covered the opening to the beehive oven to trap the heat in it when inuse. When the oven was fired to heat it, the door would be pulled out towards the faceof the opening to allow the smoke and heat to go up the flue located near the front of theopening. When in use the door would be pushed in where it would stop against theprojecting course of brick (indicated by arrow).

35

Figure 42. First floor, Old Kitchen. East wall. Detail of the Period II hand planedpaneling. Each board is beaded on both edges so when they are fit together the jointwhere the boards meet is finished with a double bead. The texture on the surface of theboards are the result of the tool marks left by the plane iron used to finish the surface.

Figure 43. First floor, Old Kitchen. North wall. The patch in the wall illustrates thelocation of a Period II stair that led up to the room above (Room 202).

36

Figure 44. First floor, Work Room (Room 104). Like the corresponding room on theopposite side of the Old Kitchen, this space was also originally two separate roomsduring Period II. The dashed line represents the location of the wall dividing the tworooms. The room to the south (left of the line) was finished with fine woodwork(molded cornice, surbase and base board, sliding shutters). The room north of the linewas likely a scullery or pantry. In Period II, windows filled the door openings.

Figure 45. First floor, Work Room (Room 104). The drop in the two ceilingsidentifies where the wall separating the two rooms was located.

37

Figure 46. First floor, Work Room (Room 104). West wall. This room is believed tohave been some type of service room supporting the kitchen, likely a scullery or pantry.Ghost marks on the walls indicate where shelving was once located (arrow).

Figure 47. First floor, Parlour (Room 105). Both of the beaufats (corner cupboards)date to Period II. The construction of the first floor beaufat is visible from the cellarstairs in the Period III addition.

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Figure 48. First floor, Parlour (Room 105). The west wall of the Period II housewas built with sliding shutters (commonly referred to as Indian shutters). Used forventilation, protection from the elements, and privacy rather than protection, only thetracks to the shutters remain.

Figure 49. First floor, Parlour (Room 105). Upper track to the sliding shuttershown in the previous image.

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Figure 50. Stair hall. North wall. Outer door to chimney smoke chamber.

Figure 51. Stair hall. Smoke chamber. The inner door seen at the right of the imageis lath and plastered on its back side. Meat or fish would have been hung in here andsmoked as the fires in the adjacent fireplaces were used. Note the nailers to to the leftand rear of the space.

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Figure 52. Stair hall. Smoke chamber. This opening at the bottom of the east wall ofthe chamber allowed smoke to enter the space and pass up and out through a flue at thetop of the chamber.

Figure 53. Cellar stairs. This space located within the chimney mass was used tostore food items. Given its location -- surrounded by three fireplaces -- it may be thatin winter months this space was used to store items one wanted to protect fromfreezing (milk, cream, molasses), a common problem that had to be dealt with in theeighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

41

Figure 54. Second floor, Stair hall. The design and execution of the staircase isexceptional. The newels, balusters, and molded stringers run from the first floor to theattic level. Such a high level of treatment continued throughout its length may havebeen because it was expected to be seen by individuals other than the family.

Figure 55. Second floor, Stair hall. This detail of the turnings on the balustersshows the slight differences between each as a result of their being individually handturned. Again, note how sharp the profiles are.

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Figure 56. Second floor, Hall Chamber (Room 201). West wall. The paneling onthis wall does not appear to have ever been painted. The surface has a natural,oxidized patina generated simply from age.

Figure 57. Second floor, Hall Chamber (Room 201). west wall, detail of paneling.Where one would expect to see pegs used to fasten the paneling's joinery, none arevisible. The construction of the paneling follows eighteenth century practice of copedjoints and all of the material is hand planed. All of the applied moldings are fastenedwith wrought nails and the paneling itself is nailed to the plank wall behind it with T-head wrought nails.

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Figure 58. Second floor. Hall Chamber (Room 201). Detail of chimneypiece. Asection of bolection molding was removed to examine the type of fasteners used toapply it and the paneling to the backup wall. Both elements are fastened with T-headwrought nails.

Figure 59. Second floor, Old Bedroom (Room 202). A back stair between this roomand the kitchen below was built as part of the Period II work. It has not beendetermined when exactly these stairs were closed up. They do not appear in AbbottSmith's photographs of the house, however, they may have been removed well beforethat.

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Figure 60. Second floor, Parlour (Room 205). East wall. Like the architravesdescribed earlier, the paneling in this room has very few paint finishes applied to itresulting in sharp, clean profiles and details.

Figure 61. Attic, southwest of east chimney. The Period II ceilings are hung fromnailers attached to the joists by short lengths of wood. The nailers run perpendicular tothe joists and hang down low enough to clear the lowest portion of framing (girts,summer beams, plates) so they are concealed when the plaster is applied.

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Figure 62. Attic. North plate at west end of Period II house. When the Period Ihouse was enlarged, the wall plate (the horizontal timber that forms the top of the wallstructure) was lengthened by half lapping a new section (red arrow) onto the existing(white arrow) plate. Immediately above the white arrow is the peg hole for the risingbrace seen in the north wall of Room 202.

Figure 63. Attic, north of east chimney. The ceiling framing west of the chimney tiebeam (indicated by arrow) had to be reconfigured because the sister tie beam to this one(at the west end of the Period I house) was removed and the house lengthened. ThePeriod 1 joists were shorter than this span, so new joists were introduced, setperpendicular from the the original joists and lower to accommodate the Period IIceiling height.

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Figure 64

47

Period IIIc.1812 - 1911

Past research indicates that the house wassold out of the White family in 1794, at whichtime it was purchased by Dr. Eli Handy, aWestport physician. Dr. Handy lived in thehouse with his family until his death in 1812,leaving behind his wife, Mary and three chil-dren: a son, James Harvey, and two daugh-ters, Polly and Hannah. Dr. Handy’s will gavehis son James possession of his property withthe terms that he shelter and support hismother “so long as she shall remain my wid-ow.” Additionally, James is responsible forproviding the same for his sisters until theymarried.6

James married Hope White (a great-great-granddaughter of William White Senior, whoowned the land the house was built on) in Au-gust 1817. As previously speculated, it is mostlikely that at this time or shortly thereafter,the west build occurs. The Period III im-provements largely consist of adding to thehouse an attached three bay, side hall,dwelling. The addition was finished entirelyin Federal style details, nearly all of whichsurvive today. It also appears that at this time(or very shortly after it), the east wall of thefirst floor parlour (Room 105) was refinished,replacing what was there with the currentmantle and plaster finishes (90, 91). Spatiallyand architecturally, the interior of the westaddition remains largely unchanged, offeringa unique opportunity to experience an earlynineteenth century dwelling of this type, butmore importantly, the continuing evolutionof thehouse inresponse tochanges inowners,occupants and social customs.

The Federal style marked a conscious shift inAmerican architecture away from traditional

English models into a refined version of neo-classicism. Popular in the northeast of theUnited States roughly between 1785 and1825, the Federal style (originating from theterm Federalist) is associated with the uppersocial classes making up the mercantile elitein and around the seaport towns of New Eng-land whose dwellings introduced this form ofdesign to this country. Growing out of Geor-gian classicism, the Federal style was not acomplete departure from the design trendsfamiliar to most people; it was rather a refine-ment of them. While still utilizing classicalprinciples (bilateral symmetry, harmoniousproportioning, and ornament), all work be-gan to become more restrained and reduceddown to its finest and simplest form. So, in-stead of large bold elements and details char-acteristic of the Georgian style, in Federal de-sign we find light, subtle ornament. At avernacular level, the Federal style took its cuefrom high style architecture of the era, blend-edwith traditional regionalpracticesandma-terials. It is this form we find in the Period IIIaddition of the Handy house.

With the exception of the Dutch door in thedining room and the recreated entry door andfrontispiece in the stair hall, nearly all of theremaining woodwork and much of the plasterdates to the construction of the building (68,69, 71, 73, 78, 80, 81). While these are excel-lent examples of period moldings, architrav-es, hardware, and mantle pieces in their ownright, they become even more interestingwhen one begins to compare them with theircounterparts in the Period II part of thehouse. Unlike the Period II house, wherenearly all the materials used were producedthrough craft-based skills (hand wroughtnails and hardware, water struck brick, hewntimbers), here in the Period III house we be-gin to see the emergence of more sophisticat-ed building technology. Features such as ironrim locks, cast brass Norfolk latches (withturned knobs), cast iron butt hinges, andRumford fireplaces are representative of the

6 Suzanne Abel, The White-Handy House of Westport,Massachusetts. Photocopy, Westport HistoricalSociety: (Brown University, 1977) 24.

48

Figure 65

49

shift away from strictly handmade productsand the emergence of machine-produceditems (70, 84).

The plan of the Period III addition is a varia-tion of a type common to urban townhousesof this period and the preceding decades (64,65). The first floor of a three bay townhouseis commonly divided between a stair hall,generally located off to one side (hence sidehall), filling one bay and a public space, oftena parlour or double parlours, filling the widthof the remaining two bays (66). Here, the firstfloor contains the stair hall, dining room, andkitchen. Off the dining room remains a chinacloset in surprisingly complete condition;likewise, the pantry/washroom off thekitchen is equally remarkable to have sur-vived (74, 76, 77). This space retains its built-in cabinetry including a period dry sink.

Of interest here is how, yet again, the house issubdivided to allow for an additional familyunit to live under the same roof, while afford-ing privacy from the remaining part of thehouse. Whether this privacy was because theeastern part of the house was used for Dr.Handy’s practice, the dwelling house of fami-ly members, or a combination of both, is atopic of further research; however, the pres-ence of two separate kitchens suggests addi-tional occupants.

At the time the addition was built, it is unlike-ly that the room currently called the diningroom would have solely been used for dining(68). That isnot tosay itdidn't serveasaplaceto eat, it likely did; however, it probably func-tioned as a parlor/sitting room as well. Fami-ly letters and/or a probate inventory identify-ing furniture that was located in this roomwould help illustrate its use. The design ofdining tablesof theperiodcommonlyallowedthem to be stored with ease. Made up of atleast two pieces, the tops were made to tilt toa vertical position allowing them to be stored

against an outside wall or in a stair hall untilneeded, freeing up the room for other func-tions. With the china closet just off the room,there may not have been a need for a side-board, further freeing space for a settee ordesk.

What can be glimpsed of the original roomreveals a tasteful and fashionable space forthe period. Note, unlike the Period II house,no aspect of the building’s structure is visiblein the room. Surfaces are flat with decorativetreatments reserved to openings: doors, win-dows and the fireplace. The composition ofthe north wall strives for symmetry, with thefireplace flanked by doors to each side. A sur-base and baseboard help divide the wall planeas well as protecting the plaster from furni-ture placed and stored up against it (69). Ow-ing to the period and function of the room, itispossible thewallswereoriginallycovered inwallpaper rather than simply being painted.

If one takes a close study of the moldings usedhere (as well as elsewhere through this por-tion of the house), one will observe two char-acteristics that set them apart from elsewherein the house. To start, the profiles of themoldings here are elliptical or based on por-tions of an ellipse unlike the Period II housewhere they are based on the circle (71, 73, 79,80, 81, 88). Additionally, the moldings usedto make up the architraves and surbases aresmaller and more delicate in scale than theireighteenth century counterparts.

While one would expect the second floor to bedevoted to sleeping chambers, which verywell may have been the case, other possibili-ties existed. While further research into thistopic is necessary, it may be that the southroom on the second floor served as a sittingroom or common parlor, and the north roomserved as a bed chamber. As for additionalsleeping quarters, these could have been lo-cated in the eastern part of the house.

50

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51

It is interesting to see that the Period IIIkitchen does not vary terribly much from theopen cooking hearth found in the Period IIhouse (75). Kitchens at this period of time,especially in urban locations or of a granderhouse, would be beginning to see consider-able changes occurring. Around the firstquarter of the nineteenth century we begin tosee the introduction of cellar cisterns withhand pumps in the kitchen, set kettles for theboiling of water, and the advent of the castiron cook stove which eventually does awaywith the open hearth and bee hive oven.

This kitchen, like its earlier counterpart, is inclose communication with all adjacentspaces. Six door openings directly connectthis room to each surrounding room. The two

door openings on the east wall tell us therewas direct access to the small rooms in thewest part of the earlier house. Both of thesedoorways were created with the constructionof thePeriod IIIhouse, likelymodifyingexist-ing window openings. The two separate dooropenings indicate these rooms remained in-dependent of each other at this time. Of thesetwo rooms, the south space would have be-come “land locked”; that is to say it wouldn'thave had any exterior walls and therefore nowindows. With no natural light or means ofventilation one wonders if this room took ona new use after the Period III improvementswere made. Identical changes on the corre-spondingsecondfloor roomstookplaceat thesame time.

Figure 67. Cellar. Period III addition. The flooring here is gauged and undercut tocounter irregularities in the joists so it would lay flat. Gauging refers to the planededges of the boards which established a uniform depth along each edge without havingto plane the entire board. Undercutting was the process of removing the wood at thelocations where the joists were located to allow the floor boards to sit evenly.

52

Figure 68. First floor. Dining room (Room 109). View looking southwest. Like theparlours in the Period II house, this space functioned as the best room of the Period IIIhouse. The details throughout this room are typical of the Federal style and provide aninteresting contrast to the Georgian features of the Period II house.

Figure 69. First floor. Dining Room (Room 109). North wall. The Period IIIaddition is finished using an markedly different vocabulary and application ofdecorative details. Compare this wall here with the chimneypiece of Room 205.

53

Figure 70. First floor. Dining Room (Room 109). Iron rim locks were installed onselect doors in the Period III house. More advanced than the spring latch used in thePeriod II house, this piece of hardware could be locked with a key from either side of thedoor or secured on the lock side of the room by sliding the privacy bolt located on theunderside of the lock

Figure 71. First floor. Dining Room (Room 109). Northeast corner. The surbase ismade up of multiple narrow molding profiles to form one complex element. This sametechnique is used on the mantel shelves in this part of the house.

54

Figure 72. First floor. Dining room (Room 109). A number of the materials in thePeriod III addition reflect advances made in building technology at the start of thenineteenth century. Note how uniform the flooring here is compared to the older partof the house.

Figure 73. First floor. Dining room (Room 109). The architraves and decorativewoodwork in this portion of the house reflect common Federal style profiles typical ofthe period. These profiles tend to be finer and more delicate than the Georgian profileselsewhere in the house. Note the splay to the window jamb.

55

Figure 74. First floor. China Storage (Room 110). Detail of grained drawers.Secondary spaces such as this, in houses of this scale and age, are relatively rare to findintact. The drawers, graining and brass knobs are original to the construction.

Figure 75. First floor. New Kitchen (Room 106). The kitchen retains its periodcooking hearth and bake oven. The wrought iron hooks in the ceiling are original to thespace. Their exact use is open to speculation.

56

Figure 76. First floor. Pantry (Room 108). This small service room to the kitchenstill retains its dry sink and shelving. Like the China Storage room (Room 110), it israre to find spaces such as this completely intact. These ancillary spaces help illustratethe complete story of how nineteenth century domestic spaces were used.

Figure 77. First floor. Pantry (Room 108). This shows the upper shelves of thepantry, all of which are original to the Period III build.

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Figure 78. First floor. Stair hall (Room 107). The Period III staircase is a reservedrepresentation of a typical Federal style stair. The overall design is more characteristicof what is commonly found in country or rural areas.

Figure 79. First floor. Stair hall (Room 107). Detail of newel post. The generalform of the staircase is rather simple: a straight run with a quarter turn at the top. Itis the details applied to the stair that reveal its style, such as these delicate cymas andastragals.

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Figure 81. First floor. Pantry (Room 108). Example of a Federal style singlefascia architrave. Compare to Figure 25.

Figure 80. First floor. Stair hall (Room 107). Example of a Federal style doublefascia architrave. Compare to Figure 24.

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Figure 82. First floor. Stair hall, door between rooms 205 and 207. Detail of panelon door to Room 109. Though over-painted, the ghost of the earlier grained finish canbe seen telegraphing through. It is likely all of the doors in the public spaces of thehouse were originally grained.

Figure 83. Second floor. New Front Bedroom (Room 209). General view of theroom looking north.

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Figure 84. Second floor. New Back Bedroom (Room 206). This variation of aNorfolk latch has a cast brass handle and brass mechanism to it. This latch is anexcellent comparison to the Suffolk and spring latches found in the Period II house.

Figure 85. Second floor. New Back Bedroom (Room 206). Mechanism to the latchshown above. Note the fine cable molding turned on the handle of the latch.

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Figure 86. Second floor. New Front Bedroom (Room 209). The mantel here is aclassic example of a typical Federal style mantel more common to country and ruralareas than urban. What makes this piece most interesting, as well as the whole room,is that the woodwork has had only one coat of paint applied to it.

Figure 87. Second floor. New Front Bedroom (Room 209). East door to passage.Typical six panel door found in the Period III house. Like the rest of the woodwork inthe room, the door and architrave only have a single coat of paint. This is a goodrepresentation of an intact Federal period door. It is outfitted with cast iron butthinges, and an iron rimlock.

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Figure 88. Second floor. New Front Bedroom (Room 209). East door to passage.Detail of door architrave. This room contains an interesting style of Federalarchitrave, where reeding is used between the two fascias of the element. Thisarchitrave is used on both the doors and windows.

Figure 89. Second floor. New Back Bedroom (Room 206). View looking west. Theunusual composition of the mantel in this room is typical of country interpretations ofstylistic details and adapting them to fit specific spaces or dimensions.

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Figure 90. First floor. Parlour (Room 105). East wall. The mantel, and likely aportion of the surrounding wall, was changed out and updated with a Federal stylemantel. Note how the design of this mantel is more similar in style with those found inthe Period III addition rather than the Period II house.

Figure 91. First floor. Parlour (Room 105). East wall. Detail of the Federal stylemantel. Beside the mantel shelf in the Old Kitchen, this is the only mantel in the PeriodII house with a shelf.

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Figure 92. South facade, looking northwest. c. 1900. This pre-Abbott Smith era(Period IV) photograph shows the window in place at the west end of the first floor.Note the weathered, and in some areas, missing, shingles.

Figure 93. South facade, looking northeast. c. 1900. The poor condition of theshingles is readily visible in this view. Note the missing shingles at the top of the eastchimney. Of interest is the method used to flash the base of this chimney. Commonlyreferred to as "pan flashing" today, this method of flashing was a detail commonlyseen along coastal New England and especially in the Cape Cod area.

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Period IV1911 - 1937

Thepurchaseof thehouse in1911byAbbottP.Smith of New Bedford, Massachusetts andthe changes made to it in the years to follow,result in an interesting transition away fromits traditional use as a dwelling house to thebeginnings of its recognition as a historic site,albeit in a very much Colonial Revival fash-ion. Historic photographs of the house pre-dating 1911 show the building in a deteriorat-ed condition (92, 93). Abbott Smith’s repairsand renovations to the house likely saved itfrom being lost to the pages of history.7

TheSmithperiodofownership iscurious. Hisimprovements brought the house up to a liv-able condition, modernized it to a certain de-gree, and added living space. The pho-tographs of the interior show the rooms fur-nished inantiques, largelyearlyNewEnglandpieces spanning the eighteenth and nine-teenth centuries mixed with some twentiethcentury pieces (99-104). The whole appear-ance is quintessentially Colonial Revival inflavor. The breadth and volume of the collec-tion -- the pieces range from fragments offloor cloth, cooking implements, numeroustables, chairs, and chests -- beg the questionas to whether the house was yet another colo-nial acquisition; both an object and a back-drop for other objects. This may explain whythe interior was treated so sensitively yet lib-erties taken on the exterior of the house. Fur-ther research should be performed on theSmith period of ownership to better under-stand and explain this era.

While Smith’s exterior improvements signifi-cantly altered the exterior of the house, work

performed on the interior appears to havebeen largely cosmetic in nature, dealing pri-marily with plaster surfaces, wallpapers, andpaint finishes. A nearly room-by-room col-lection of interior photographs and severalexterior images of the house taken during thisperiod provides a valuable archive for under-standing the use and appearance of the houseduring Smith’s period of ownership. Luckily,much of Smith’s work added to the buildingrather than subtracted from it, resulting inthecoreof thehistorichousebeingpreserved.

Smith’s work on the exterior of the house in-cluded building the dormers on the roof (es-sentially adding a third floor) and construct-ing the porch on the front (south) side of thehouse (97, 98). This latter improvement in-cluded filling in the bulkhead located at thefar west window bay on the front of the build-ing and relocating it to its present location.The window here was then changed into aDutch door.8

The Georgian frontispieces and doors wereremoved and replaced with eight-panel doorsset in frames with three-quarter length side-lights (106, 107). It is believed that a numberof the first floor window frames and sasheswere also changed out at this time, especiallyalongthesouthfacadeof thehouse. Imagesofthe south facade taken prior to the work per-formed by Smith show the early Period IIplank frame windows with molded caps. Inthe photographs following the addition of thefront porch, the window frames no longerhave these caps (107).

Smith likely had a significant amount of re-pair work done to the framing of the buildingin conjunction with residing portions of thebuilding. Images from 2003 of the south sideof the building with its siding removed show

7 For a discussion and background on Abbott Smithsee Families that owned the Handy House Property(unpublishedmanuscript,WestportHistoricalSocietycollections).

8 The opening for the original bulkhead can been seenin the cellar wall, where it has simply been filled withstone.

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Figure 94. North facade, looking southeast. c. 1900. Both entries have board andbatten doors. A strap hinge (likely wrought iron) is visible near the top of the eastdoor. The east entry is treated with a simple surround made from flat stock with asmall cap at the top of the opening. Note the scuttle in the roof next to the chimney.

Figure 95. Detail of image above showing the east door and surround. A doorcloses some type of opening above the west door. Two strap hinges are mounted on theright side of it and a latch can be seen on the left of it. This feature disappears duringSmith's period of occupancy.

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at least four generations of sheathing boardson the building.9 In this image, horizontalboards cover the area between the two earlydoor openings; repairs here likely requiredtheremovalofasignificantamountof thever-tical sheathing. Interior photographs fromSmith's occupancy also reveal that at leasttwo of the rising braces (both on the east sideof the building) had been removed by thistime, further suggesting extensive structuralrepairs performed by Smith at this time (96).

On the interior, Smith introduced the dooropening between the second floor southeastchamber and the northeast room (104). Itmay very well be Smith who removed thewalls in the first and second floor rooms be-tweenthePeriodIIIhouseandtheoldkitchen

on the first floor and bedroom on the second(Rooms 104 and 204 ). The basis for thisspeculation relates to the introduction ofelectricity and plumbing to the house. Anumber of the interior photographs showsurface mounted wiring housed in woodmolding , ceiling fixtures, and outlets. Whileno plumbing is shown, it is reasonable to be-lieve, owing to the extent of work performedon the building, that runningwater, sinks andtoilets would have been added at this time.The logical location for a toilet and tub wouldbe one of these small rooms. Systems thatrequired fixed elements, drain pipes, septiclines, chimneys, etc., commonly have a“memory”, that is to say, while they periodi-callygetupdated throughtime, theymaintaintheir locations and/or footprints. It is not un-reasonable to believe that the first bathroomin the house was located in one of these tworooms.

Figure 96. Second floor. Room 200, left and Room 201, right. c. 1900. Note how both setsof rising braces are visible in each image. Both east braces (in the image on the left, it is theright brace, and in the image on the right, the left brace) no longer exist (or they are buriedunder later plaster). They are not seen in the Smith period photographs, indicating they wereremoved during work performed by him.

9 Pete Baker in discussion with the author. Bakerexplained a number of framing repairs were foundwhen the exterior siding was stripped in 2003. Thisincluded replacing portions of the original plankframe with conventional stud carpentry.

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Figure 97. View looking northeast. c. 1920. This photograph provides a goodillustration of Abbott Smith's exterior improvements. Staining along the eave of thedormer roof suggests by the time this photo was taken they had existed for a while. Thesize of the south porch is considerable. Note the relocated bulkhead and the door in thegable of the roof.

Figure 98. View looking south. c. 1920. Compare this to the c. 1900 image. Notethe new east door and the hood over the west door. The door on the second floor overthe west entry is no longer present.

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Figure 99. The New Kitchen (Room 106). c. 1915. Electrical wiring was run insurface mounted moldings that hid the wires from view. Smith likely installed the cookstove we see here. A gas cook stove can be seen up against the wall. Note the paneleddoors above the fireplace opening. A fragment of floor cloth is under the table.

Figure 100. Northeast room (Room 100). c. 1915. By this time the wall has beenremoved that once divided this space. The scar of it can be seen on the ground. The bedis actually longer than the earlier room was wide.

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Figure 101. The Hall/Study (Room 101). c. 1915. View of the east wall without theTripp era (Period V) book cases.

Figure 102. The Hall/Study (Room 101). c. 1915. View of the south and west walls.The sidelights and woodwork of the Smith period doorway can be seen here.

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Figure 103. Parlor (Room 105). The door into Room 104 remains at this time. Notethe finish scheme of the room, light colors for both the woodwork and the wallpapers.It does not appear that Smith ran electricity throughout the entire house. He may havelimited it to only the Period III addition and adjacent spaces.

Figure 104. Hall Chamber (Room 201). Note none of the woodwork is painted.Smith introduced the door at the right of the image leading into Room 200. Thefireplace opening is covered over. The floor is not painted at this time.

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Figure 105. View looking east. This photograph was taken shortly after thedormer and porch were removed from the building as evidenced by the bare lawn infront of the house where the porch was located and the unweathered shingles on thesouth facade. Note the gable door was retained.

Figure 106. View looking northwest. It appears the first phase of exterior work waslimited to removing the dormers and porch. The Smith period doors surrounds stillsurvive.

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Period V1937 - 2010.

The purchase of the house by Louis and Flo-rence Tripp in 1937 and the occupancy of it byLouis and his second wife, Hilma EleanorSwanteson Tripp (hereafter Eleanor Tripp),marks the final period the house was perma-nently occupied. In the grand scheme ofthings, it appears that the Tripps did little tothe house other than undoing some changesintroduced by Abbott Smith and updatingportions of the interior of the house. All of thework performed by the Tripps respected theintegrity of the building and were by far posi-tive improvements. Louis Tripp’s and hisworkers' attention to detail and methodicalapproach to working on the house are com-mendable. During an era saturated by im-provements in building materials, technolo-gies, and creature comforts, the Tripps essen-tially preserved the house as an artifact, while

at the same time using it for its original in-tended purpose: a domestic residence.

As previously stated, the obvious exteriorchanges made by the Tripps include the re-moval of the dormers and the front porchfrom the house (105-108). The removal of thedormers necessitated reframing the entireroof structure. In a letter to his contractor,Louis was careful to point out that a pair oforiginal rafters remained in the attic andshould be used as the basis for the rest of theroof. Demolition of the front porch exposedAbbott’s altered front doors and frames.Again, Louis based his repairs on earlier evi-dence, this time photographs, as a means ofaccurately restoring elements missing fromthe building. Curiously he retained the laterdoor opening at the west end of the front fa-cade, a feature he surely would have knownwas later (106, 108).

Figure 107. View looking northeast. These photographs were likely taken shortlyafter the repairs were completed by the Tripps. This photograph provides a good lookat the Smith period door surround and window frames. Note the bare lawn in front ofthe house.

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Figure 108. View looking northeast. Later than the previous photos, minorlandscaping improvements consist of the trellis at the west door and shrubs around theperimeter of the house.

Figure 109. Hall/Study (Room 101). The addition of the built-in book shelves by the Trippsturned this space into the Study. This room remains virtually unchanged.

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On the interior of the house, it appears worklargely focused on updating services and fin-ishes. Ina transcribed interviewwithEleanorTripp, she referenced some of the services inthe house. She described how the Period IIIaddition to the house was heated by a hot airfurnace (presumably located in the cellar)with a single register located in the stair hall.This typeofheatingsystemnolongerremainsin the house. Instead, the same area iswarmed by a hot-water system utilizing castiron radiators to radiate heat to individualrooms on both floors on the west side of thehouse. Thestyleof theradiatorssuggests theydate to sometime around the second quarterof the twentieth century.

Eleanor also mentioned how she and Louisupdated the wiring in the house, replacing

what was there with BX cable -- better knownas metal sheathed or armored wire -- likelyexpanding theservice,whileat thesametime,as she rightly noted, safeguarding it from ro-dents that might chew at the insulation. De-pending on exactly when the Tripps installedthis, it would make most of the wiring in thehouse somewhere in the area of 60 to 70 yearsold.

Comparing interior photographs from theSmith and Tripp eras together with presentday conditions, it is evident that the interiordecorative finishes (wallpaper and paintedsurfaces) in some rooms changed more thanonce (110). With the exception of the secondfloor parlour, it appears as if the Tripps re-moved all of the wallpaper hung by Smith andreplaced it with patterns of their choice. Pho-

Figure 110. Parlour (Room 105). Two details in this photograph are interesting.The door once located where the highboy is placed no longer exists. Also, note the tablelamp plugged into a wall outlet. The Tripps expanded the electrical service to greaterparts of the house than previously served.

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Figure 111. Hall/Study Chamber (Room 201). West wall. Compared to the Smithperiod photograph of this elevation, little has changed except the wallpaper has beenremoved and the fireplace has been opened.

Figure 112. Hall/Study Chamber (Room 201). Southeast corner post. Compare thisphotograph to the similar view in the previous section. The opposite rising cornerbrace has been removed and new plaster applied.

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tographs of the first floor parlour show thewalls painted solid at one point and paperedat another; today they are simply paintedwhite. Eleanor made note in her interviewthat she painted the floors with the spatterdash finish. It is difficult to clearly discern,butanumberof the floors in theAbbottSmithphotographs do not appear to be painted. ItmayhavebeenEleanor thatpainted the floorsthroughout much of the house.

The most noticeable addition made to the in-terior by the Tripps was the construction ofthe bookshelves in the southeast room turn-ing this space into the library (109). The con-struction of the bookshelves is independentof the wall surfaces and finishes and can be

easily removed without damage to the build-ing. While they tell part of the story of thehistory of the house, their removal wouldbring the room back to its eighteenth centuryappearance.

The work discussed in the paragraphs abovedescribe the obvious improvements per-formed by the Tripps; it goes without ques-tion that numerous repairs have also beenmade that are either buried behind finishedsurfacesor toosubtle toreadilydiscern. Whatis most telling about their commitment to thehouse is how well it was kept up; a dauntingtask owing to the size and age of the building.

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Figure 113. Second floor. Hall Chamber (Room 201). Record photograph of liftedfloor board showing south end of timber.

Figure 114. Second floor. Hall Chamber (Room 201). Record photograph of liftedfloor board showing north end of timber.

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Inspection of Probes

In July 2011, floor boards were lifted in threeareas of the house to inspect the structure ow-ing to deflections present in the floors. Floorboards were lifted in the second floor of thehouse in the Hall Chamber (Room 201), theOldBedroom(Room202),andthenorthbed-chamber in the Period III addition (Room206). The author inspected two of the threeprobes (Rooms 201 and 202); the third hadbeen closed up and was not accessible forviewing. The following paragraphs docu-ment what was learned from inspecting theseprobes.

Hall Chamber - Room 201

This probe revealed structural modificationsmade to the framing system as part of the Pe-riod II improvements to accommodate thenew hearth and chimney mass. The original(Period I) floor joists would have spanned be-tween the two summer beams located in themiddle bay of the house. The timber we seerunning from the south (front) girt to a trim-mer at the north end of the room was insertedbecause these joists had to be shortened as aresult of the new chimney mass and stair hallinterrupting their original span (113).

To accomplish this, the trimmer at the northend was added (necessitating the removal ofthe adjacent floor joist, as evidenced by emp-ty joist pockets), allowing the new carryingtimber to be joined and supported at each end(114, 115). The joint here is a half dovetail; thedesign of this joint allows it to accomplish anumber of requirements. First, it can bedropped down into its corresponding mortis-es; this allows it to be used within a confinedspace. Second, thesplayof thedovetail resiststensile forces and prevents the timber frompullingoutof itsmortise. And lastly, themass

of the joint allows it to carry loads effectivelywithout failing. On the east side of this tim-ber, the original floor joists were shortened inlengthandreused. Onthewestside,newfloorjoists were added in addition to the trimmerswhich frame the sides of the hearth.

Incorporated into thiswork isa fairamountofsalvage material (Period I fabric) used pri-marilyasnailers;however, thesouth trimmerfor the hearth is also salvage. This reused ma-terial is located mostly in the area south of thehearth under the wall between the chamberand stair hall. Much of this material is white-washed.

In order to hide as much of this framing so asnot to be seen from below, the lath was hungfrom nailers fastened to boards applied to thesides of the joists as part of the Period II im-provements. Because the joists are shallow,boards have been added to their sides whichhang down below the bottom of the addedtimber, allowing the lath and plaster to be in-stalled over it and hiding this member fromsight. Some of the nailers used in this systemhave a smooth, oxidized surface and may befrom Period I partitions removed during thisphase of work.

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Figure 116. Second floor. Hall Chamber (Room 201). Southeast corner. Remnantsof an early paint finish remain on original Period II plaster protected by a baseboardapplied in the twentieth century.

Figure 115. Second floor. Hall Chamber (Room 201). Half dovetail joint used on thenorth end of the timber added to carry the floor joists.

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Old Bedroom - Room 202

Removal of the floor board at this location re-vealed a number of interesting details. Mostreadily visible is the smoke stained surface onthe underside of the floorboards, the floorjoists and girt: all Period I fabric (117, 118). Asseen elsewhere, the joists are planed andchamfered. Aside from confirming the Peri-od I framing was exposed to the interior, itinforms us that at least one fireplace was lo-cated in the near vicinity of this framing. Theunstained surface of the joist to the south isbelieved to be a result of it originally beingcovered by vertical paneling. One remainingnail andaseriesofnailholesalong the joist, inaddition to a ghost on a trimmer are all thatremain of this feature. This trimmer runs be-tween two joist bays and is joined into them(this is illustrated in the framing as shown inFigure 5). The underside of the floorboardson the west side of the trimmer are smokestained; those on the east side are not, sug-gesting an opening between the two floorsthat was later filled in. By the width of theopeninganditbeingproperly framedout, this

may be the location of the (or a) Period I stairbetween the two floors; further investigationinto this is necessary.

The framing on what would be to the south ofthe paneled wall mentioned above is white-washed. This would seem to suggest this areamarks a clear division in the Period I househere, nearly at the center line of the east/westaxis of the house.

Close inspection of the west side of the girtrevealed a clear delineation on its surfacewhere the timber was exposed versus beingcovered, suggesting this may be where oneend of the chimney mass was located (120,121). A portion of the girt here is smokestained like the surrounding material, then itabruptly changes to a relatively clean surface.This, in combination with the tie beam aboveonly being chamfered on the east side (sug-gesting the west side was not to be seen, andthe arrangement of the joist pockets found onthe upper side of the tie beam above, strongly

Figure 117. Second floor. Old Bedroom (Room 202). Record photograph of the liftedfloor boards, looking southeast.

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Figure 118. Second floor. Old Bedroom (Room 202). The smoke stained floor joistsare Period I material. Part of the Period II improvements included adding plasterceilings throughout the house. To hide the large, Period I summer beams, the lath andplaster system had to be applied below the bottom edge of these timbers. The solutionwas to hang nailers off the joists and apply the lath and plaster to these instead ofdirectly to the underside of the joists.

Figure 119. Second floor. Old Bedroom (Room 202). Detail at north end of liftedfloor board. This is the southwest corner of the stair opening showing the molded skirtboard let into the outside face of the board that frames the opening.

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favor this being the location of the Period Ichimney mass.

It was also observed that when the Period IIchimney was constructed here, it required re-moving the southern portion of the Period Igirt that ran through where the chimney cur-rently passes up through (130, 132). To exe-cute this, a trimmer was inserted runningeast-west to support the cut end of the girt.

The north end of this probe abuts the closed-in Period II stair opening visible in the floor.Ashort lengthofmoldedskirtingremains fas-tened to the outside (south) face of the open-ing’s frame (119). This fragment has decora-tive profiles planed onto both edges of the ele-ment just as theskirtingon themainstairhas.It is interesting to see that this element is letinto the board framing the stair opening al-lowing it to be in the same plane as thestringer it was attached to.

A layer of fine sand covers the top side of thelath and plaster (118). How and why this ishere is unknown. Its characteristics and thedebris found in it (bits of sea weed, sea grass,and shell) suggests it is beach sand. Thissand could only have been introduced fromthe topside of the space, after the lath andplaster was installed. Its distribution is rela-tivelyuniformthroughout thecavity (with theexception of a later repair where the lath andplaster was replaced), and is present underthe flooring to the east that has not been dis-turbed.

In Susanna Whatman's housekeeping hookshe instructed house maids, "To use as littlesoap as possible (if any) in scouring rooms.Fullers earth and fine sand preserves the col-

or of the boards, and does not leave a whiteappearance as soap does. All the rooms to bedry scrubbed with white sand." 10 More re-cently, Jane Nylander discusses the cleaningof floors in her book Our Own Snug Fireside:Images of the New England Home1760-1860. In the chapter titled "Scrubbingand Scouring,'" she cites a number of refer-ences that mention the use of sand for clean-ing. One is by a young girl, Susan Blunt inNew Hampshire (1830s), she wrote concern-ing a house she used to call at "it was so veryclean, thechairs, table, floorandall thewood-work was unpainted and was kept white bybeing scoured with sand." In another refer-ence Nylander writes of a kitchen floor wherethe sand was spread so thick a little boy couldbe pulled "across the freshly sanded floor up-onhis tinysled." Shealsowrites thatsandwassometimes spread upon a floor and brushedinto ornamental patterns as a decorative cov-ering.11

A small piece (approximately 1 ¼” long) oflead came, the material used to fix the panesof window glass together prior to wood sash,was found in the sand. While only a fragmentandnotenoughtobase thewindowtypeof thePeriod I house on, it is an interesting artifactand likely dates to the seventeenth century orvery early eighteenth century.

The lath and plaster system here is typical ofthe method used in the house during the Peri-od II improvements (118). Short lengths ofwood are fastened to the sides of the floorjoists and hand down to receive a narrowboard run perpendicular to the joists. Thelaths are run so they span across these boardsallowing the plaster to cover over the struc-ture above.

10 Whatman, Susanna. The Housekeeping Book ofSusanna Whatman, 1776-1800 (London: Butler &Tanner, 1956), 17.

11 Nylander, Jane. Our Own Snug Fireside: Imagesof the New England Home: 1760-1860 (New Haven,CT: Yale University Press, 1994), 118-119.

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Figure 120. Second floor. Old Bedroom (Room 202). Looking east. A number ofsignificant pieces of information are found here. Note the difference in the condition ofthe surface of the girt (A), the alignment of the floor joists (B), and the south end (atright) of the girt (C) where it meets the wall. All three of these details correspond to theremoval of the Period I chimney and introduction of the Period II chimney.

Figure 121. Second floor. Old Bedroom (Room 202). Looking east. Detail of "A"identified above. The surface of the girt right of the middle joist was protected by thechimney mass and not exposed to the interior of the house, protecting it from beingdirtied. Notice how the Period II joists (bottom half of photo) are offset from the periodI joists (top half), detail "B" above. These joist pockets were cut in as part of the PeriodII work and did not follow the exact layout of the orignal framing.

A BC

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Figure 122. Second floor. Old Bedroom (Room 202). South end of girt, detail "C".The Period I girt in this bent passed through where the Period II chimney is located.When this chimney was built, the girt was cut and joined to a new trimmer (D) thatframed the opening for the chimney to pass up through. The arrow is pointing to thejoint used to connect the two timbers, most likely a half dovetail.

Figure 123. Second floor. Old Bedroom (Room 202). Under flooring, south trimmer.This recycled piece of wood used as a nailer is covered in red paint. It appearsweathered and may be a piece of Period I exterior woodwork salvaged and reusedduring the Period II improvements.

D

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