Now dated 1830s Stone House: Architectural Historians

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WildGeeseLn
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Now dated 1830s Stone House: Architectural Historians

Post by WildGeeseLn »

I just had a visit from an architectural historian this past Friday, and she is now putting the first floor of my house in the early 19th century, around 1830s. Time to start my renovation/decoration research all over again, haha.

I had the same historian out right after purchasing the house, before I started removing the layers of renovations, and so her original estimate was based mostly on the upstairs, where more of the older features happened to be visible. She took one look at the window moldings and lath I found under the paneling downstairs and felt very confident about early 19th century. Some new information supports her--- the daughter of the PO had told me that the house was around 200 years old, but had suffered some kind of fire. She had also mentioned that she thought it was originally 1.5 stories, similar to an old stone house down the road. With the help of the architectural historian we were able to find evidence of the 1.5 stories (odd placement of windows relative to stairs, patched stonework, chimney curvature etc.). She still dates the upstairs as 1870s, so it seems like one possibility is that the fire was in the upstairs of the house, which was then rebuilt as a full 2 stories.

We also could trace the old floor plan downstairs. Very interesting. Based on the wood floor joints and gaps in the plaster on the outer interior stone walls, the original floor plan matched very exactly the Germanic floor plan that architectural historian had guessed during her original visit (a bonus point for her!). A wall had been removed just to the left, coming in the original front door. This would have divided the very small "formal" foyer from a parlor, and then a small bedroom (presumably) from the kitchen. Interesting to note, is that the the entire first floor is wide heart pine except the exact area where the missing wall would create a very small foyer; this area is a very narrow-cut heart pine. The narrow pine boards would have been more expensive and more impressive, which makes sense for a first impression entering the house. A detail I had not noticed at all (probably because my floors are covered in black adhesive, haha).

So now I have an 1830s downstairs, 1870s upstairs, and 1950s addition to contend with. Of course if 1830s is accurate, I have some new street cred with the big civil war crowd in my area ;) For those who are interested, the architectural historian charges $80 for an hour of on-site consultation (and much more to do archival research). I was very skeptical of paying that much, but I learned so many small details about everything from nail types to floor plans that it was very worth it.

Also, throwing in a photo of my soon-to-be new-very old floors :) Did a test sanding, and they are beautiful!!! Also incredibly thick, which is great.
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Test spot for floor sanding
Test spot for floor sanding
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Mick_VT
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Re: Now dated 1830s Stone House: Architectural Historians

Post by Mick_VT »

Those floors are going to look fantastic!

p.s. come visit with us at the new place (www.thehistoricdistrict.org)
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Casey
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Re: Now dated 1830s Stone House: Architectural Historians

Post by Casey »

If I may, it's very likely the narrow boards are replacements, because the original material was worn completely out. The areas by exterior doors in farmhouses are subject to remarkable abuse. I know of a 1840's farmhouse that had two wood kitchen floors worn out, then the second one covered with plywood & vinyl.
Even when a floor survives, the area at the door has a depression worn into it by boots and dirt and scrubbing.
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Re: Now dated 1830s Stone House: Architectural Historians

Post by Sashguy »

Another thing to consider is that around the turn of the century, it was quite common to jack up a single story home and build a new first floor. I have several in the neighborhood with 1860 upper floors and 1890 lower floors. Another twist that I've seen are dog trots. Old in the front and rear and new in the middle but having an original roof-line.

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Re: Now dated 1830s Stone House: Architectural Historians

Post by historicalwork »

Random question - are you using the round (edger) sander for all the floor area? Or are you using a larger floor sander for the main areas?

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Re: Now dated 1830s Stone House: Architectural Historians

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Hey Historicalwork, most of us, including the poster of this thread have moved to www.thehistoricdistrict.org come join us over there
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