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 .

The pattern books of Asher Benjamin

This is a post about 2 of Asher Benjamin's pattern books: The American Builder's Companion and The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter.

I like reading Asher Benjamin's pattern books.
He says practical and personal things when you least expect it.In  his notes about chimney pieces, he adds," Care should be taken, however, not to overload them (the whole mantle) with ornaments, as they are exposed and liable to be broken."* 1
This is a real person. He writes for "all practical house carpenters... particularly those who reside in the country, where they have no opportunity of consulting with an architect." *2  He is talking directly to them.

 My friends have just bought a farm with fields, barns - and an old house - in Ohio  They have many questions. The land was first settled in 1805. The house may have been built soon after that. Its shape and proportions are Federal: center entrance, 2 windows each side, 5 above, end chimneys.

Since Benjamin's pattern books were used extensively as guides by house wrights and joiners in the states west of the Appalachians from before 1800 through the 1860's, I mailed my friends two of his pattern books for their use: The American Builder's Companion, first published in 1806, the 6th edition (which I sent) in 1827,  and The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter, published in 1830, and reprinted through 1850.

This post is an addendum to the books - to help them discover Asher Benjamin's writing for themselves, especially since I live so far away. I also wanted my friends to see how design  and construction techniques evolved in those years and how to read them in their new house.

Three examples:
The mantle of this fireplace in the dining room appears to be original. (The firebox was reconfigured and then closed over the years as central heat became possible and then efficient.)

The mantle  - called a 'Chimney Piece' by Asher Benjamin - has only proportions - barely any moldings, no pattern, no emphasis or flourish.  Those proportions, however, are closely aligned with the shape of the  mantle -  illustrated in Plate 37 of  The American Builder's Companion (shown here). The shelf is narrow and extended on the ends; the board below it is wide; the side pieces are topped with a bead so that they read as columns. It is as if the joiner created a background, a base ready for embellishment.

 


This would seem to imply that the chimney piece was built before 1830, following the late Georgian style. This style is often referred to as Federal, Adamesque, or Neo-Classical by historians, but also called 'Colonial' by many.

But... What often happened was that the joiner simply copied what he remembered from where he came from - which might have been 30 years ago. Unless someone signed and dated his work, the age of a piece cannot be easily pinned down.

Still, the joiner who built the mantel in my friends' house did not know or disdained this mantle illustrated in Benjamin's next book, The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter, published in 1830.

This is a dramatic departure from the designs in the earlier book: Greek Revival in no uncertain terms!
The chimney piece thrusts itself into the room. The side pieces are real columns set in front of the sides of the mantle. The shelf above has become an unadorned detail with no softening molding above that frieze with its bold, dramatic Greek Key.


Here is the floor plan. The columns are not just round, but fluted.  The mantel shelf is thin, but wide and deep, adding to the sense of the fireplace jutting into the room.

My friends' dining room is quiet - not like this!







The farm house staircase is the second example.
The newel shown here is elegant and flowing, a fitting ending to the rail and balusters.

Not Greek Revival. Maybe tinged with Gothic Revival and Italianate sentiments, or inspired by Renaissance Revival furniture.

Definitely not late Georgian.


Below is Plate XLIII on stair construction from The American Builder's Companion. It includes practical drawings including diagrams for laying out curved stairs. In the upper right is a careful drawing showing where to place newel posts on stair landings. I've added a circle to highlight that detail.





On the right side is drawn a newel post, a very plain newel that is securely anchored to the step, has a little entasis in the shaft, and ends with an elliptic knob that fits the hand.  It comes from a different era than the one in the photograph.


Below is part of Plate XXXIV from The American Builder's Companion, showing what Benjamin calls 'Banisters' and we now refer to as balusters.
There is some relationship between these illustrations and those in the photograph - a solid base, a tapering of the shaft. but not much else.



On the right side of the Plate a line is divided into 6 equal parts. The placement of the curves and ornamentation, the size of the base, is determined by those parts. The balusters in the photograph do not follow those proportions.


If the rest of the house was built c.1810, then the newel and its balusters now in the house are later renovations.



The final example is the hand rail, sinuous, beautiful.  That smooth changing slope of wood was the goal of stair builders since the first awkward attempts in the 1750's.


Benjamin dedicated 10 Plates and more than 15 pages of text in his 1806 and 1830 pattern books to the design and fabrication of that curve.

This is highly technical, and hard to explain on paper with words. Benjamin does it so well that craftsmen today look to his directions.
The railing does not fall at a consistent rate. Lumber is not necessarily curved to match the changes in direction; and yet, the aim is achieved: a smooth continuous flow of wood from the upper landing to the newel at the bottom step.




I have added circles on the smaller print - Plate 48  from The American Builder's Companion- to highlight where Benjamin said the curve was to be to be modified.

Plate LXI from  The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter  shows how "to find the moulds for a stair rail with a semi-circle of 8 winders." Figure 6, upper left, shows how to lay them out on a plank.












The polished sloping hand rail invites us to run our hand along its length, and perhaps even to try sliding down around that curve! It is a beautiful work of art.

revised 1/19/2017
*1 The American Builder's Companion,the sixth edition (1827), Plate XXXVII

*2  The Architect, or Practical House Carpenter, 1830, Third Edition, Preface, page v.

St Jerome's Catholic Church, East Dorset, Vermont

St. Jerome's Church in East Dorset, Vermont. was coming down. Only 4 towns away, not very far!  I would be able to see the frame. The weather was beautiful;  I was itchy for a drive.

Add to that my friend from the 2016 PTN Workshops, Lisa Force, was one of the crew.  Of course I went.

This is Lisa striking a pose in her haz-mat suit.

The church was built in 1874 for the Catholic stone masons who had come to Dorset to work in the quarries and shops. By 2010 it had only 6 members and a large, lovingly cared for cemetery. The church was closed. Naturally the roof leaked; mold grew.
Parishioners realized that if church were gone, the cemetery could expand. Enter Deconstruction Works   http://www.deconstructionworks.com/



Here is the church with asbestos siding: sweet, unexceptional.

















Here's what was uncovered: vertical sheathing - classic Gothic Revival siding.  Rustic, rural, right out of the pattern books! *
Able to be built of local lumber cut at local saw mills by local craftsmen, the design fit its pastoral country setting.




A dog house shed for the bulkhead had covered a section of the original siding, leaving it unchanged. The battens which had covered the joints  between the boards were still there. They were fat and curvy , creating strong shadows, beautifully following the lines of the windows.
I admire how those craftsman 140 years ago reinforced the shape and rhythm of the windows as well as the verticality of the church.

The interior had been renovated several times; the floor covering  updated, the ceiling lowered at least three times, the walls painted, most of the stained glass replaced, the alter reconfigured.

The iron tie rods may have been original  - or not. They are visible on the right:  the straight horizontal chords that run right through the curved trusses.

Those trusses simply took off half way up the wall. No base.While they were in front of the posts of the bays and symmetrical around the windows they were built up, not solid timbers.





Way up at the peak, in the gloom above all the framing for the drop ceilings, (and what we thought was the original ceiling) the trusses crossed.

So I came home to draw a hypothetical church with curved trusses.
Lisa critiqued.







This is how I think the church was laid out - a simple and elegant geometric design.

However, the designer, be he master carpenter or fledgling  architect, did not need to know much about Practical Geometry. The elevation  divides the square into halves and quarters The  radii of the 2 arcs is determined by the width of the church . Very simple, not complex,

That the designer understood how the frame could create the sense of the church became clear as the layers of interior improvements were stripped from the frame.

The arches do cross. They are part of all the ribs of the bays from the narthex and the nave to the apse. They are an integral part of the frame, well anchored to the posts and braced by the wall's framing.

We saw that crossings were exposed, visible.
They were carefully joined, their edges chamfered  The trefoils and quatrefoils were inserts. The whole assembly was painted in  subtle shades popular at the time: metallic gold on the trusses, brick on the tracery, and on the inside edge of the patterns: red!

Perhaps the colors have faded; the emphasis has not. They were designed and carved to be seen.

The carving, the tracery matched what we saw on the arches and inserts at the transition from the wall to the roof which we had photographed and discussed.  But we had not know what we were seeing. The parts: the strength of the arches,the delicacy of the tracery, and the shapes they created were invisible when they were painted white.  They had lost their grace, their power.












The church is now stripped to the frame. It was taken down completely in the spring of 2017.

I have not seen a geometric layout like this before. I will make measured drawings; then I look at the frame more carefully.





I own drafting tools from this period. They are drawing instruments, 2 compasses and a divider as well as pens and 2 scales, made for drawing with ink.
A Master Carpenter would have used compasses to draw this layout and design in the 1870's. There were not many craftsmen who called themselves architects in 1874. Possibly this design was developed by the local diocese for small communities like E. Dorset. However, I have seen no record nor another similar church. 



*    The image, "William T. Hanlett, BICKNELL'S WOODEN & BRICK BUILDINGS, 1875", is  from
      Country Patterns 1843 - 1883, edited by Donald J. Berg, Revised 2nd edition, The Main Street           Press,  Pittstown, NJ, 1986.