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mid-19th century chicago wood framed cottage with both pegged lap and mortise and tenon joints
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Home Blog mid19th century chicago wood framed cottage with both pegged lap and mortise and tenon joints mid-19th century chicago wood framed cottage with both pegged lap and mortise and tenon joints This entry was posted on September 22, 2015 by Eric. from the moment i struck through a wall near the northeast corner of the house, i knew that my suspicions about its true identity were correct. after peeling back continuous layers i am convinced this house was likely moved from the central business district sometime during the 1850's (around the time masonry began replacing the woodframed shanties). in fact, once i pulled back and deciphered the "insulation" resting on the sill plate between the joists, i had an approximate date of 18501854, based on the brittle scraps of newspapers, product brochures and business cards (see more of the initial findings prior to demolition here). a few weeks later i received word that the house was going to be demolished the next day. when i arrived onsite, nothing initially "spoke" to me. there had been so many alterations far more than i anticipated. the entire rafter system had been replaced from a previous fire, and traces of additional fire damage were discovered behind walls exposed by the claws of the excavator's backhoe. i was mainly interested in the frontmost section of the house and the sill plate configuration. since the debris from the demolition covered over these sills and the front wasn't demolished, i would return the next day when the job reached completion. Search Search Posts Search Categories Bldg. 51 Events & Announcements Featured Posts Miscellaneous New Acquisitions New Products Sales and Promotions Salvages test Recent Posts mid19th century chicago wood framed cottage with both pegged lap and mortise and tenon joints several matching 19th century cast iron exterior residential newel posts acquired this week "unearthing chicago" lecture held at glessner museum through photographs daniel h. burnham's historic downtown chicago fisher building through its artifacts additional finds from the "flask privy pit" and the closing chapter of "unearthing chicago"
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Transcript of mid-19th century chicago wood framed cottage with both pegged lap and mortise and tenon joints
Home Blog mid19th century chicago wood framed cottage with both pegged lap and mortise and tenon joints
mid-19th century chicago wood framedcottage with both pegged lap and mortiseand tenon jointsThis entry was posted on September 22, 2015 by Eric.
from the moment i struck through a wall near the northeastcorner of the house, i knew that my suspicions about its trueidentity were correct. after peeling back continuous layers iam convinced this house was likely moved from the centralbusiness district sometime during the 1850's (around the timemasonry began replacing the woodframed shanties). in fact,once i pulled back and deciphered the "insulation" resting onthe sill plate between the joists, i had an approximate date of18501854, based on the brittle scraps of newspapers, productbrochures and business cards (see more of the initial findings
prior to demolition here).
a few weeks later i received word that the house was going to be demolished the next day. wheni arrived onsite, nothing initially "spoke" to me. there had been so many alterations far morethan i anticipated. the entire rafter system had been replaced from a previous fire, and traces ofadditional fire damage were discovered behind walls exposed by the claws of the excavator'sbackhoe. i was mainly interested in the frontmost section of the house and the sill plateconfiguration. since the debris from the demolition covered over these sills and the front wasn'tdemolished, i would return the next day when the job reached completion.
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Bldg. 51
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mid19th century chicagowood framed cottage withboth pegged lap andmortise and tenon joints
several matching 19thcentury cast iron exteriorresidential newel postsacquired this week
"unearthing chicago"lecture held at glessnermuseum throughphotographs
daniel h. burnham'shistoric downtown chicagofisher building through itsartifacts
additional finds from the"flask privy pit" and theclosing chapter of"unearthing chicago"
early the following morning i received a call from the wrecker informing me that the sill plateswere ready to be photographed. the day prior, i'd asked if he would be kind enough to contactme as soon as they were exposed "in situ" so i could carefully examine their surfacecharacteristics, configuration and so on. when i arrived on site, i could not believe my eyes. mywrecker friend managed to clear all the debris away from and around the sill plates and heavilynotched girt. it was a remarkable sight to behold. the heavy timbers rested on cedar posts thathad been cut down. more likely than not, these posts once served as logs used to roll the house(with teams of oxen) from site to site.
having carefully examined and harvested sill plate fragments from well over 50 houses this yearalone, i have only seen two other structures that contained woodpegged joinery. however,unlike the others i've found, there were no "spikes" toenailed into any of the sill plates or girtshere. these sill plates were interconnected by using a combination of lap and mortise and tenonjoinery. i have only seen this once before when i was systematically deconstructing the johnkent russell house (1855).
interestingly, the russell house used large wrought iron spikes and tie rods, with only a singleplate containing multifaceted and tapered wood pegs. the current house was peggedthroughout. this is of interest considering nails were widely available in chicago from the early1830's on, when the first sawmill was fired up to cut dimensional lumber. the size of timbers usedfor both the sills and girt were also distinctive, representing the largest i've come across since therussell house.
the sill plates were sawn, with circular markings evident and mostly uniform from one section toanother. the heavily notched girt exhibited evidence of hewn marks, and the joists were lockedinto place on both sides of the beam. the faceted and tapered pegs were comprised of oak (theother previously discovered pegs are white pine) and were nearly 12 inches in length.
clearly, the hybridization of "old world" post and beam with balloon construction methodologiesmake this woodframed cottage a worthwhile "case study" to be examined beyond the scope ofmy ongoing deconstructing chicago project. at the very least, photographs and materials (i.e, sillplates, etc.) are available to any and all researchers who wish to pursue information about theseunderstudied early chicago cottages.
