Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

NORTH ELEVATION

ELEMENTS OF THE FACADE

The Barber Shop, as was customary with eighteenth century shops in Williamsburg, presents a gable end to the street. The width of the front is 16'-3" and the height, from the pavement to the top of the ridge, is about 25'-9 ½". The façade is divided vertically into two areas by a hood, the soffit of which is about 11'-6" above the sidewalk. The hood extends across the front from corner board to corner board, acting as a rain shield for a bow window east of the center axis and an entrance door west of it. The door is approached by a flight of stone steps and a platform which have adjacent to them on the east side an inclined bulkhead housing the outside cellar steps. The wall below the hood is sheathed with flush boarding while above it the five-sided gable produced by the gambrel roof of the Shop is covered with beaded weatherboarding. In this weather boarded area, on the central axis and about midway in the height of the gable, is a 12-light window with panelled shutters. Two colorful accessories which are a part of the equipment of this façade should not be forgotten, viz., the elongated, candy-striped barber pole attached to the front between the entrance door and the bow window and the top- and bottomless box sign suspended over the side walk from the west end of the hood. This façade which is, of course, the display front of the establishment is, as it should be, the most "active" and interesting of the four elevations of the Barber Shop.

MAIN ROOF; ROOF KICK

The main roof, of which the edges only appear on this façade, is a gambrel with a lower slope of about 75° and an upper one of 27°. 12 A comparison with the two slopes of the Tavern gambrel roof reveals that the lower slopes of both gambrels are about the same and that the upper slope of the Tavern roof is about 4 ½° steeper than that of the Barber Shop. (I, p. 32). Like the roof of the Tavern, this roof has a "kick," i.e., starting at a point approximately 1'-6", (measured on the diagonal) above the roof edge, the roof direction changes, the slope becoming somewhat less steep, and the roof "curves" outward. See I p. 50 for a discussion of this device as it is used in the roof of the King's Arms Tavern.

HOOD ROOF AND ROOF COVERING

The hood which projects about 4'-0" beyond the face of the building has a single-sloped roof whose angle of inclination is about 22 ½°. Unlike the main roof the roof of the hood is covered with hand riven heart cypress shingles, secured to the sheathing beneath with modern, galvanized iron nails which are hidden from view by the shingle overlap. Wood shingles were, of course, the type used in Williamsburg in the eighteenth century and cypress, obtained locally, was the material from which they were customarily made. Because of local fire laws only roofs of very minor extent such as those of smaller outbuildings are at present covered with wood, the normal roofing material in the restored area being asbestos-cement shingles. The shed roof of the Shop, evidently, falls into the minor roof category.

DESCRIPTION OF MEMBERS OF HOOD; SIDES AND FRONT EDGE

The triangular sides of the hood are covered with beaded boards, the lower of which falls slightly below its soffit. The transition between the roof shingles and the boarded surfaces is effected by means of rake boards which taper as they move upward toward the building. The lower ends of these are cut to the profile of the cornice crown mold which runs at the eaves level across the front edge 13 of the hood. This cornice is the familiar combination of cyma recta, cyma reversa, fascia and bead with this difference, that the bead, which projects below the hood soffit, is a half circle only which merges with a cavetto at the back, so that a drip is formed.

PLASTERED SOFFIT

The soffit of the hood is plastered, the surface being slightly recessed. A cornice member similar in general effect to the one facing the front edge of the hood covers what would otherwise be a joint between the plaster and the building face. The crown mold of this cornice has a profile composed of an ovolo or quarter round, over a cyma reversa. The beaded fascia of the cornice is stopped at the sides by the corner boards while the bed mold returns upon itself.

PRECEDENT FOR HOOD IS ONE AT LITCHFIELD, CONNECTICUT; PRECEDENT ALSO EXIST IN VIRGINIA
PRECEDENT FOR RAKE BOARDS

The hood and, as will be shown more at length later, the bow window, are based upon similar elements of an eighteenth century shop in Litchfield, Connecticut. An examination of the photograph of this shop on the next page will reveal that in all essential details the two hoods are alike. We need not, however go so far afield to find precedent for this feature since hoods of the same type are found in Virginia. One of these, the hood of the old well house at White Marsh in Gloucester County, is also illustrated on the next page. The hood here serves as protection for the well (a modern pump had been installed when the photograph was made) and the entrance door of the building. The building in this case is A-roofed and serves a different purpose from that served by the Barber Shop but these considerations are of no material importance since the form and function of the hood are the same in both cases. In the White Marsh example the hood extends quite to the building corners so that the OLD STORE BUILDING IN LITCHFIELD, CONNECTICUT
The plate above, taken from the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs, Vol. V, June, 1919, was the basis for the design of both the bow window and the hood of the north façade of the Barber Shop. Bow windows (see other side) were a common feature of houses and shops in eighteenth century England and, like many other building details, were carried to this country. Hoods like that of the Litchfield store were also found in Virginia, as the picture (right) of the end of the well house of White Marsh, Gloucester Co. indicates. Bow windows of the type shown above were placed, in eighteenth century England, on many shops and houses and they appear sometimes in vertical pairs forming elements which rise two stories. The window in our illustration (from The Smaller English House of the Later Renaissance 1660-1830 by Richardson and Erblein) is quite similar to that of the Barber Shop except that the latter lacks the base, being supported by a wood bracket in the manner of the windows of the Litchfield store (other side). The display shelving of the Barber Shop window is treated in much the same way as in the section above and the supporting brackets in the two examples are similar in profile.
Corfe or Corfe Castle is a small town in Dorsetshire, England in the district called the Isle of Purbeck where the famous Purbeck stone is quarried. 16 weatherboarding of the triangular ends becomes continuous with the weatherboarding of the sides of the well house. These sides have rake boards similar to those of the Shop hood though from the photographs it is difficult to determine how they terminate at the base. An old example of rake boards which, as here, have their lower ends cut to the profile of the cornice crown mold and which serve as cornice stops are those found on a slave quarter at Tuckahoe. Here the rake end is cut to the profile of the crown mold but it is combined with a cornice end board since the Tuckahoe cornice has more members than that of the Shop.

PRECEDENT FOR PLASTERED SOFFIT

It is again, Impossible to determine from the photographs whether or not the soffit of the hood of the White Marsh well house is plastered. Examples of plastered porch soffits are not rare-an old example is the plastered soffit of the porch at the west side of the south front of the Coke-Garrett House.

PRECEDENT FOR CROWN MOLDINGS

In the matter of the hood details we still have to give the precedent for the crown molding along the north edge and for that between the plastered soffit and the building. The first, with the cyma recta at the top is one of the commonest of all eighteenth century moldings in Virginia and it was used numerous times on the reconstructed Tavern and Purdie House. It is similar to the crown mold of the old Tayloe House cornice. The soffit cornice with its ovolo replacing the cyma reversa was less common in Williamsburg. An example of this was found in use as a bed mold of the exterior cornice of the kitchen of the Robert Waller House.

WEATHERBOARDS OF GABLE

As was remarked earlier the wall surface material above the hood is beaded weatherboarding and that below unbeaded random width boarding. The weatherboarding, the lower edge of which is cut to 17 the form of a bead, ½" in diameter, is blind nailed to the studding and also face nailed with modern galvanized cut nails, the heads of which have been hand hammered to make them resemble old handmade nails. Sheathing was not used beneath weatherboarding in eighteenth century Virginia and, in the light of this fact, it was omitted here. The weatherboarding has an exposure of 5 7/8". For a discussion of beaded weatherboarding and its precedent, see I, pp. 34, 35.

VENTILATOR IN GABLE

It should be noted that the second and third weatherboards below the roof peak have, by blocking, been caused to bulge forward in such wise that ventilation slots have been produced. A rectangle of screening has been placed back of this to prevent insects from making their way into the attic space. This detail is similar to the ventilation device used in the west gable of the King's Arms Tavern and has the same precedent as the latter (I, pp. 117, 118).^*

SHEATHING BELOW HOOD

The sheathing beneath the hood is made up of random width tongue and groove flush boards varying in width from 7" to 11 ½'. They are nailed in the same way as the weatherboarding. The pre- cedent for the use of this flush boarding is the boarding of the enclosed porch at the southeast corner of the James Galt House (see ill., I, P. 105).

RAKE BOARDS

Tapered rake boards cover the joint between the ends of the weatherboards and the projecting roof shingles in the gable area of the façade. These terminate at the bottom in cornice end boards, are jointed at the point where the lower slope of the gambrel meets the upper and meet at the peak in a mitred joint. Like the rake boards of the east and west ends of the Tavern they are beaded along their lower edges and are capped with a cyma reversa molding. Their varying widths and their treatment at the gambrel joint and at the base where they merge with the cornice end boards is the same as in the case of the Tavern rake boards so that the discussion of the latter in I. pp. 94-96, will apply here also.

CORNICE END BOARDS

The cornice end boards which on the gable ends serve to mask the cornice which runs on the east and west walls are cut to a profile which follows approximately that of the cornice. This profile is very similar in character to that of the cornice end boards of the Tavern so that the discussion of the latter boards on pp. 93, 94 of Volume I will hold for this case.

CORNER BOARDS

The two corner boards which start at the bottom of the wood wall covering and run up to meet the cornice end boards which overlap them are of the two-faced variety beaded at the meeting corner. Each of the two boards composing the member is 3 ½" wide and 1 ¼" thick. These boards serve to stop the wall boarding and eliminate the awkward situation which would develop if the sheathing of the north wall were to run to the corner and meet the weatherboarding of the east and west walls. The precedent for the use of these boards is given in I, p. 79.

PORCH STEPS AND PLATFORM

The porch, with its four stone steps and masonry platform is 8'-7 ¼" wide and 7'-2" deep. Both the platform and steps are 19 supported on concrete foundations faced on the sides with a 4" veneer of handmade brick laid up in English bond. The steps are rectangular blocks of Indiana limestone which provide a tread of 11 ½" and a 7" riser. Each step is composed of two pieces of stone placed end to end and held in place by wrought iron cramps set in lead flush with the top surface of the stone.^* The blocks are bedded, backed and jointed in non-staining white cement mortar. The platform which is about 3'-2" deep has a border of stone the width of the step tread on its three outside edges. This enframes a panel of 9" x 9" hand made brick tiles resting on a 4" reinforced concrete slab. On the building side these tiles run to the face of the woodwork. The use of a concrete slab and foundations here is permissible since these are hidden.

DESCRIPTION OF WROUGHT IRON RAILING

A wrought iron railing ascends the steps on the west side and runs across the platform to the building. This is capped by a hand rail 1 3/8" wide which has been forged on the top to a "flat" curve and left straight on the bottom. The handrail is supported at the 20 bottom by two newels and 13 balusters set in lead in the stonework of the steps and platform. The newels have 1 1/8" square bases, 8" high, above which they become eight-sided by virtue of the chambering off of the corners and taper toward the top. The balusters are bars, rectangular in section, ¼" x ¾" in size. Both the newels and balusters are mortised into the handrail. The latter is flattened out to a disc shape at the bottom where it receives the top of the lower newel.

PRECEDENT FOR STONE STEPS AND PLATFORM

There are plenty of examples of entrance porches in Virginia consisting of stone steps surmounted by a masonry platform in the case of which the steps run perpendicular to the face of the building and do not continue along the sides. Scotchtown in Hanover County has entrance steps of this type and Tuckahoe, Goochland County has several such flights. The steps generally have molded nosings but there is at least one flight at both Scotchtown and Tuckahoe which is composed of unmolded rectangular-sectional stones. A flight of stone steps with a stone platform affording an entrance approach to the north side of a wing of Cleve, King George County, in its stark, square-cut character, resembles closely the porch of the Barber Shop. (See ill., p. 113, Domestic Colonial Architecture of Tidewater Virginia by Waterman and Barrows). The above-mentioned wing of Cleve may be post-eighteenth century but the character of the steps is, in any case, old.

BASIS FOR USE OF LIMESTONE; PRECEDENT FOR TILE FLOOR & COMBINATION OF STONE AND BRICKWORK

The Indiana limestone used for the steps and platform is intended to suggest the rather similar appearing Purbeck and Portland stones which were imported from England in the eighteenth century and widely used in Williamsburg for steps and paving. The latter fact furnishes the answer to the question as to why the platform has a center panel 21 of brickwork; the importation of stone from Europe was expensive so it was reasoned that the eighteenth century builder might well have used the panel of tiles in order to save the cost of the additional cut stone which would, otherwise, have been required. This combination of stone and brick was also used in the platform of the Tavern porch (I, pp. 52-54). An old example of this usage is the stone-framed, tile-centered platform of the porch at the west side of the south front of the Coke-Garrett House. Brick tiles were also employed in colonial Virginia to face the sloping haunches (weatherings) of chimneys, for hearths and paving and for other purposes. In Williamsburg paving tiles of this sort are frequently found in the course of excavating colonial gardens and building sites. To give two specific examples, they were discovered on the Benjamin Waller and Palmer House lots. Tiles of this type were also found in an old hearth of the Brush-Everard House.

PRECEDENT FOR MEMBERS OF RAILING

The half-elliptical handrail of the porch is similar in character to the wrought iron handrail which runs up the two flights of stone steps which ascend to the platform of the Tavern porch. It should be noted, however, that the supporting bar beneath the rail has been omitted here, as has the brass finial (see I. pp. 57-59). The Tavern railing also has octagonal newels but its balusters are round rather than rectangular in section as here. The precedent for the shop railing is the old handrailing of the north porch of the President's House of the College of William and Mary (I, p. 58). The railing in that case is curved at the bottom since the steps flair out at the base of the run. The President's House rail also runs up either side of the steps which was, of course, the logical thing for a freestanding staircase. The omission of the railing at the east side of the 22 Barber Shop porch was due to the presence over the position this railing would have assumed of an inclined barber pole (see ill., III, p. 1) which would have interfered with it.

ENTRANCE DOOR; IT DIMENSIONS & PANELLING

The main entrance door is centered on the porch platform and this places its center line about 3'-6" west of the axis of the façade. The door is 6'-10 ½" high, 3'-0" wide and 1 ¾" thick. It resembles the main entrance door of the King's Arms Tavern to the extent of having in its lower half, like that door, an arrangement of crossed rails and triangular panels (see I, pp. 63-64 and ill., I, p. 52). The precedent for this type of decorative panelling is given in I, p. 64. Here the resemblance between the doors ends, for, among other things, we find the panel profile to be different from that of the Tavern door, although in both cases the stiles and panel edges are molded on both sides. The interior profiling is, indeed, similar to that of the Tavern door (ill., I, p. 65). consisting of a quarter round on the framework and a recessed sloping edge on the panel itself. The outside profile is more ornate, however, being composed of a quarter round and cyma recta curve on the framework and a sloping edge joined with the panel surface by a quarter round on the panel itself. The precedent for the commonly-found interior profile is given in I, p. 65. The old front and rear entrance doors of the Barraud House have Profiles similar in character to the exterior profile of the present door. The two Barraud House doors are not identical in the matter of their profiling however, the front door (an old door which once served as the front door of the demolished original Chiswell House) having the profile in question on both faces and the rear door having this on the exterior only (see ill. p. 42, Architectural Report on the Barraud House).

GLAZED UPPER HALF OF DOOR; PRECEDENT FOR GLAZING

Instead of having panelling in its upper half like the Tavern door, the door of the Barber Shop is glazed. The glazing consists of nine panes each of which is 8 ¾" x 12" in size. The muntins are the same as the window muntins used throughout the Tavern and the Purdie House. The stiles and rails bordering the glazed opening have been cut, on the interior, to a profile similar in contour to the exterior frame profile of the panelled lower part of the door, except that the latter profile is more delicate. Glazed doors were far less frequent in eighteenth century Virginia than solid ones, though glazed transoms were common enough. The only old glazed door which has been found in Williamsburg is the nine-light door in the Nicolson Shop which existed in the building (a part of the Lee House) before its restoration.

HARDWARE OF ENTRANCE DOOR

The hardware of the entrance door consists of a pair of 13" wrought iron H.L. hinges, C.W. F-3; and a brass rim lock. 4 ½" x 8", Both of these items are reproduced for the Craft House after authentic colonial models.

EXTERIOR DOOR TRIM AND ITS PRECEDENT

The exterior door trim,, about 5 3/8" high has the usual cyma reversa backband and fascia but the latter is followed IV a quarter round which merges with the lower fascia, instead of the more usual cyma curve. The profile terminates at the base in a bead ½" in diameter. The unusual feature of this profile, the quarter round between the fascias, is found in old architraves of the Nelson House in Yorktown. It should be mentioned that the backband of the Nelson House trim, unlike the present one, has a bead. Both the door and the door trim, like the doors and trim of the Tavern and Purdie House, are set together with mortise and tenon joints secured by hardwood pegs driven through them.

BOW WINDOW; DESCRIPTION OF THIS

If the north front of the Shop be thought of as having two halves, one east and one west of the axis, the bow window could be located by describing it as being about in the center of the east half and running vertically from the soffit of the porch hood to a point about 4'-3" off the ground. It is based upon the segment of a circle with a radius of 5'-4" which, with the window opening width of about 5'-5 ½", causes the glazed area to project about 10" in front of the building face. The window is divided by muntins into five tiers, of four glass lights each. These lights are about 12" x 17" in size and the muntin bars are about 1 ¾" wide. The profile of these muntins is the same as that of the windows of the building and the glazed door, except that it is ¼" wider than this. The top and bottom of the sash frame and the top member of the window frame and the sill have been bent to the radius of the window but no attempt has been made to bend either the glass or the horizontal muntins. The crown mold at the junction of the soffit and the wall surface carries around the top of the window frame. The sill has a molded profile which is similar to the profile of the sills of the first floor windows of the Tayloe House. The sill when it strikes the wall on either side straightens out and runs for about 5" along the sheathing before returning against the building.

WOOD BUCKET SUPPORTING BOW WINDOW

Beneath the center of the overhanging soffit of the bow window is a wood supporting bracket 1'-2" high, 11 1/4" deep at the top and 2" thick. This is composed of a sequence of curves consisting, from the top down, of a convex segment of a circle followed by the reverse curve of the cyma recta form. The outside edges of the bracket are chamfered off. The interior of the window has a number of elements which require description but these will be treated along with the interior of the Shop.

WOOD BRACKET SUPPORTING BOW WINDOW

As was remarked in the captions to the pictures on III, pp. 14 and 15, the bow window has its precedent in two similar bow windows of an old store in Litchfield, Connecticut. It was pointed out also that many similar bow windows were in use in England in the eighteenth century and these, without doubt, made their way to all of the colonies, including Virginia.

PRECEDENT FOR BRACKET

Only one bracket is in evidence in the picture of the Old Curiosity Shop in Litchfield and though this is similar to that of the Barber Shop window in general form it is impossible to be certain that the shape is the same as that of our bracket. Many combinations of curves and reverse curves were used in colonial architecture and the contour of our bracket is one of the variants. An old built-in seat of the porch chamber of Cedar Hill in Calvert County, Maryland has a wood supporting bracket similar in its combination of curves to our bracket, although this bracket is symmetrical, with the curve sequence of the top half repeated in reverse at the bottom. The edges here are rounded rather than chamfered.

SIZE AND LOCATION OF BULKHEAD

The bulkhead, as was remarked earlier, covers the outside entrance stair to the basement which in turn, is located on the site of old step foundations. It is of the inclined type and is centered on the bow window above and has approximately the same width as the latter. Its west side touches the east end of the stone and brick porch and its top strikes the building at about the level of the porch platform. The bulkhead extends 5'-9 3/4" north of the face of the building.

BULKHEAD WALLS AND CELLAR STEPS

The side walls of the bulkhead are 1'-1" brick walls faced on the inside toward the staircase with handmade brick laid up in English bond. The outside of the east wall likewise has a facing of handmade brick while the west wall, since it abuts the masonry porch, has no 26 external face. The wall at the front extends one brick course above the pavement and is capped by an oak sill which is 2 ½" thick by 9" wide and extends about 9" beyond the stair well opening at either side. Seven steps, 4'-0 ¼" wide and with a riser height of 8 ½", and a tread depth of 10 3/8" lead down to the basement floor. The steps are faced with handmade brick which is protected from unnecessary wear by, having oak nosings 3 ½" wide and 3" high inserted into their salient edges. A hidden reinforced concrete carriage supports the treads and risers taking the place of the earth fill which would have performed this function in colonial times.

BASIS FOR USE OAK NOSINGS

Steps with wood nosings were unmistakably indicated by the archaeological findings, according to H. S. Ragland who first uncovered the basement stair foundations. It would have been remarkable, indeed, if any remains of the oak nosings themselves had been discovered, for even in the case of houses in which the outside basement stairs had been preserved, like the Carter-Saunders and the Brush-Everard Houses, the oak nosings, clearly indicated by rabbets left in the brickwork of the steps, had rotted away long before the restoration of those houses was undertaken.

DESCRIPTION OF WOOD FRAME AND FOLDING DOOROF BULKHEAD

The wood superstructure of the bulkhead consists of a framework resting at the sides on the slanted surface of the brick walls and secured at the back by being spiked to the sill of the building. The bulkhead top is composed of a hinged, two-leaf beaded board and batten door lying, when closed,, flush with a finish frame consisting of boards resting on the rough framework beneath. The two leaves of the door are of unequal width, the east one being 2'-8" wide and the west one 2'-1 ½" and they are hinged together so that they operate as one folding unit, the smaller leaf folding back upon the larger.

A sloping bulkhead such as this would generally have a pair of equally wide doors each hinged at the side so as to swing open independently of the other. Because of the presence of the masonry porch it was deemed advisable not to allow the west door to open in the customary way since, if it did this it would come to rest, when open, against the edge of the stone platform. As things now stand, if an opening of moderate width is required, the smaller door is swung back upon the larger. When this opening does not suffice, the larger leaf, with the smaller resting upon it, is also folded back. This system, of course, has the disadvantage, in cases where the full opening is required, of compelling one to lift the combined weights of two doors, rather than, as in the usual case, of lifting these weights individually.

BULKHEAD HARDWARE AND ITS PRECEDENT

As will appear from the description of the manner in which the door operates, two pairs of hinges are required. These are wrought iron strap hinges reproduced after old models, but due to their different functions the two pairs are of different size and design. The hinges which join the smaller valve with the large are chest type hinges, 2'-7 3/8' long, and consist of two straps similar in design but differing in length, meeting in a joint. This hinge was copied from old ones found in place on the bulkhead of the Taliaferro-Cole Shop. The hinges, by means of which the bi-valve door swings upon the framework, are strap hinges of the garnet type, 2'-4 ½" long. These are copies of an original wrought iron hinge found on the smoke house of the Josiah Moody property on Francis Street. The two hinge types are illustrated in the C. W. Hardware Folder, the first on plate 10-A and the second on plate 11. The door is also equipped with a 2'-0" long wrought iron hasp, copied after one found 28 on the Taliaferro-Cole Shop bulkhead (plate 10-A), and reproductions of a colonial padlock, chain and staple.

RAKE BOARD AND GUTTER STRIP OF BULKHEAD TO BE TREATED

In the interest of completeness, two other features of the wood superstructure of the bulkhead should be mentioned, the rake board which on the east side covers the joint between the slightly over hanging external frame and the brickwork and the inclined wood strip nailed to the head board of the outside framework which forms a gutter to guide rain water running down the face of the building off the bulkhead before it can drip through the cracks between the door and the frame into the areaway beneath.

DESCRIPTION OF RAKE BOARD AND STRIP

The rake board tapers from its lower end to its upper from a width of 4 ¼" to 3 ¾". This board has a beaded lower edge and terminates via an S-curve in a square-cut 1 ¼" wide end. The bead returns upon itself at the beginning of the curve. The wood strip is a cleat ½" high and 7/8" wide covered with copper flashing which is continued across the sloping surface of the frame head piece and up under the sheathing of the building face. The cleat runs diagonally from one edge to the other of the bulkhead, sloping toward the east so that the water can spill upon the pavement.

PRECEDENT FOR DETAILS OF BULKHEAD

The details of this bulkhead were copied almost entirely from the old bulkhead, now restored, which stands near the northeast corner of the Taliaferro-Cole Shop, against the north face of the building. This bulkhead is flanked on the west side by a porch in much the same manner as is the Barber Shop bulkhead and has the same kind of bi-valve door as the latter. As for the rake board and its termination--old examples of rake boards ending at the bottom in an S-curve and a square cut end are not too difficult to find. One such example may be seen on the gable ends of the West House in Yorktown.

BRICKWORK OF BULKHEAD WALLS AND FOUNDATIONS OF BUILDING; COMPARISON OF SIZES OF NEW BRICK AND THOSE FOUND ON THE SITE

The brickwork of the walls of the bulkhead and of the house foundations, to a depth of two courses below grade, is composed of handmade brick of the same size and color as that of the Tavern foundation walls and it is laid up in English bond using the same type of mortar and joint used in that brickwork (see I, pp. 38 and 43, for a discussion of the Tavern brickwork). Below this point the walls are of modern common brick, laid in cement mortar, since, though this is visible in the basement the latter is not seen by the public. The handmade brick used in the Barber Shop masonry varies in length from about 8 7/8" to 9 1/8", in width from 4" to 4 1/8" and in thickness from 2 ½" to 2 5/8". In his archaeological drawing of 1941 (III, p. 5) James Knight records the following measurements made of the brick of the old foundations--first period of construction: 8 ½" x 4" x 2 ½"; second period of construction: 9 ¼" x 4 ½" x 2 ½". These dimensions represent average sizes, of course, because the old handmade brick varied considerably in their dimensions. Combining the two sets of dimensions, we have brick, 2 ½" thick, which range in length from 8 ½" to 9 ¼" and in width from 4" to 4 ½". If we compare these dimensions with those given above for the brick used in the reconstruction of the Barber Shop walls, we find that the new brick is not far from the average size of the old. The sizes of the new brick, indeed, are as close to those of the old as we could reasonably expect to find them in view of the fact that it is not the policy of Colonial Williamsburg to manufacture brick for each reconstruction or restoration project individually but rather to match as closely as possible the old brick of a particular foundation with new handmade brick chosen from its stockpile of several typical sizes (I, p. 41, footnote).

COLOR OF NEW BRICK AND OF OLD

Under these circumstances, the color of the new brick would normally be only an approximation of the color of the old. This should be especially true in a case such as this where the old foundations stemmed from several different building periods. The archaeologist, in fact, recorded that the old brick varied from buff and light red to dark red in various parts of these foundations. The brickwork used in the reconstruction of the Shop varies in tone from salmon pink to an ox blood red, though the lighter brick predominate. It would seem that this brick is not too different in color from the old foundation brickwork. What we do not know, however, is the relative numbers of lighter and darker brick in the old foundations, an important consideration which would have determined the general tonal effect of the old foundation walls.

BOND AND MORTAR USED IN NEW WORK FOLLOW THOSE OF OLD

We should not omit to state that in laying up the walls of the bulkhead, porch and house foundations in English bond, the architects were following the directive of the old foundations for these were laid in that bond. The mortar used in the reconstruction of the walls was also as close an approximation of the oyster shell mortar found in the old brickwork as it was possible to make.

BOX SIGN AND BARBER POLE REMAIN TO BE DISCUSSED

The features of the north façade beneath the hood will all have been accounted for when the barber pole and the box sign have been discussed. The box sign was newly created for this building but the barber pole was transferred from the structure now used as the printing shop and known as Archibald Blair's Storehouse. This building, for several years prior to the opening of the King's Arms Barber Shop, was equipped and operated as an exhibition barber shop. In reusing the barber pole in the new building, it was necessary to alter the iron strap by which it was fastened to the old building.

DESCRIPTION OF BARBER POLE

Though serving the same purpose as present day barber poles, viz., to announce the business of the establishment, this pole, in its length and slenderness, is different from the barber poles we see today. Its length, including the pointed wood finial, is about 9'-3" while its diameter at the bottom (it tapers somewhat) is about 2". The pole is tipped with a turned wood finial, fastened to it by a dowel, and were it not for its characteristic barber pole stripes it would have the appearance of a flag staff or a lance.

LOCATION OF POLE AND MANNER OF SECURING IT TO BUILDING

The barber pole stands at an inclination of about 53 ½° to the vertical face of the boarded wall with its butt striking the latter about 6" above the porch platform. Its center line is about 9 ½" west of the west edge of the frame of the bow window. The pole is secured to the wall at the base by a 9" long dowel which penetrates the pole, on the one hand, and the boarding and one of the studs forming the framework of the north wall, on the other. The pole is further secured and also held at the desired angle by means of a wrought iron strap one end of which is screwed to its back about 3'-6" (measuring along the pole) above the point where the latter strikes the building. The strap divides just below the point of fastening, the two arms spreading outward and moving upward in such wise that they strike the building face about 4'-6" off the porch floor and separated from each other by a distance of about 1'-6". This strap, at the time the pole was attached to the front of the Blair Storehouse, had but one arm and, since the Storehouse is a brick building, it was fastened in a different way. So, though the pole itself was not altered to any extent, the, strap had to be modified considerably when the feature was shifted to the King's Arms Barber Shop.

PAINTING OF BARBER POLE AND SOURCE OF ITS DESIGN

The pole is painted with alternating stripes of red and white symbolizing the metier of the barber surgeon (red for blood and white for the bandage material which he used). The design of the barber pole is based, not on an actual old example since none could be found but on the representation of one in an eighteenth century drawing, viz., a London street scene by William Hogarth, entitled "Beer Street and Gin Lane." In the case of the pole portrayed in that picture, the form is the same as that of the King's Arms pole but the method of attachment and the position on the building are different.

DESCRIPTION OF PARTS OF BRACKET SUPPORTING THE SIGN

The sign which, as has already been remarked, is of the box sort without top or bottom, is suspended from a decorative wrought iron bracket attached to the northeast corner of the hood. The suspended carrying arm of the bracket 1" square in section, becomes flattened to a strap where it strikes the building and runs back along the lower edge of the hood end for a distance of about 1'-7" and then, changing direction, describes a quarter circle upward. A 4" long "branch" strap runs from the point of junction with the hood eastward along its north edge. Finally, from a point 2'-0" out from the north edge of the hood., a quarter circular flat bar or strap, welded to the main bar, swings southeast and, strikes the front edge of the hood, where a 4" extension runs eastward along the north edge of the latter. One further strap, twisted for part of its length, is attached to the top of the projecting bar and the rakeboard of the hood, and contributes to the bracing of the bar and-sign. Where these various straps run along one or another surface of the hood they are secured to it by means of barbed spikes with hand hammered heads. The bar, in addition, has various purely ornamented features such as its tip, a feature ending in a twisted and pointed member projecting from between two 33 scrolls, all three of these parts having been formed by the threefold splitting of the end of the iron bar, and the similar twisted finial attached to the top of the bar over the center of the sign which is suspended beneath it.

THE BOX SIGN AND THE CHAINS ON WHICH IT IS HUNG

The box sign has an overall height of about 2'-0 ½" and width of about 1'-8". It hangs with its lower edge about 8'-7 ½" above the sidewalk below. The sides of the open-ended box are built up of boards, 1 1/16" in thickness, mortised into corner pieces or posts, 1 5/8" square and beaded on their salient edges. Fitted over the top edge of the sign is a beaded wood cap sloping outward and protected on top by a lead coated copper sheath. The corner "posts" terminate at the bottom in 10 high turned drops. The box is suspended on four hooks which are flattened into straps and screwed to the chamfered inner corner of the "Posts." Four chains composed of looped rods linked to the sign hooks and hooks attached to the supporting bar, carry the sign. The four sides of the sign bear in lettering and illustration the announcement of the business of the barber proprietor of the Shop. The painting, like that of the pole, has been done in red and white, the barber surgeon's colors, in combination with blue, which was used on the peruke, since several London barber shops went by the name of "Blue Peruke" or "Blue Peruke and Star," etc. These establishments had signs bearing the representation of a peruke resting on a stand or holder for it.

PRECEDENT FOR THE SIGN AND BRACKET

Open-ended box signs of the character of this one, painted with announcements of the trade conducted in the establishments to which they are attached, were, apparently common enough in eighteenth century England for no less than three of them are shown in William Hogarth's engraving "Southwark Fair" and one is also represented in 34 Thomas Rowlandson's drawing "Vulgar Language." The signs in these drawings are suspended from their respective buildings in various ways but none of them has a bracket as complex and ornamental as that of the Barber Shop sign. This bracket has, in its entirety, no exact counterpart in any eighteenth century example of wrought iron work. The various wind braces and the particular forms given them were designed and installed by the architects as necessary to the secure support of the cantilevered bar and the sign suspended from it. The details however, such as the flattening of the bar into a strap at one end and the splitting of it and the twisting and shaping of the resultant parts at the other are genuinely representative of eighteenth century methods of working in wrought iron. Ornamental wrought iron sign brackets of many different varieties and comparable to the one at the Barber Shop, can be found in eighteenth century English prints. An engraving made by Thomas Bowles, about 1750, for example, and reproduced as plate III in The Signboards of Old London Shops by Sir Ambrose Heal (London, 1947), shows a view of Cheapside in which may be seen dozens of tradesmen's signs supported by ornamental wrought iron brackets. The method of mortising together the wood parts of the box sign and certain of the wood details like the rain-shedding cap molding and the drops beneath the corners of the sign, are quite characteristic of eighteenth century wood design and joinery.

PAINTING OF SIGN; BASIS FOR USE OF WIG AS SYMBOL OF BARBER SHOP

The lettering of the sign is eighteenth century English script following in character the cursive inscriptions on the box signs shown in Hogarth. The wig as a symbol for the eighteenth century barber is based upon the precedent furnished by several of the English signs, mentioned above, which bear in their titles the words "Blue 35 Peruke." Two such pictorial representations of perukes may be seen in designs of signs reproduced in Heal's book, mentioned above, which deals with the subject of old signboards and shops.

PLACEMENT OF GABLE WINDOW IN RELATION TO DORMER WINDOWS

The single window of the north gable is on the center line of the façade and its head and sill very nearly line up with those of the dormer windows. It was the convention in eighteenth-century Virginia buildings to place dormer and gable windows at the same height. The gable windows, however, were sometimes slightly off the level of the dormer windows since it was also deemed desirable to line up the top of the window trim and the bottom of the sill with the edges of the weatherboarding to which these were adjacent and the position of the latter did not always permit the lining up of the gable and dormer windows.

WINDOW OF GABLE IS SIMILAR IN DETAILING TO TAVERN WINDOWS

The gable window has two operating sash each of which is two lights high and three wide and it is equipped with a pair of two panelled undivided shutters. The opening is 4'-0 ½" high and 2'-4 ½" wide. Except in the number of lights and in other differences which proceed from disparity in size, this window (muntin section, glass size, window frame and sill and shutters) is similar to the windows of the King's Arms Tavern. The latter windows are discussed in detail in I. pp. 70-76 so that if the reader consults those pages he will find information which is also valid for the present window. The shutter hardware is the same as that described in the treatment just mentioned except that 3" surface bolts were used on the shutters rather than 8" ones.

PRECEDENT FOR NUMBER OF LIGHTS AND FOR SHUTTERS

Old 12-light windows can be seen in Williamsburg in the Quarter. The window in the south gable of the Brush-Everard House, though not old, is a replacement of an old 12-light window. Two-panelled shutters as was stated in I, p. 117 were found in a house near Crocker in the vicinity of Williamsburg.

VIEW OF KING'S ARMS BARBER SHOP TAKEN FROM SOUTHEAST IN OCTOBER, 1949 WHEN BUILDING WAS NEARING COMPLETION. THE LARGE STRUCTURE IN THE BACKGROUND IS THE CHARLTON HOUSE.

EAST ELEVATION

SOUTH ELEVATION

WEST ELEVATION

VIEW OF PUBLIC ROOM, FIRST FLOOR OF BARBER SHOP, LOOKING TOWARD NORTHEAST CORNER AND SHOWING DISPLAY WINDOW.

KING'S ARMS BARBER SHOP
INTERIOR
GENERAL

DEGREES OF AUTHENTICITY IN DETAILING OF 3 FLOORS OF SHOP; FIRST FLOOR, AN EXHIBITION SPACE, TREATED AUTHENTICALLY THROUGHOUT

Of the three floors of the Barber Shop, only the main floor, which is maintained as a public exhibit, is reconstructed in a fully authentic manner in respect to its detailing and appointments. On the second floor the detailing is again authentically eighteenth century in character except in the bathroom which, of course did not exist in the eighteenth century. In the basement only the north, outside stair with its oak nosings and the inside stair to the first floor are detailed in an authentic manner. In the light of these varying degrees of authenticity on the three floors we shall treat 58 these floors with varying degrees of fullness. Since the shop floor is authentic throughout and since the public is admitted to it, we shall analyze its elements thoroughly. The second floor and particularly the basement will be treated more summarily.

FIRST FLOOR (SHOP ROOM)
GENERAL ANALYSIS

DIMENSIONS OF SHOP ROOM AND MAIN ELEMENTS

The Shop Room, including the area occupied by the stairways, is 19'-4" long (north-south dimension), 15'-7" wide (east-west dimension) and 9'-7 ½" high. The stair to the second floor which starts in the northwest corner of the room and runs south and the basement stair which runs northward beneath the other stair occupy something more than 32 square feet of the total shop area (10'-9" x 3'-0") and, projecting into the room, cause an alcove to be formed south of them. In the west half of the south wall is the larger of the two fireplaces served by the chimney and in the east half the door to the leanto closet. The east wall has the two double hung windows described under the east elevation. The north wall is both the most active and the most interesting for here, in the east half, is the curved display window and platform and, in the west half, the glazed entrance door.

DETAILED ANALYSIS

The finish flooring is laid the long way of the room and blind nailed to diagonal rough flooring beneath and face nailed with wrought iron nails in pairs, 32" apart. The boards are old material salvaged from eighteenth century buildings. They are rift or edge grain boards which vary in width from 4 ½" to 6". This flooring also extends into the leanto closet.

SHEATHING OF WALLS, PARTLY FULL HEIGHT AND PARTLY ONLY DADO HEIGHT

The north and south walls of the room are covered from floor to ceiling with random width beaded tongue and groove flush boarding, applied horizontally. The east wall has the same type of sheathing to a height of 4'-6" from the floor. Above this the wall is plastered. The two sides of the stair enclosure and the stair soffit have this 60 sheathing from floor to ceiling but the west wall proper, the wall area, that is, between the stair enclosure and the south wall, is treated in the same manner as the east wall.

DESCRIPTION OF BOARDS AND MANNER OF NAILING

The boarding, which varies from a width of about 7" to one of has a bead 3/8" in diameter cut along one of the two exposed edges of each board and the plain edge of one is brought, together with the beaded edge of the next. The boards are held in place by nails with hand hammered heads, the nails (two to a board at each nailing point) occurring at the stud positions so that vertical nail rows result.

BASEBOARD

A 5 ¼" high baseboard is superimposed on the sheathing at the A floor level to cover the joint between the wall sheathing and the flooring. In place of the more customary bead, a cyma mold 3/4" high terminates this feature at the top.

CROWN MOLD AT CEILING

The transition between the sheathed wall and the ceiling is effected by a 3" high crown mold which consists of the very typical combination of a cyma recta at the top above a cyma reversa. This mold is omitted on the sheathed south wall of the stair enclosure. On the walls which have a combination of sheathing and plaster a 2 ¼" high fascia is added beneath the crown mold. This has a ½" bead at the bottom.

DADO CAP

The sheathed dado on the east and west walls is capped by a shelf-like horizontal strip, ending in a half round and projecting 1 3/8". Beneath this is a 3' ¼" high cyma reversa mold.

CORNER BOARDS

Where board meets board at internal angles the boards are simply butted. External angles are provided on either face with a 2 ¾" comer board on one of which a 3/8" bead has been cut so that the salient edges of these comers are beaded. (In actuality, since one board overlaps the other, one of them is shorter, 2 3/8", but the effect 61 is of a 2 ¾" board on either side.)

SHEATHING OF STAIR HALL OF SAME TYPE BUT DIAGONAL

Since the space is continuous with the Shop area we will consider at this time also the treatment of the walls of the stair well to the second floor. This is separated from the Shop Room by a rectangular opening trimmed with beaded boards similar to the vertical corner boards. The continuation, in the Stair Hall, of the north wall of the Shop area is, again, sheathed with horizontal flush, beaded boarding similar in character to that used on the north wall of the shop and the rows of boarding have been made to line up with those of the north wall. On the east, west and south walls of the Stair Hall the sheathing changes from the horizontal to the diagonal, paralleling, at an angle of approximately 41°, the imaginary line joining the edges of the stair nosings. This rises on all three wall surfaces to the level of the underside of the finish flooring of the second floor where it is received by a half round nosing, 1" in thickness, which encircles the stair hall at the level of and, in effect, continuous with the flooring of the second floor. Above this "lip" and also carried around the Stair Hall at the second floor level, is a base, similar to the one used throughout the second floor, which is 4 ½" high and beaded at the top. Above the base, the Stair Hall wall is plastered.

PRECEDENT FOR BEADED SHEATHING

Williamsburg has furnished two precedent examples for the horizontal sheathing used in this room, viz, the old horizontal sheathing of the great room or parlor of the Market Square Tavern and that found in the front and rear rooms of the Taliaferro-Cole Shop. The latter sheathing was unbeaded and, to judge by the photographs, it was not of the tongue and groove type. That of the Market Square Tavern parlor, which occurs, above a panelled dado, on the north and south walls only, is beaded.

DIAGONAL SHEATHING OF STAIR WELL

The diagonal sheathing of the Stair Hall is, in reality, a variant of the horizontal sheathing of the Shop Room, the sheathing paralleling the floor in the latter case and the stair in the former. As logical as it seems to let the sheathing follow the inclination of the staircase, it was not always placed that way in colonial times. In addition to diagonal examples we find some in which the sheathing runs vertically and others in which it is horizontal.

BASIS FOR BASEBOARD

The baseboard is similar to one used in the Tavern and Purdie House. It is 5 ¼" high and ends at the top in a ¾" ogee mold rather than the more usual bead. It was derived from an old baseboard in the two west first floor rooms of the Brush-Everard House.

PRECEDENT FOR CROWN MOLDING

The crown mold which functions as a cornice was used with and without other elements on both the exteriors and interiors of Virginia buildings of the eighteenth century. An old example of this crown mold is one which was found on the Towle's Point House in Lancaster County. In that case the molding was used on the exterior of the building.

PRECEDENT FOR DADO CAP

The dado cap, made up of a projecting wood shelf beneath which is a cyma mold, has its precedent in a similar old molding which was found, before its restoration, in the Ayscough House.

PLASTERING OF WALLS AND CEILING

The plaster of the walls and ceiling is modern plaster applied in three coats over metal lath. The final coat is troweled smooth and given a slightly wavy surface to suggest the unevenness of eighteenth century plaster.

FIREPLACE OPENING

The fireplace opening is located in the south wall, so close to the west wall that the right side of the mantelpiece touches the latter, The opening is segmental arched with a height, at its crown, of 63 3'-5 ¾". The width of the opening is 3'-2 ¼". The opening is enframed by a 5" wide plaster surround.

DESCRIPTION OF ARCHITRAVE

The mantelpiece has two molded features superimposed upon a flush wood background, 6'-0" wide and 5'-3 ½" high. One of these is an architrave or frame, the sides and top of which are 7" wide. It is composed (outside to inside) of the following very typical sequence of moldings: cyma reversa backband, fascia, cyma reversa, fascia and bead.

MANTEL SHELF

The other molded element is the mantel shelf which extends entirely across the top of the mantelpiece. The shelf, proper, is a ¾" thick wood piece, projecting 4 5/8" out from the wall and ending in a cyma recta molding. Beneath this is the same very typical com- bination of moldings--cyma recta over cyma reversa--which was used as a cornice in the Shop Room. The shelf with its "supporting" moldings is 3 ¾" high. These elements are returned at the ends against the flat wood background of the mantelpiece.

CONSTRUCTION OF MANTEL PIECE

The parts making up the background and the architrave are mortised and tenoned together, the joints being held securely by the hardwood pegs which have been driven through them.

MANTEL LIKE ONE OF TAVERN; PRECEDENT FOR THESE

This mantelpiece is very similar in general design to the one in the South Dining Room of the second floor of the Tavern. Aside from differences in the dimensions of the parts, the only discrepancies between the two mantels lie in the fact that the shelf of the Tavern mantel ends in a quarter round rather than a cyma recta and in the existence of a bead on the backband of the Tavern architrave. Since the two mantels are so similar the precedent cited for the Tavern mantel will hold also for the Shop mantel, viz. an old mantel of Wilton-on-the-Pianketank.

BRICK HEARTH

The fireplace has a hearth of the same width as the architrave of the mantelpiece and extending 1'-1 ¼" out from the face of the plaster surround. This is composed of new handmade brick, 4 ¼" wide by 9 ¼" long, laid in a colonial manner (II, p. 228). There is a 2 ½" wide wood strip between the brick and the flooring along the front edge of the hearth but no strips exist on the sides.

CRANE, KETTLE AND FIREBACK

Although these are not, strictly speaking, architectural details, it is worth nothing perhaps that the fireplace is equipped with a wrought iron crane holding a cast iron kettle. A cast iron fireback has also been placed against the rear wall of the fireplace.

INTERIOR TRIM OF WINDOWS AND CERTAIN FEATURES OF BOW WINDOW REMAIN TO BE DISCUSSED

There are four first floor windows,, the bow window in the north front; two double hung windows in the east façade and one in the south, within the leanto closet-workspace. All of these windows have been described in connection with their respective elevations so that it remains for us, for the most part, to discuss only their interior trim. The exception to this is the display window in the north elevation.

DISPLAY SHELVING SUPPORTED BY BRACKETS

The external features of the bow window have been described in III, pp. 24, 25, and the precedent given for the window. Since they are features readily visible only from the inside, the window shelves with their supporting brackets were not discussed. There are three of these shelves and each extends the width of the window and is thin enough, 7/16", to line up with the fillet of the horizontal muntin bars of the window. They are 5" wide and terminate in a half round and their outside edges, following the curvature of the window are segments of a circle. Each shelf is supported on five wood brackets 3 ¾" wide and 4 7/8" high which are let into the vertical muntins. The edge of these brackets toward the room is cut to a 65 cyma reversa curve, made up of a quarter round and a cavetto separated by a fillet.

PRECEDENT FOR SHELVES AND BRACKETS

This shelving was directly inspired by shelving of a very similar character in a bow display window of a shop in the English town of Corfe in Dorsetshire (see drawings, III, p. 15). The shelving in this example, though falling opposite the horizontal muntins, is much heavier than that of the Barber Shop window and occupies the full height of the muntins. The brackets, though having an ogee shape similar to that of ours, are out from the same pieces of wood as the vertical muntins and are, consequently integral with them.

DISPLAY PLATFORM AND ITS PRECEDENT

The bow window has before it a display platform extending into the curved window recess and projecting out into the room about 1'-3" in front of the north wall; to the east about 1'-0", where it strikes the east wall, and to the west about 6" beyond the window opening. The outside edges of the platform surface boarding are straight, are shaped to a half round and overhang the boarded apron beneath about 1 ½", the transition being made by a cyma reversa mold, ¾" high. This apron has the same base as the walls of the room. The height of the platform off the floor is about 1'-6 ½". The Corfe example also has such a display platform which may be considered the precedent for the present one.

TRIM OF BOW WINDOW OPENING

The soffit of the bow window recess is boarded and, except for a bead which follows the curve of the window at a distance of 2 ¾" from the sash, unornamented. The window trim enframes the top and sides of the window opening, the jambs terminating at the platform floor. This trim, 4 ¼" high, is similar in profile to that of the windows of the east wall (cyma reversa backband, fascia and bead).

TRIM OF EAST AND SOUTH WINDOWS LIKE THAT OF TAVERN & PURDIE HOUSE

The interior window trim of the two 18-light windows in the east wall and of the 12-light window in the leanto closet, like that 66 of the windows of the Tavern and the Purdie House, continues across the bottom of the windows and, thus, completely enframes the openings. The trim is 4 ¼" high and of a relatively simple profile similar to the Tavern and Purdie window trim, i.e., (outside to inside) a cyma reversa backband followed by a fascia ending in a bead. The precedent is the same as that for the trim of the Tavern and Purdie windows (II, p. 209).

THREE DOORS IN SHOP ROOM; ENTRANCE DOOR

There are three doors opening into the Shop Room, viz., the main entrance door in the north wall; the door to the leanto closet in the south wall and the door to the basement stairway in the east wall of the stair enclosure. The main entrance door and its exterior trim have been discussed in III, p. 22, so that only the interior trim of this door remains to be treated. This trim which consists of course, of a head piece and two jamb pieces, is similar in both size and profile to that of the double hung windows, just discussed, and has the same precedent.

BOARDED TO LEANTO ROOM

The door to the leanto closet is a tongue and groove, beaded board and batten door, 6'-4 ½" x 2'-6" x 7/8". The boards composing the door are three in number, with two equal end pieces arranged about a 5 ½" wide central piece. There are three horizontal battens with chamfered edges, the top and bottom ones being 5 ¾" high and the middle one 7 ¾". The boards and battens are held together by nails with hand-hammered heads, driven through the boards and clinched on the batten faces. The boards face the Shop Room side when the door is closed. This door has, penetrating the boards between the top and middle battens, a pair of 15" high vertical "cut-outs" on either side of the center line. These take the form of two reversed curves joined at the center by a diagonal "link." 67 The slots serve two purposes, viz., to afford visibility through the door and to aid in the ventilation of the closet room.

DOOR HARDWARE

The door swings on a pair of wrought iron H hinges, 10" high (C.W. F-1) and is provided with a Reading iron rim look, No. C-625, with brass knobs, rose and key escutcheon. The hinges are Craft House reproductions, copied after an authentic colonial model.

TRIM OF LEANTO CLOSET DOOR

The trim of this door is slightly more than 4 ¼" high and it has the same profile as the trim of the double hung windows. It is mortised together, the joints being rendered secure by having hand-riven hardwood pegs driven through them.

PRECEDENT FOR BOARD BATTEN DOORS

Board and batten doors were most often used in Virginia on outbuildings but they were also found in houses particularly in those parts of the building where elegance played no role. Thus, in the Tayloe House, we find two of them — one located in the basement and two in the attic.

PRECEDENT FOR "CUT-OUTS"

Vertical cut-outs were often used where there was need for air circulation, as in closets, dairy houses, etc. and the slots were invariably given a decorative form. The present examples were copied from similar slots in the doors of a closet of Heald Farm in Cecil County, Maryland (see Henry Chandlee Forman, Early Manor and Plantation Houses of Maryland.)

BASEMENT DOOR IS A DOUBLE-SHEATHED DOOR CONVERTED FROM A BOARD AND BATTEN ONE

The door to the basement is a double-sheathed door, 6'-2" x 2'-6 ¾" x 2". On the room side it has the same appearance as the door to the leanto closet. This door, when it was first installed, was provided with battens, so that in every respect except size, it was similar to the door of the leanto closet. It became necessary, however in order to meet the requirements of the Virginia fire laws, to modify the door to increase its fire resistant qualities. The 68 battens were removed, therefore, and a layer, 1 3/8" thick, of horizontal tongue and groove, beaded boarding substituted on the back or stair side. The two layers of wood are held together by nails with hand hammered heads, driven through them from the room side and clinched against the horizontal boarding on the back.

DOOR HARDWARE

The door has, on the room side, the same type of hardware as the closet door. It has, in addition, on the stair side, a modern automatic door closer, a device added in conformity with fire safety regulations. The unusual precautions prescribed for this door are a consequence of the fact that the Shop Room is a public exhibition room which leads, via the stair, to a basement space containing a heater.

TRIM OF DOOR TO BASEMENT IS SIMPLE; ITS NATURE

This door has no trim in the sense of moldings which rise above the wall surface surrounding the opening. The door swings from and strikes against the rough framework of the door opening. On the south side of the opening the corner board forming one side of the corner trim of the stair enclosure serves also as trim for the door, This is beaded toward the opening as well as on the enclosure corner, A corner-board-like strip, 3 1/8" wide and beaded on the opening side only, trims the north side of the opening and rises to the head of the door where it is out off on the diagonal. The triangle-like top of this board is inserted in a notch cut out of the wall sheathing at this point. This concludes the trim as such, for a sheathing board borders the opening at the top. Since the lower edge of this is beaded, as well as the inside edges of the two vertical trim members, all three sides of the wall opening are ornamented.

OLD EXAMPLES OF DOUBLE SHEATHED DOORS

This door, as we have suggested, would not have been double sheathed if the Virginia fire laws had not required at this point a 69 barrier with high fire-retardent qualities. Double-sheathed doors were not infrequently used nevertheless, in cases where a heavier and more durable door was desired. The east door on the street side of the Red Lion was formerly double sheathed, with diagonal boarding on the outside and vertical on the inside.^* The door of the Lightfoot Smokehouse is likewise double sheathed, with vertical boarding outside and horizontal inside. A door of the old Mayo House which formerly stood on Block 7 also had a double sheathed door (vertical and horizontal) which is visible in a photograph in the Colonial Williamsburg collection of progress photographs.

TREATMENT OF TRIM ABOUT THIS DOOR A LOGICAL ONE

The condition found in the trim of this door, in which the trim (the beaded vertical members) does not carry across the top so that one vertical piece (in a different situation this might be the case with both) has no head piece with which to be mitred, is cut on the diagonal and fitted into a notch in one of the sheathing boards-this condition, though somewhat unusual, is logical. The north member was needed to cover the end grain of the sheathing boards. A top piece was not needed for this purpose and was omitted.

TREATMENT OF HEARTH BORDER STRIP IS SIMILAR TO THIS IN PRINCIPLE

We have a condition comparable with this, although in a horizontal plane, in the treatment of the wood strip bordering the front edge of the hearth (see plan, III, p. 56a). The flooring runs in a direction perpendicular to the strip just as does the horizontal wall sheathing to the trim piece above. The ends of the hearth border 70 strip are cut on a diagonal and inserted into notches in the flooring boards which border the sides of the hearth in the same manner as the trim is cut diagonally and inserted into a notch in the sheathing board which borders the head of the door opening. The single hearth strip is necessary to receive the ends of the floor boards even though these do not terminate at an opening since, if it were not present, the end grain of the board ends would splinter from the repeated sweeping of the hearth. It should be noted that, following the same principle of protecting the "raw" ends of the boards, if the floor boards in the Shop ran east and west, two side border strips would be needed and no front one, as at present.

TABLE TOPS ALSO MADE IN THIS WAY

This same device of providing a frame piece only where it is needed to cover or protect the ends of boards is used in situations other than in floors and walls. In the case of table tops, for example, composed of several boards, end strips are used to receive the butt ends of the boards. No side pieces are necessary since the grain of the wood runs in the general direction of the length of the boards, so that the edges of the later do not need masking either to protect them or for appearances' sake.

DIMENSIONS AND GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF LEANTO CLOSET

The leanto closet is a space about 9'-6" wide and 3'-4" deep. The walls and ceiling of the space are plastered. The same base and flooring used in the Shop Room are also employed here. The height of the space is 7'-4 ½" the greatest height which the leanto roof permits with a horizontal ceiling such as the one installed in the space, The window in the south wall lines up with the door in the wall opposite and both are on the central axis of the closet.

LOCATION AND DIMENSIONS OF SHELVING

The closet is equipped with a tier of three shelves which run from wall to wall on the east and west sides, where they are 1'-4" deep, and are restricted, on the south side, to the wall areas between 71 the window opening and the east and west walls, respectively. The shelving on the south wall is 11 ¼" deep. The lowest of the shelves is about 2'-6" from the floor and there is a distance of 1'-8" from the top of one shelf to the top of the one above it.

SUPPORT OF SHELVING

The shelves are held up by having been toe-nailed into the studding before the plastering was done, there being no wall cleats or other visible supporting members, as there would be likely to be in present day work. The sequence of operations today would be more likely to be: plastering, erection of shelving, whereas the eighteenth century builder preferred to make his woodwork secure first and go to whatever trouble was necessary to plaster around it afterwards.

SHELVING DETAILS; THE BRACKETS

The shelves are 1 1/8" thick and have their edges rounded with something less than a full half round. A feature of interest possessed by this shelving is the two pairs of wood brackets placed, bracket above brackets between the shelves where the latter are interrupted by the window opening. These act more as shelf ends to prevent articles from falling off than as supports since the shelving, secured to the studding, would stay up without them. The brackets have the same thickness as the shelves. They are cut out in an ornamental shape composed of two equal cyma curves meeting at the center of the bracket in a recessed point. Both edges of these brackets are chamfered.

PRECEDENT FOR SHELF CONSTRUCTION AND FOR FORM OF BRACKETS

In the supporting of the shelves by securing them to the studding before the plaster work was done the architects followed colonial building procedure as illustrated by old shelf work found in the Benjamin Waller, Tayloe and Palmer Houses. The form of the brackets is a not unfamiliar one since shelf brackets of this shape were found in the Archibald Blair Dairy and in the closet off the living room of the Tayloe House. Brackets of essentially the same shape were also 72 found in use as pew seat supports at Goose Creek Church in South Carolina.

DESCRIPTION OF STAIRCASE

The stair to the second floor is an L-shaped one of 16 risers. It begins at the northwest corner with three winders and, after a straight run of six steps, makes a right angle turn via three more winders. With straight run of three steps directed eastward it reaches the second floor. The stair is about 2'-6 ¼" wide. The risers are 8" high and the treads, with their half round nosings, 9 ¾" wide. There is no handrail. The wall string which stands out ¼" beyond the wall sheathing and receives this has a ½" bead at the top. The wall sheathing has already been discussed in III, pp. 61, 62.

JUSTIFICATION FOR WINDERS

There is no detail mentioned above which requires documentation, except, perhaps, the winders. The colonial builders used these without hesitation and they are found frequently in old staircases. Examples of old staircases with winders are found in Williamsburg in the Peyton Randolph and Coke-Garrett Houses and Tazewell Hall.

LOCATION OF STAIR BASED UPON LOGIC RATHER THAN EVIDENCE

Concerning this stair it should be remarked that though the detailing is eighteenth century in character there was no evidence indicating that it was located in its present position. This seemed to be, however, the only reasonable place to put it. It could not run along the north wall because the shop would surely have had its entrance doorway and some sort of display window there. If the architects' conclusion as to the location of the chimney and leanto closet on the south wall is correct, this precluded the possibility of locating the stair along that wall. It is logical to assume that there would have been windows in the free east wall and that the proprietor would have done his barbering on this well lighted side rather than on the less well illuminated west side. A stair along 73 the east wall would have occupied valuable work space. Only one feasible place for the stair was available therefore, viz., the unlighted and less active west side. The stair was, accordingly, placed there.

ARCHAELOGICAL BASIS FOR L-SHAPED STAIRCASE

There is plenty of precedent in small eighteenth century Virginia buildings for the use of either an L-shaped stair or a straight run stair between the first and second floors. The choice here of the L-shaped type depended on two considerations. Reference to the archaeological plan in III, p. 5 and the lover photograph on p. 6 will indicate that there was some archaeological basis for the choice of the stair type, and, for that matter, its location. The short spur wall extending eastward from the vast foundation wall may actually have been the foundation of the south wall of the stair well of an L-shaped stair. This seemed to the architects to be the most logical explanation of the significance of this wall and they designed the present stair in such a way that the south wall of the stair well falls approximately over the position of this east-west spur.

L-SHAPED STAIRCASE YIELDS BETTER SECOND FLOOR ARRANGEMENT

The second consideration was the conclusion reached by the architects that an L-shaped stair would produce a better second floor plan than a straight ran stair. If this is true for today, they reasoned, it probably would have been true, also, for colonial times. This subject will be discussed further on p. 74 of this volume.

PEG STRIP

On the north wall of the stairway is a peg strip, 2'-2" long, similar to the peg strips of the Tavern and Purdie House hallways and having the same precedent (II, p. 219a). This strip has three pegs.

SECOND FLOOR

BASEMENT

BASEMENT FLOOR LEVEL APPROXIMATELY AUTHENTIC

According to H. S. Ragland who originally investigated the basement foundations, the depth of the old basement below grade was about 5'-0" (see discussion of Ragland's findings, III, pp. 4-8). This depth was determined upon as the original one, presumably as a result of the discovery, 5'-0" below the grade level of undisturbed earth. The present cellar floor is about 5'-4" below the level of the sidewalk at the foot of the front entrance steps. There is a gradual rise in elevation as one moves southward-so that the grade level at the rear of the building becomes about 6'-0" higher than the basement floor. Thus, it is evident that the present basement level is more or less what it was in colonial times. One ascends six steps (about 3'-5") from the sidewalk on the north side in order to reach the first floor level of the building, which is 8'-9" above the basement floor level. This gives a clear height from the basement floor to the underside of the floor beams of 7'-9", quite sufficient for normal basement uses. Though we have no information concerning the colonial cellar height, we may assume that it was about the same since a height of about this much is necessary in order for it to be possible to place typical basement openings in the foundation wall to light and ventilate the basement, a very necessary and, for that matter, characteristic provision of Virginia building.

LOCATION OF GRILLES

There was no evidence for the location of the basement grilles but since it was the general practice to use these in the eighteenth century they were placed in the only wall (the east) in which it seemed feasible to put them (see III, pp. 43, 44 for a discussion of the grilles and the glazed sash behind them).

BRICKWORK IN INTERIOR OF BASEMENT; POLICY WHICH DETERMINED ITS EXTENT

Brickwork was used in the basement wall down only as far as the top of the sills of the basement opening, after which the walls were made of concrete. The bulkhead walls, in which the brickwork is carried down to the basement floor, are an exception to this. The factor which determined the extent of the use of brickwork on the interior of the basement walls was visibility from the outside. The side walls of the basement grille openings could be seen from without so that it was deemed necessary to carry the brickwork of the interior walls slightly below the level of the side walls which were exposed to view. Since the bulkhead would on occasion be opened, these walls, also, had to be given the appearance of authenticity by building them of handmade brick. The public, however, is not admitted to the basement so authenticity did not have to be preserved within the area, except to the extent indicated above. It is, at present, a utility area accommodating a heater and affording space for storage.

STAIR RAILING AND PRECEDENT FOR ITS DETAILS

It should be mentioned, in passing, that the very simple open String stair to the first floor, with its square newel and rounded top handrail, is authentically eighteenth century in character. This rail, with its newel, follows the character of the old railing and newel posts of the stair to the second floor of the Nicolson Shop, although the latter railing has two rails in addition to the handrailing. There was, of course, no archaeological or documentary basis for the basement stair.

PAINT COLORS

LIST OF WOODS USED ON EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR

LIGHTING FIXTURES