Houses Tell Stories

My book group went on a field trip last night to the Parson Capen House in Topsfield. We had read Where We Lived: Discovering the Places We Once Called Home (973.5 LAR) by Jack Larkin, chief historian at Old Sturbridge Village. And although the home was from 1683 and outside the books parameters of 1775 to 1840, it was an interesting introduction to our discussion. Parson Capen was a Harvard graduate who agreed to take the call to Topsfield. He married Priscilla Appleton of Ipswich who promptly took one look at the parsonage and decided a new home was in order. The house they built is considered “one of the finest standing examples of post-medieval domestic architecture in America.” Touring through, we had several questions: Why was there a second summer beam in the parlor? Why were the ceiling heights on the second floor higher than the first? Did this mean there was a public use to the second floor?
Larkin’s book travels through the America of that time period and traces the development of the houses people called home – not only the styles of the outside but also how they used the spaces inside. Although we are fortunate to have many historical homes preserved to a specific time period, I find more interesting homes like the Coffin House owned by Historic New England that shows how the family lived in it over the centuries, adding and adapting given the family’s needs and the changing domestic technologies (plumbing, wiring, heating.)
Renovating our first home made me very conscious of how those before me had lived within the space. A 2-over-2 post-and-beam house with balloon construction, it had a half-shed dormer on the second floor meaning that I could stand up in that room. When we went to tighten up a living room draft, the wall fell in and we found that the chestnut supports for the walls had been cut for new windows back in the forties. The walls had been reinforced with wood from old crates. I think the layers were holding the home up: clapboards, crates, asphalt, shingles… And when C. Adams added the dormer in 1853, he chalked his name into the beam. Over the past two hundred years, people made the house livable for their wants. We did the same and I am sure that time hence, new owners will leave their story as part of the house.
So, before too much more green explodes around us, take a good look at the homes you go by and try to see their stories. What’s been added to them? How did families leave their stories and their histories on their homes?