Artisan Showcase
Old Sturbridge Village: The Small House Project
Randall Decoteau
The raising crew stands on the newly raised frame,
with Tom Kelleher, the raising master on the left of the front row.
Directly across the gravel road from the Quaker Meeting House at Old
Sturbridge Village is a tract of land that has been used for various
purposes over the last 50 years. I remember it as a cornfield and also
as a pasture. Today the site is occupied by a small house, just 20 feet
by 21 feet, the newest addition to the exhibitions at the Village. This
accurate reproduction is the on-going work of Tom Kelleher, Associate
Curator, carpenter and housewright. With his crew, Tom is currently
in the final stages of building this small house using historically
accurate tools and techniques.
Small Houses
In 1798, the federal government created a real estate tax on every property
in the land based on its actual value. Assessors looked at every house,
recording dimensions, number of windows, and other details to support
the assessment. According to Associate Curator, Tom Kelleher, much of
this data survives and shows that about one-fourth of the housing of
that time consisted of small houses of less than 800 square feet. The
data are important, because most of the houses themselves have not survived.
“Here at Old Sturbridge Village,” began Kelleher, “we
try to create an accurate landscape of what life was like in 1838. Most
of our exhibits show larger houses, antique examples that were moved
here from elsewhere in New England.” This small house is an important
addition to the larger ones. It is the first to be built on site rather
than moved, and it is the first to show one of the small houses that
were so common then, but are so rare now.
The structure is based partly on a dwelling built by Jesse Rice just
over the Sturbridge/Brookfield line, about three or four miles away.
In 1993, the owners decided to demolish it, and allowed architectural
historians to examine the house as it was being dismantled. The experts
got to see interior details such as the underside of floors, the inside
of walls and all the construction techniques that are normally hidden
from view. Details like these helped to ensure the accuracy of this
reproduction.
Squaring up the Timbers
“When we do things here, we document our sources,” told Tom.
“We did our research, and we drew up our plans based on what we
know.” From the start it was important that everything be done
as it was in the past. Once the site was selected, trees were felled.
The principal oak timbers were hand-hewn on the site, about 50 of them.
All were chopped square using axes.
The first step was to make a chalk line on the log. Big iron staples
called dogs were driven into the log to stabilize it, and little notches
were chopped every ten inches or so. Then a broad axe was used to cut
parallel to the log along the chalk line until a nice square edge developed.
The log was then turned and the other side was squared. The process
was repeated four times for each timber. Squaring up the timbers for
this project took the better part of the summer of 2003. “Not only
did we want to build the small house using the correct techniques,”
commented Kelleher, “but we wanted to educate the public about
the process of building it.” The Village staff took their time
and did it right.
Other trees were brought to the Village sawmill to be made into boards
and three by fours or four by fours. Some of the latter would be used
for ‘scantling,’ the name for the smaller bits of lumber used
for diagonal wind braces that cross each corner at a 45-degree angle.
Building and Raising the Frame
Over the course of the next year, Kelleher and his workers laid out
the joints. The men took augurs, chisels, and mallets and chopped out
the mortises and cut the tenons to fit snugly inside them. Each timber,
and each joint had a pre-planned place to go. Tom admitted that this
was not historically accurate: in the early 1800s, carpenters didn’t
work from plans, but from their heads. Today, however, building permits
require a full set of plans for the construction of any house, even
a historical reproduction.
In early 2005, the foundation was set in. It, too, had to be built to
code, so a poured concrete foundation was set in below grade. Then workers
built up from that point using fieldstone so that once graded, the concrete
is hidden, and the finished foundation looks as if it’s all fieldstone.
On Memorial Day in 2005, better than a dozen fellows got together for
the house-raising, the exciting process by which the walls were raised
from where they had been built, lying flat on the ground. It took two
days to raise the frame. The men installed temporary roof decking and
after that came the rafters, ridge pole, and bracing. Following an age-old
tradition, the team named the ridge pole once it was in place. A poem
was recited and a bottle of rum was broken over the highest beam on
the house as it was named for Damon Cook, one of the Village builders
who has been battling a long term illness.
Closing up the Frame
Over the course of the summer, Kelleher closed up the frame to protect
the building from the weather, putting on the roof boards, and shingles.
“We don’t have a shingle mill at Old Sturbridge Village,”
admitted Tom, so we bought our shingles.” Water powered shingle
saws were very dangerous to operate and a liability for the Village,
so it was decided years ago not to install one.
The exterior walls were sheathed, the floors set in, and the interior
walls were roughed out. Most of this work was done with pine boards
nailed to the frame. Once fall arrived, the door and window openings
were boarded up and the house was set to slumber over the winter.
The Finish Work
In the 1800s, it was the carpenter or housewright who built the house
and then the sash joiner was called in to add the windows and doors.
This house will be built in the same way. During the late spring and
early summer of 2006, the Village will employ a sash joiner to work
on the doors and windows. At same time, Tom will be building the stairs
to the second level which will divide the house into two basic rooms.
Brick masons will lay the bricks for the chimney, fireplace, and bake
oven. “Our maintenance people have a nice stock of old bricks which
we’ll use for the finish work,” tells Kelleher. “Our
blacksmith will be making our latches and hinges as well.” A combination
of handmade and machine cut nails from Tremont Nail Company in Wareham,
Massachusetts will be used on this project. Tremont Nail Company is
still using nineteenth-century machines to make them.
The House Slowly Takes Shape
Visitors to the small house over the course of the spring, summer, and
fall of 2006 will see the house slowly taking shape. The work will continue
just as it has over the past four years, with each of the tasks being
used as an educational tool for both the staff and the public. All of
the tools used in the project are reproductions of those used in period.
“I’m excited to be working on this project,” enthused
Tom Kelleher. “I’ve worked on other timber framing projects
over the years, but this is the first one I’ve supervised. I’m
enjoying the challenge.” Actually, Tom is doing much of the work
himself. He jokes that it looks like this year he will be foreman of
himself.
He’s as good a showman as he is a craftsman, and the public seems
to like him. He says that the best question he gets is “How long
does it take to build a house?” His answer with a gleam in his
eye is, “When do you start counting? Before or after you cut down
your trees?”
The Small House Project is partially funded through the sponsorship
of Southbridge Savings Bank and can be seen at Old Sturbridge Village,
1 Old Sturbridge Village Road, Sturbridge, MA 01516,
(508) 347-3362, www.osv.org.
Photographs courtesy of Old Sturbridge Village.
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