Dining room demo discoveries

The demo phase of the dining room renovations continues with no interesting new developments. However, the quest to resolve the earlier mysteries is ongoing and, of course, inquiring minds are eager to learn the “rest of the story.”

What we know:

» An addition was built on the back of the house and served as a kitchen.

» An addition was built on the front of the house and included a living room with fireplace, stylish architectural features, specialty wood trim throughout, a new staircase to the second floor and a new bedroom above the living room.

» The architectural styles of the old and new are very different. One is ultra conservative in its simplicity, while the other reflects greater wealth or at least the willingness to spend monies on non-essential components.

» The ghost of a door way exists in the wall between the two original downstairs rooms

» A stairway to the second floor existed in the original four-room house (two over two)

» The stairway was located in the current-day dining room

There is an existing stairway from the second floor to the attic, directly above the one that was removed. Space for the non- existent stair well now contains two closets.

» Underneath the original section of the house are hand hewn support beams and the original heart pine floor boards (now covered with oak flooring)

» The roof rafters, exposed in the attic, were cut with a circular saw indicating a construction significantly more recent than 1810.

What we have discovered (during dining room renovation):

» Wherever the original plaster was severely damaged or there was an opening, old-style hardboard was used for replacement.

» Location of original doors and windows confirmed by the study of architectural symmetry and the logical placement of these elements as well as the visual identification of boarded openings

» Along the interior wall between the two original rooms hard board was found instead of plaster; an additional indication that this wall contained the original stairs. While removing the stairs, the plaster was damaged and required replacement.

What remains a mystery?

» When did the renovation occur and was there more than one?

»  Why was the chimney removed?

» Why are the building methods of the foundation and the roof indicative of two very different dates?

The logical answer is a substantial chimney fire that consumed the bulk of the roof. Insurance coverage would explain the renovations and addition. The premise has yet to be confirmed and the question of when remains.

All the wood trim in the addition has been identified as chestnut offering a theory that the renovations coincided with the massive chestnut blight in the early 1900s.

Next will be a study of the newspaper archives in hopes that the fire may have been reported.

Until next week, be well.

Zann Nelson is an award -winning freelance writer specializing in historical investigations. She is president of the preservation nonprofit organization, Friends of Wilderness Battlefield, Inc. and resides on a farm in Culpeper. She can be reached at M16439@aol.com or Newsroom 471 James Madison Highway, Suite 201 Culpeper, Va. 22701.