built 1698, torn down 1863. Check my new colonial era website http://colonial-american-life.blogspot.com/
An old house that stood in Lancaster, PA. You can see the old medieval style timbering. Check my new colonial era website http://colonial-american-life.blogspot.com/
A very old house that once stood in Yorktown, VA
An old New England staircase.
Staircase from an old house that stood in Portsmouth, NH.
China cupboard in a house built in 1739. I had seen china closets with shelves cut this way behind glass doors, but the first time I saw one with solid doors I was somewhat puzzled as to why they did that. Since that day I've seen countless china closets with the exact same kind of shelves and solid wood doors. Apparently the doors were left open when company came to call and the rest of the time were shut to keep out the dust. The rounded center portions that stick out were made to show off china bowls.
Here's another china closet in bad shape, but you can see the inside construction better.
Pans used for openhearth cooking had long handles.
Note the bench within the fireplace. These were the warmest places in the house to sit. Cinderella probably curled up in a spot just like that.
New England, 1735. The old fireplace and oven are shown here updated. The fireplace has been made smaller and a cast iron surround has been inserted. You may be able to make out the iron door cover of the oven, The ash oven is below it. You can also see how the chimney was built sloping back. The wooden panelling was added some time after the house was built. This is a very common treatment.
Check my new colonial era website http://colonial-american-life.blogspot.com/
17th c. Note than fireplaces came in many sizes. Some were as large as a small bathroom, some were quite small. Some were wide, some, like this one, were tall.
According to the caption, the cook has just pulled the turkey, cooked with it's feathers still on from the ashes. This is a Virginai inn, partially built by Patrick Henry's father. It was dismantled and moved to Monticello. Those poor women of the good old days sure spent a lot of time on the floor. If you haven't looked yet, check the Victorian kitchens out.
Here you see a sketch of set kettles, or as they came to be known in England, coppers. Large metal pots were set into brick. A fire would burn below, the bricks would heat. They were used to boil water for cooking or washing. Large pots of soups and stews would also simmer in them. They were invented by an American loyalist, Benjamin Thompson, who later fled to England. He is better known as Count Rumford.
A couple of old set kettles.
This sketch shows the inner workings of a set kettle
Kitchen of Tristram Coffin house, a 1683 addition
Bedroom of a house built in 1778, the furnishings are not all from that period. The painted window shades, for example were probably from the 1830's or 40's.
17TH C. storage chest
late 1700's or early 1800's
Parson Capen house 1683. A couple of other good pictures are at http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwher/courses/8690/parson/
Floorplan of the Parson Capen house built 1683.
Parson Capen house parlour. 1683
17th c. Parson Capen house.
Front hall of Parson Capen house
Parson Capen kitchen
Parson capen front hall, from kitchen
Philadelphia, Chestnut Hill
Philadelphia, Chestnut Hill, @1748
Chestnut Hill 1748
A Federal era parlor
Another view of the Federal parlor
A good sketch showing the framing of a Plimouth plantation house, 1600's.
Philadelphia, Elfreth's Alley
Elfreth's Alley
Elfreth's Alley An alley off the alley.
Elfreth's Alley, in the early 1900's
Glen Fern, Philadelphia
Architectural sketch of Glen Fern, also known as the Livezey House, begun in 1733. This stands in Wissahickon Park in the Chestnut Hill area.
A Dutch bed in NY state.
A Dutch style door, NY
This is a Dutch style fireplace from New York state. I've seen dozens of old Dutch paintings of interiors. The fireplaces are similar to this one and every one has a little fabric valance on it.
A Dutch painting showing both the divided door and the typical alcove bed.
Philadelphia
A staircase showing the opening to a smoke room, as in smoked hams, not cigars.
The cabinet styled doors on this staircase open to small smoke ovens. The ovens could be tucked anywhere in the massive chimneys and openings could be found even in bedrooms. Later owners of these houses wrongly assumed that the bedroom openings were closets.
Williamsburg, VA
The Betsy Ross House. The only way you can see pictures of the inside of Betsy Ross's house is by buying a book. There are a few small or poor pictures online, and they don't allow photography indoors. This is an old postcard.
18th c. folding bed. Much furniture from the 1700's was dual purpose or could be tucked out of the way. Rooms were multi purpose, and it was common for a parlor to also serve as a bed chamber.
Another example of a folding bed. This one was in a tavern ballroom. No more than 6 were allowed to sleep in a bed , read a card in this tavern.
Thomas Jefferson's dumbwaiter, a revolving door. Though we generally think of dumbwaiters as being small elevators, they were originally revolving door cabinets. The name was also used for dish arrangements similar to more familiar tiered cake plates.
shutters
The kitchen fireplace from a 1770's tavern at the Strawberry banke museum. In the upper left you can see a cranking device for the spit below. Very few of these have survived. One is at Mt. Vernon.
hearth cooking. Rather than one large fire, several small fires would be laid. The center pot is a Dutch oven, with coals on the lid to cook the food inside.
hearth cooking, view 2
A house at the Strawberry Banke Museum, Portsmouth, NH. Built in 1796, it has been furnished as the home of a prosperous sea captain, set in the early 1800's.
the captain's bedchamber. The interior shutters in this house all slide into the wall.
the captain's kitchen
another view of the fireplace. On the hearth, just behind the table you can see the top of a "hastener". It was a sort of metal roasting oven, open to the fire, with a spit.
a sitting/dining room
china closet
the captain's parlor
a better view of the sliding shutters
Showing frame construction of a house built in 1701, Salmon Falls, NH
1730's, Maine
Hamilton House, S.Berwick, Maine,18th c. in 1802 the furnishings of this room were: a sofa, 12 chairs, 2 easy chairs, card and tea tables, a Brussels carpet, 2 looking glasses and one picture.
The same room.
A closeup of 18th c folding shutters.
18th c interior shutters. Because of the shallower recess, these shutters were made of very narrow panels. George Washington slept in this room in 1781.
Emerson Wilcox House, York, Maine, built in the 1740s. The shutters shown are original.
This room is from the mid 1700's. Note it features 2 kinds of interior shutters, folding on one set of windows and a sliding shutter on another.
This painting done in 1827 shows a rare depction of an apparently common item of its era, a window shade, or blind. The blind is made of pleated green silk, and was a hinged panel attached to the window. Silk sliding screens also existed at this time. The screens slid up and down
Fireplace from Mt.Vernon, showing spit dogs and spit rack. See my new website, ......http://colonial-american-life.blogspot.com/
Summer kitchen fireplace, with a side oven. http://colonial-american-life.blogspot.com/
Set kettle, showing lid in place. In my original notes for this picture, it was described as being part of a summer kitchen. http://colonial-american-life.blogspot.com/
1680 It was common to have raised hearths in bedrooms for safety reasons. http://colonial-american-life.blogspot.com/
Note tin roasting oven in foreground, oven in back wall,what appears to be a fireback below it and a ledge running along the back of the fireplace. The ledges were handy for keeping items warm. http://colonial-american-life.blogspot.com/
A simple sketch of a colonial era American fireplace, showing how some cooking tools were used. http://colonial-american-life.blogspot.com/
A wooden latch with latchstring. http://colonial-american-life.blogspot.com/
