Jackson, NY, House - geometry, dating, some beautiful craftsmanship, Part 6 of 6

This is the last post of 6 about a c. 1820 18' x 36' wing on a  Jackson, NY,  farm house. I assume the reader has read the earlier posts.


Practical Geometry

A measured frame is always, for me, an opportunity to learn how Practical Geometry was used.

Here is the framing for the west side of the wing.







and here the geometry:

The basic geometry for the building is 2 squares, each 18 ft x 18 ft. The floor plan is 18 ft wide by 36 ft long. The framing elevation is also 2 squares 18 ft x 18 ft. I show only the right half.

The 2nd floor height is half the height of the square - 9 ft.

The Rule of Thirds lines cross at A  the height of the wall.
The lines also cross at B  the center line of the window farthest to the right.

I have not drawn all the lines for the Rule of Thirds star. They run from all the corners to all the centers of the sides of the square.

The larger square can be divided into 4 smaller squares. One is outlined on the lower left.
The window next to the door is located at the center of the right half the lower left square  - at C. 







Dating the wing by its technology

The sheathing boards are cut by a sash saw. The house was framed 'pre-circular saw' which seems to be c. 1830.

The mortise and tendon frame is augmented by nailed framing members. The frame itself is cut, not hewn. Nails begin to be manufactured in the early 1800's and come into general use by 1820.

There is both a Rumford fireplace and space provided for a cast iron stove, especially the framing for the chimney which begins on the 2nd fl. Cast iron stoves began to be manufactured c. 1820. Rumford fireplaces were still being built.

The brick used for the fireplace, the chimneys and the nogging is soft and water struck, still baked in a kiln fired by charcoal.


For pictures of these details please see the earlier posts in this series.



Beautiful craftsmanship

The top plate of the frame has unusual bird's mouth  - the joint which seats the rafter on the plate. Here is a quiet piece of craft known only to the carpenters until the frame was uncovered.











As the corner boards were removed from the house the boards looked worn out, rotted, junk. The framers disconnected the boards and saw how carefully shaped and pieced the boards were, not only as a graceful edge, but to resist rain and wind.












This particular corner detail was also used by the Shakers locally in Lebanon, NY, and in Harvard, MA.
It was also used on the 1837 house of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Seneca Falls, NY.

I keep this section in my office .

The frieze board and its molding comes to the eave return and curls into a point at the intersection of the walls.

A Look Back

This was my first view of this house.

Below is what it looked like in 1820.

The link to  the men who took down and repaired this house, Green Mountain Timber Frames:  https://www.greenmountaintimberframes.com .

My posts on this house in order:

Part 1: https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2015/12/a-washington-county-ny-carpenter-used.html

Part 2: https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2015/12/washington-county-ny-house.html

Part 3: https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2016/01/washington-county-house-windows-and.html

Part 4: https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2016/07/washington-county-ny-house-dutch.html

Part 5: https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2017/03/jackson-ny-house-part-5-of-6.html

Jackson, NY, House, The Frame, Part 5 of 6

In 1981, the Washington County, NY, Information, Tourism and Historic Preservation people documented every 'old house' in the county they could. This is the picture which accompanied the form, and the only picture known showing anything of the rest of the  house.

The land was part of lot #12 of the Grand Division of Cambridge Patent. The town of Jackson, where this house is, split off from Cambridge in 1814. The Parrish family owned the farm from 1846 until  1929 when Charles T. Hayes bought the farm. His son, Charles J. Hayes was the source for those gathering information.

Who added the left wing to this house around 1820?  Who wanted stylish design - the Federal front door and moldings - and technological improvements - the cast iron wood stove in the north room?

Usually a new owner, a new wife, better finances, will mean new construction. Here there is no easy answer.  Before the Parrishes, several families owned this land. However, from 1796 to 1839, Garrit Wendell, a well-respected lawyer and leading citizen of Cambridge, the town next door, was the owner. Wendell was born in Watervliet, NY, in 1769. He married Rebekah of Dutch descent; they had 2 children. He died in 1840; his wife in 1843. I found no record that he ever lived in Jackson. Wendell may have leased this house to William Mushet who is mentioned in a deed.  Mushet was not wealthy; he contributed $6 to help build the Washington Academy in 1814, while Wendell's subscription was $500.

Why would Wendell renovate and update this farm? I have not found an answer.


The frame is 'Dutch'; it is made up of a series of  bents, here 12, approximately 3 ft apart, for the 36 ft. length.
This implies that the framer had been trained in the local Dutch vernacular tradition as practiced in upper Hudson River valley.

The last bent on the left side has been removed by the timber framers in this picture.

 An 'English' frame would have had 4 bents: one at each end, one on either side of the center door and its hall.
Mixing framing traditions is not uncommon in this part of eastern New York and western New England. Here the frame is Dutch and the exterior appearance, Federal., based on English architecture.




The south end of the frame shows the braces set just below the gable end rafters. These were on both ends of the wing. The original house had also braced this new wing. Green Mountain Timber Framers who were deconstructing the house felt the frame move and secured it with cross bracing, visible here.

Above is the west (road) facade of the frame. 12 bents. Each 6"x 6" post is mortised into the sill. The
3"x 8" joists are mortised through the posts and pegged at the second floor height. A 3" x 6" rim joist is then attached below the joist and pegged.

















The next bent can now be slid into place because its mortise is ready to receive the rim joist. Its floor joist can be slid into place because the easing on the 6"x 6" post runs across the face of the post, not just at the mortise. Then the intermediate stud is set below and above the rim joist and a 2"x 8" joist nailed to it. Some of the joists are notched to make the 2nd floor level.

Here is another set of post and joists. The setting of the secondary joists - about half on the left side, the rest on the right - might be because the framers worked from each end of the wing toward the front door.
The parts for these bents might have been cut ahead of time and assembled on site. They are quite uniform.






Here is a look along the 2nd floor joists on the east side, Reused posts are visible. The south sill was also a reused timber, a plate with notches for rafters and the necessary holes for pegs.







The door frame is not neat. There is some fudging - an extra post to set the door in the center, Framing for the stair opening seems to have been  figured out on the job.


Similarly the extra 2 joists, one 6"x 8",  the other 2"x 8", which carry the chimney above the stove pipe seems to intrude into the rhythm of the frame a decision made on the spot.




The framing of  the gable ends includes both mortised and nailed joints.

Mortise and tendon framing does not need nails. We used it extensively as a framing system before 1800  partly because nails were hand made from scarce iron ore not easily processed.
The invention in the early 1800's of nail making machines changed how we framed. Here, c. 1820, both wood pegs and iron nails  are used to hold the wood together. This is a transitional frame.

Here are details at the gable and at the 2nd floor. The left photograph shows the nailed north gable on the ground after it was taken down.  The right photograph is the braces mortised into the 2nd floor beam.







Here is the plate, with its unusual bird's mouth - the mortise which holds the rafters.  I and the framers, and others who know historic framing in the Hudson River Valley, had never seen this joint before. The plate is mortised to the posts.

Notice on the framing layout that the rafters do not line up with the posts. This means the walls and the roof were thought of as separate entities.


The last part of this 6 part series will review some of the exterior details and the geometry based on the frame. http://www.jgrarchitect.com/2017/03/jackson-ny-house-geometry-dating-some.html

The link to  the men who took down and repaired this house, Green Mountain Timber Frames:  https://www.greenmountaintimberframes.com .

Jackson, NY, House - a Dutch vernacular frame, 4 of 6 posts

 

written January, 2016

The house has been stripped to its frame. The sheathing removed, each board numbered as it came down. The stair and moldings (inside and out) carefully moved into storage.

Now the frame is visible -
no ridge beam,
12 bents: each is a post on either end mortised to a 2nd floor joist.
The plate across the top holds them all together; The 14 rafters sit on the plate and are not spaced to match the bents.

The joists on each end are mortised into posts.
Plates, mortised into the sides of the  posts, space the bents and carry the intermediate 2nd floor joists.

Here is a post with its joist and the pegs that hold the tenons of the plates seen from the outside.

Here seen from the inside, are: 2 posts, an intermediate stud; 2nd floor joists, plates and intermediate joists.
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.
We think it was assembled bent by bent, the intermediate plates added one at a time as each bent was set into the sill.







I have measured the first floor - twice The first time it was just too cold. I hurried. I wasn't careful.

The framer used Hudson Valley Dutch framing. The house was clothed in the latest Federal style with possible Shaker influences. Inside it retains the traditional system.  

I need to add more, especially about the Dutch way of framing.
An orthographic perspective would make the frame easier to read.
The frame details deserve a post of their own.
So does the careful cleaning and repair of the frame by Green Mountain Timber Frames.
I want to redraw the front elevation to reflect the frame we saw and measured compared to the plaster and clapboard surfaces I saw and measured in the beginning.

However, it is July, months later.  Time to share!


The link to  the men who took down and repaired this house, Green Mountain Timber Frames:  https://www.greenmountaintimberframes.com .

Jackson, NY, house: the windows and the frame , 3 of 6 posts

Dismantling a house is always exciting.

Renovation reveals parts of the frame, the foundation, the joinery of an old house. But taking it down carefully shows us all of it.

So even though  it was 10*F with a stiff wind, I have been there - for the past week. My fingers froze, my camera refused to work. The timber framers said their battery operated power tools were likewise not inclined to cooperate.  





The newer windows were shorter than the originals.The hole above was filled in with 2 short lengths of clapboard.   








Last week with the clapboard removed, The original window frames were obvious.









Inside the frame was exposed; the rough window opening visible.
Still the 'window' we saw was not the original.












At the top of the opening we could see a new stud scabbed against the old, wider stud. The wider stud stopped at the top of the original window.
 Note the white smudge marks on the sheathing - they are made by the un-fired brick that was used for insulation - nogging - and fire stopping. 







 Bottom of the same window - more white marks on the side of the frame where the brick was under the original window. One of the timber framers, who saw this first, is measuring as I take notes.

I had not expected to see the bottom -  the sill - of the original window higher than the newer one but the evidence was right there. At some windows the cut stud was newer lumber as well.

The newer windows sat a little lower than the old. The height of the old matched the height of the front door.

The posts on each side of the window have the 2nd floor joists mortised into them. These bents - front to back down the length of the house, one each side of each window - frame the house. 

This is how Dutch houses in the Colonies were framed 2 generations before this house was built.  

The picture of the southwest corner shows the post on the left side of the front corner window running from floor to roof, the beam mortised into the post, brick nogging, and cross bracing.

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Note: in the picture of the window (above) an intermediate joist is visible  - centered above the window. It is not mortised into a post. It sits on the plate. There are regular intermediate joists in the floor frame of the 2nd floor.


The link to  the men who took down and repaired this house, Green Mountain Timber Frames:  https://www.greenmountaintimberframes.com .
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