House architecture “the old house 1875":
This historic imposing three story Federal Style house with a classically inspired Greek Revival design presents symmetry, proportion, simplicity, and elegance, with a distinctive steep-pitched gable roof maximizing the height and grand feel of the home. Notice the typical "gabled-end-cornice-returns" where the moldings of the roof turn the corner and continue slightly towards the center of the building. The house was build around 1875. With a balanced facade, where each side is a mirror image of the other, everything is straight and rectilinear; the house is centered by a prominent front door extending forward with lateral panels, and flanked with similar-shaped bay windows on either side. Many oversized symmetrically placed two-over-two double-hung windows with flat window frame surround the house (shutters were added after 1931). An inviting front porch with square columns surrounds half the perimeter of the house. A two story lateral wing, “the small house”, accommodates the dinning room and kitchen. Another two floor structure connects the kitchen to the barn behind the house.
The continuously unified structure from house to barn known as the “New England Connected Farmstead Complex” was very popular from 1850 to 1900 in rural areas and small towns, and was specific to Maine, New Hampshire, and Eastern Vermont. It derives from the concept of attached building common in genteel housing in England and brought by the mostly English settlers to that part of America. It has four components: first, “the main house” with two parlors on the first floor and with bedrooms on the second floor. Second, the L-wing addition, “the small house”, serving as the kitchen area and active live center for the family; this house is unique by the fact that the L-wing has two floors with a bedroom and full kitchen on the second floor. Third, connecting to the barn is the "utility house", originally a carriage house with swing doors and with a workshop. Fourth, connected to the “utility house” on both floors, a 23 by 33 feet “English Style” barn with a high-pitch gable roof; it was used for horses and other farm animals, with an expansive hay loft on the second floor. The complex is judiciously oriented and the sections are aligned to shelter the south side of the house and the backyard from north and west winds. This concept became popular after 1850; it was not only to protect from the cold winter, but mostly to increase productivity in a period of competition with more productive farms in the South and West; otherwise, as Thomas Hubka who researched the concept wrote, it would have been built before 1850 and in other parts of the country.
We recognize the Greek Revival style of the house with its symmetry, the square columns supporting the long porch, the frieze and doric cornices, and the pilasters projecting slightly from the wall resembling flat columns beside the central door. The original house had corner Classical Greek square pilasters (long “corner boards” seen on the 1894 picture of the house). The front gable and high pitch roof represent a subtype common in the Northeast called “Gabled Front and Wing Type Greek Revival Architecture’’. The L-wing and barn share the same type of architecture.
The “main house” floor plan features, on the first floor, a small interior “porch” at the front entrance leading to the stairs, a parlor with fireplace on the north side and another parlor on the south side with living spaces, with on the second and third floor, many bedrooms and play rooms. Wooden floors are present in most rooms as was the norm for Greek Revival house. The interior door and window moulding are plain and bold with little decoration and with flat faces “in an effort to mimic stone” typical of the Greek Revival period. The office and parlor have stylish wainscot panels and coffered ceiling, the other rooms have ceiling crown moldings also characteristic of this architecture. Like most affluent houses of the 1860s, the tall doors with vertical panels have antique Bennington doorknobs, white porcelain knobs and pressed glass doorknobs mounted on solid brass, and with Russell & Erwin Company latches and locks.
Other details:
The present chimney on the North side of the house was added after 1914 and before 1931: it is absent on the map of 1914. Three original chimneys for the main house, the little house and the barn have been removed. The new chimney is present on a picture of 1931 with a baluster style railing surrounding the porch and the stairs. The relocation of the chimney outside the walls of the house may have to do with the numerous house and business fires that plagued the town at the beginning of the 20th century.
Initial, on a historic picture of 1894, there was no deck railing. After 1894, a simple balustrade was added covering the entire porch. It was present before the North side chimney was added. The present full guardrail is present on a picture dated 1931.
Around 1910, while the Pipers owned the house, the south side of the veranda and its roof was extended to form a much larger outdoor siting quarter on its sunny side.
references:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connected_farm
Hubka, Thomas C., Big House, Little House, Back House, Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England, University Press of New England, Hanover NH 1984
The American DoorKnob, by Franklin Pierce Hall, available on line:
https://www.antiquehomesmagazine.com/reading-room/the-american-doorknob/
