Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

THE TAYLOE OUTBUILDINGS: GENERAL

TAYLOE KITCHEN (FORE-GROUND); OFFICE ("DOMED" ROOF) AND LAUNDRY ( REAR RIGHT VIEWED) VIEWED FROM SOUTHEAST

THREE OUTBUILDINGS RESTORED AND FOUR RECONSTRUCTED

Of the seven outbuildings which now stand in a rough semicircle east, north and west of the Tayloe House, three had survived, in a good of an imperfect state of preservation and altered to a greater or a less extent, from the eighteenth century. These buildings, the Office, the Smokehouse and the Storehouse were restored. The other four, the Kitchen, the Laundry and the two Privies, had disappeared by the time the restoration of the property was undertaken, but these were known, from the discovery or their foundations or from old photographs, or both, to have existed. All of these were reconstructed on the sites of the old foundations, following colonial precedent in the detailing, and, in the photograph made before 1900 (p.1).

FOUNDATIONS OF OTHER OUTBUILDINGS DISCOVERED ON PROPERTY
WHERE WAS THE DAIRY LOCATED?

The above listing does not complete the roster of the outbuildings appertaining to the Tayloe House, for the foundations of 141 Plot Plan 142 certain other buildings were discovered by excavation in 1949 on the land comprised in colonial lots 262 and 231. Thus, about 202 feet north of the Kitchen, or, just north of the lowest terrace slope, were found, nearly back to back, two small outbuildings. What was, to judge by the character of the foundations, the oldest of these, measures approximately 6'-0" x 8'-0", although the foundations terminated in a ragged and incomplete fashion, making determination of the original building size difficult. The floor is paved with brick. The other foundation, the brickwork of which was, apparently, much later, is approximately 8'-0" x 10'- 0" in size. The latter foundations have a 7'-0" opening in their east side, suggesting that this building may have been a privy. Aside from this the nature of these buildings is a matter of conjecture. Whether the older of them may have been a dairy remains uncertain. No foundations positively identifiable as those of a dairy have been discovered on the property, yet we know that one must have existed. A spring was found on the eastern part of the lot, however, so that a dairy may once have been located in proximity to this, since, in the eighteenth century, spring water was frequently made use of for keeping dairy products cool.

STABLE WAS LOCATED AT REAR OF PLOT

In addition to the two mentioned above, another foundation was discovered on the Tayloe property, but far from all the others at the northwest corner of the plot. This, 430 feet north of the house, 18 feet south of the north property line and 12 feet, approximately, east of the west property line, measures about 28'-0" x 14'-0". Since this foundation stops on the east side without 143 being completed, its original length is uncertain. The elongated character of the building and its location at the back of the plot and near the west property line, where we know that a roadway (Queen Street extended) once existed, suggests that this was the stable and carriage house for the property.

ABOVE THREE OUTBUILDINGS WERE NOT RECONSTRUCTED

Chiefly because of their remoteness on the property, no attempt has been made to reconstruct the above mentioned three outbuildings. Another series of foundations were discovered east of the present Kitchen bordering on Nicholson Street but these were beyond the confines of lot 262 and consequently did not appertain to the Tayloe property in colonial times, so that they will not be considered here.

THE OFFICE DURING ITS RESTORATION. THE ROOFING AND THE WEATHERBOARDING OF TWO WALLS HAVE BEEN REMOVED, REVEALING THE INTERESTING STRUCTURAL FRAMEWORK OF THE BUILDING

THE TAYLOE OUTBUILDINGS: THE OFFICE

OFFICE. BEST PRESERVED OUTBUILDING WAS RESTORED IN 1937-38

The office was the best preserved of the three outbuildings which remained and, in many ways, the most interesting of them, so that we will discuss it first. As will be seen from the photograph opposite the title page, this building was in a good state of preservation in 1949 when the picture was made. This was in part, at least, because it had been restored by Colonial Williamsburg in 1937-38.

OFFICE SHOWN IN OLD PHOTO: AUTHENTICITY OF SOUTH DOOR AND WINDOW OPEN TO SOME QUESTION

The Office is shown in the old photograph on p. 1 but not clearly enough to enable one to discern its various features. the west and south sides are visible in the picture and each appears to have in it a single window but no further opening. Where, if this was the case, the entrance door was at this time, some half century or more ago when the photograph was made, is not known. Though it is possible that the entrance was originally elsewhere, it should be pointed out that the door and its 145 frame which were found in place in the south facade in 1949 were both indubitably old. The south window, however, is open to suspicion as not having existed there originally, since both the frame and sash are entirely new which, in this case, means that they were installed, probably, sometime in the nineteenth century. The new parts, however, may have replaced an old window in the same position.

AGE OF OFFICE UNCERTAIN: IT IS THOUGHT TO BE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

The age of the Office is uncertain, being considered by some late eighteenth century and by others early nineteenth. Its roof, unusual for Williamsburg, at least as a covering for an entire building, is a factor which had led some persons to consider the Office late in period. Furthermore, it stands on a part of the area which was, apparently, occupied by the first house (see archaeological plan, p. 42) so that it must have been later than this.

ITS ROOF A CURVED VERSION OF THAT OF THE HOUSE

It is interesting to consider that the reverse ouvre roof form, an inverted cyma recta in profile, reflects, in a sense, the character of the gambrel roof of the house, or rather, the gambrel is a sort of rectilinear version of this roof. In the Office roof we have a lower steeper slope and an upper flatter one, as in the case of the house roof. In the Office roof, however, the two slopes are curved and merge with the other.

THE ROOF FORM A SIGN OF AGE RATHER THAN LATENESS IN PERIOD

In actuality, it is impossible to argue, on the basis of the roof alone, that the Office is late. It might, in fact, be a great deal earlier than the eighteenth century. The garden house at Montacute House, Somerset, England, which we show on the next page, stems from the reign of Queen Elizabeth and has 146 THE TAYLOE OFFICE VIEWED FROM THE SOUTHEAST. THE ROOF IS ONE VERSION OF WHAT WILLIAM PAIN (P. 148) SPEAKS OF AS AN "OGEE" ROOF, ONE, IN OTHER WORDS, THE CONTOUR OF WHICH IS A FLAT CURVE. GARDEN HOUSE AT MONTACUTE HOUSE, SOMERSET, ENGLAND. THE OGEE ROOF HERE IS THE REVERSE OF THAT OF THE OFFICE, THE CAVETTO BEING AT THE TOP RATHER THAN THE BOTTOM. MULBERRY, AN OLD PLANTATION HOUSE ALONG THE WEST BRANCH OF THE COOPER RIVER IN SOUTH CAROLINA. THIS HAS A VESTIGIAL MEDIEVAL TOWER AT EACH OF THE FOUR CORNERS, THE TOP OF WHICH HAS A ROOF SIMILAR IN FORM TO THAT OF THE OFFICE. 147 VIEW OF ROOF FRAMING FROM WITHIN THE OFFICE, MADE DURING THE RESTORATION OF THE BUILDING IN THE LATE 1930'S. THE PLASTER CEILING HUNG ON THIS FRAMEWORK HAD THE APPEARANCE OF A SHALLOW GROIN VAULT. been dated between 1580 and 1600. In the roof of this garden house the curves are reversed over against those of our Office, the convexity being at the bottom rather than the top and concavity at the top, but this is of little moment since the character of the two roofs is the same.

JACOBEAN ARCHITECTURE USED MANY REVERSE CURVES

The architecture of the period which followed the reign of Elizabeth, which we speak of as Jacobean, made frequent use of curved forms in various combinations. Some of the earliest buildings in Virginia and the Carolinas utilized curves in one part or another of the structure. Bacon's Castle in Surry County (ca. 1660) had a characteristically Jacobean treatment of the gable end and Mulberry or Mulbarry Castle (ca. 1714) in the low country of South Carolina has, at each of the four corners of its square plan, a pseudo-military tower with a roof in two stages, the top part of which, though steeper that the Office roof, is 148 Page reproduced from William Pain's The Builder's Companion, second edition, London, 1765, showing the manner of constructing the framework for "ogee, cavetto or domical roofs." The first two examples shown in section at the top of the page are both variations of the ogee type. The third (top, right) is the cavetto type roof and the sections at the left beneath the plan is the domical type. Our three examples shown on p. 146 are, therefore, all of the ogee type. It will be noted, by a comparison of the pictures on pp. 144 and 147 with the structural drawing shown by Pain in the bottom row, left, that the English architect-joiner recommends for this roof a type of framing different from that used by the builder of the Office. 149 composed of the same curves. That roofs of the type of those mentioned above were in widespread use in England in the eighteenth century is indicated by the fact that William Pain, who calls himself "Architect and Joiner," in the second edition of his handbook, The Builder's Companion, published in London in 1765, includes two pages of plates showing how to construct such roofs. Our p. 148 is a photostatic reproduction of these pages from Pain's work.

TOWERS OF WILLIAMSBURG BUILDINGS HAVE ROOFS CURVED LIKE THAT OF OFFICE

Turning again to Williamsburg, we find that towers of the Wren Building, Palace, Capitol and Court House of 1770 terminate in curved roofs of the same character as that of the Office. Although these towers are reconstructed and might, therefore, in respect to their authenticity, in the absence of documentation, be open to question, the Bodleian Plate (ca. 1740) shows that the towers of the Palace, Capitol and Wren Building all had this S curve, concave at the bottom and convex above. Thus, we have ample reason to look upon the roof of the Tayloe Office as representing the survival of an old form; it is actually Jacobean baroque rather than some late eighteenth century development. The tendency of the latter part of the eighteenth century was, indeed, in the opposite direction—away from curved forms and toward the stricter rectilinear shapes of the two classical revivals.

OFFICE ROOF IS UNUSUAL; OTHER FEATURES OF EXTERIOR
FRAMEWORK
WEATHERBOARDS

In discussing the roof of the Office we have treated the most interesting feature of this building. it has been discussed at greater length than would normally be justifiable in a building of this size for the reason that the roof is an 150 unusual and interesting feature in Williamsburg and one concerning the possible age of which misunderstanding might arise. The office is, otherwise, not exceptional. It is a frame structure nearly square in plan (it is about 15'-6" in the north-south direction and a few inches longer in the east-west). Its framework, as is evident from the photo on p. 144, is largely old, but this had been repaired. The weatherboarding which seals the building sides from the elements is partly old and partly new. The boards on the south front are old ones with the exception of the bottom-most piece, which is a replacement; about 2/3 of those on the west and a few on the north are old and those on the east front are entirely new (it will be noted in the photo on p. 144 that the siding was completely removed on the east front during the restoration of the building in the early thirties). The exposed width of the boards is about 6" and the lower edges are beaded.

CORNER BOARDS
CORNICE

The corner boards (about 4" wide and 1¼' thick) are of the one-way type, that is, they have a single flat face turned, in this case, toward the north or south as the case may be, with their beaded ends facing east and west. The corner boards facing south are old, while, of the two turned towards the north, that at the northwest corner is old but patched with new material, while that at the northeast corner is entirely new. The cornice, which is about 9" high and has a projection of approximately the same amount, consists of a crown mold composed of a cyma recta and a cyma reversa, a fascia, a flat underside or soffit and another fascia strip against the building. This 151 cornice run at the eaves level around all four sides of the building, being mitred at the corners. It is new throughout.

ENTRANCE DOOR OLD: DESCRIPTION OF THIS

The Office has a single entrance door which is located on the south (street) side approximately in the middle of the facade. This is a handsome old door, the outside of which is beautifully weathered, though it is now painted. It is about 6'-2" in height and 2'-11" wide. The exterior face is paneled, each of the four panels being about 11½" wide and 2'-10" long. The outside edges of the battens are chamfered.

The door frame an the trim, on both the exterior and interior, are old. On the outside the trim is a simple flat strip which receives the weatherboarding while inside it consists of a backband with a cyma reversa mold and a beaded fascia, the whole being 4" wide. The sill is a new square cut lug sill which, on the exterior, extends far enough on either side to receive vertical trim members.

HARDWARE OF OLD DOOR

This door swings inward on two old H & L hinges 12½" wide and 12" high, placed, naturally, on the interior side. A "Carpenter" lock, a black iron rim lock with brass knobs of a type which was imported from England in the latter part of the eighteenth and early quarter of the nineteenth century, is attached to the inside face of the door and jamb. The door is also 152 equipped with a latch which appears to be of recent manufacture.

STEPS AT ENTRANCE

Four new steps of the utmost simplicity serve as the exterior approach to the doorway. Three of these are of wood and are carried on wood stringers which rest on the building side, on the wood sill and on the lower side, one the first step, which is of brick. There is no platform at the door and no handrail.

WINDOWS; 18 LIGHT ON THREE SIDES

The Office had one window in each facade. The windows of the east, north and south elevations are alike in size and character, being 18-light double hung windows with openings which measure approximately 5'-8" x 2'-5". Considering the dimensions of the building these windows are very generous in size. Each of the windows has two "two-paneled" fixed-louvred shutters before it.

THESE ARE PARTLY OLD AND PARTLY RECONSTRUCTED

The window on the south front is completely new—sash, frame and trim, sill and shutters —and was evidently a copy of the window on the north side, which is old throughout or of an earlier old window in the same location on the south side. In the case of the west window the sash are new while the frame, trim, sill and shutters are old.

WINDOW TRIM

The window trim of the exterior is simple, consisting of a flat band on the surface of the building in combination with a flat jamb piece set at right angles to this. The latter has a bead on its free edge. The sills are of the simple, square cut variety. The interior trim is more elaborate, being 5¼" wide and having an ogee backband resting on a fascia, the lower edge of which is beaded. The top edge of the trim touches the bottom edge of the interior cornice and, as in the case of the first floor windows of the house, the frame continues across 153 below the bottom of the window opening, there being no interior sill and apron. The lower part of the window falls considerably below the top of the interior dado, thus reducing the height of the panels which occur below the window opening.

6 LIGHT WINDOW ON EAST SIDE

The bulk of the chimney on the east side of the Office would have made a large window on that side inappropriate so that the builder placed a six light fixed window here. The sash, square cut sill and "single-paneled" fixed-louvred shutter of this window are old while the frame and trim, for the most part, are new. Inside and out this frame consists of a flat band about 2¼" wide.

SHUTTER HARDWARE

The shutters are each hung on two strap hinges and twisted hooks and staples serve as the holdbacks. Except on the south window, where the hardware is obviously new, this metalwork is old, but how old is a matter of conjecture.

FOUNDATION IRREGULAR IN TREATMENT; VENTILATION OPENINGS

The brick foundation is anomalous in form and in the bonding of the brickwork. The building, on the east (chimney) side and the south (front) side rests on a solid foundation except that on the latter side there are two series of eight ventilation holes. These holes were created by the omission of brick headers in Flemish bond brickwork.

PIERS WITH BOARDED VOIDS ON WEST AND NORTH SIDES

On the north and west sides the building rests on brick piers only, leaving in the foundation in each of these facades two voids about 4'-9" long and 2'-4" high. For practical reasons these openings have been closed by new flush unbeaded boards held in place by a 3" wide wood frame which extends around three sides 154 only, the sill member being omitted. The boarding of three of these four openings is fixed in place, while that of the south opening of the west side is hinged at the top to open outward and thus permit ingress to the space beneath the floor of the building.

BRICK SIZE; MORTAR AND MORTAR JOINTS

The brick appear fairly uniform in size and have a length of approximately 8", a width of 3¾" and a thickness of 2½". Six brick courses, measured from center to center of the outside joints, have a height of about 17½". The mortar is of the oyster shell variety and the joints, which are roughly ½" in thickness, are tooled to a convex curve or bead.

BRICK BONDING

As was remarked earlier, the bonding of the foundation brick varies considerably, so much so, in fact, that it is impossible to classify it as a whole as one type or another. This is partly due, no doubt, to the interruptions in the regularity of the brickwork caused by the ventilation holes and the openings on the west and north sides. The foundation on all four sides is capped by a rowlock course, a course, that is of header brick standing upright. The bond the east side is clearly enough English, that is with alternating courses of headers and stretchers. On the much interrupted west and north sides of the foundation the bond can best be classified as "running," that is, only stretcher bricks visible.

BRICK COLOR; THIS VARIES CONSIDERABLY
BRICK DERIVED FROM SEVERAL SOURCES

Many of the brick are deep red in color while others are of the lighter salmon pink which is more characteristic of eighteenth century brickwork in Williamsburg. The foundation brickwork of the south side was at one time painted a dark red 155 remnants of this color are still much in evidence. The brick-work on the north and west sides was spattered with clay during the building operations of 1950-51 and enough of this dirt remains in the pores of the brick to make it difficult to determine the precise color. It would seem from the varying shades and condition of the brick (some of it, particularly on the east and south sides, is much pitted by the weather) that the brick used in the foundation of the house was assembled from several different sources. Furthermore, some of the brick is evidently recent and was probably set in the foundation when the building was restored in the 1930's.

CHIMNEY : ITS FORM AND CHARACTER

The chimney which, so far as we can discern, is of the age of the Office itself, is located at the middle of the east face and serves a fireplace in the east wall of the interior (p. 144). It rises in three stages to the top which is slightly above the top of the wood finial of the roof. It has the usual broad base, which at a point about 3'-0" below the eaves line, begins to diminish in width by means of a "stepped" set backs at the sides until it merges with the lower section of the shaft at a point just below the cornice line. This shaft, 3½ brick lengths wide, undergoes further diminution via side stepped set backs about midway in its height, becoming 2½ brick lengths wide. In its other dimension the top part of the shaft is two brick lengths in width, so that the upper part of the shaft, which houses a single flue, is nearly but not quite square. The cap, a simple one, is made up of a two course high projecting band with a final course above this which has a cement wash to make it resistant to moisture.

BRICK SIZE AND BOND

The chimney is laid up of brick of the same size and characteristic as that of the foundation. The bond of the base is unmistakably English while that of the two stages of the shaft above is running bond.

PAVING, WALKS AND DRIPS

The Office is bounded on the north side and the north half of the east side buy the service court paving which is discussed on p. 69. On the west and south sides and the south half of the east side brick drips have been placed in the ground to receive the rain water which falls from the roof. These are similar to the drips used adjacent to the house (p. 68). The Office is reached from the street side by means of a stabilized gravel path, substituting for the marl which would have been used in the eighteenth century. The sidewalks, paving and gravel walks adjacent to the Office and other buildings, all of which are of new materials recently installed, are shown on the plot plan, p. 141. The brick drips have been omitted from that drawing.

ADDENDUM: ROOF SHINGLES

On the principle of "better late than never" we will discuss here two features, the roofing material and the finial, which were omitted inadvertently in the treatment of the roof. The roofing material is the fireproof asbestos cement shingles which are customarily used in the restored area of Williamsburg for security reasons. In contrast with those of the house which are round butted, the Office shingles have square-cut edges.

FINIAL, A TYPICAL COLONIAL FEATURE

The finial is a decorative turned wood feature placed at the top of the roof over the intersection of the edges created by the meeting of the four curved roof surfaces. The finial is about 1'- 8" high and, beginning with a square base, rises upward 157 in the form of an inverted "vase" to be topped by an oval ball. It is by no means a unique feature in Williamsburg since most of the pyramid-type roofs of the town have similar wood terminals of one shape or another. The finial of the Public Magazine, a reconstruction of an old one which was on the peak of the roof of the Palace down and westward across the Kitchen service court, no less than three such finials of varying size can be seen on the pyramid roofed smaller outbuildings (see photo, p. 51, Colonial Williamsburg, Its Buildings and Gardens). These are, of course, new, since the buildings are reconstructed.

THE TAYLOE OFFICE: INTERIOR

INTERIOR OF OFFICE MADE INTO APARTMENT
BATH AND HEATER ROOMS

It is only the interior of the Office which was affected in any important way by the restoration of 1950-51. It was decided to convert the Office into a living apartment for a single individual, so that the building, which had served formerly as an annex of the house used as a study or a place for keeping accounts and receiving business associates or ^clients*, had to be equipped with modern plumbing and heating devices to make it livable in the present sense of the word. A bathroom, therefore, with toilet, wash basin and shower was installed in a 3'-8" wide space along the west wall and adjoining this to the south and concealed in a closet, a modern unit heater. To enclose these paces a wood partition was erected between the north and south walls. This partition rises to a hight of 8'-0" only so as to permit the "groin-vaulted" ceiling to continue through it. A 3'-8" wide open shelf or storage space is thereby created over the ceiling of the bath and heater closet.

NEW DOORS IN PARTITION

Admission to the heater closet is gained through a pair of beaded board and batten doors, each of which is 6'-3" high and 1'-6" wide. The bath is closed off by a similar single valve door of the same height and 2'-0" wide. Except for the beading of the boards these doors are similar to the room side of the old entrance door and the trim with its ogee backband is also copies after the interior trim of the front door.

NEW DOOR HARDWARE

The door swing on H hinges 6" high. These are Craft House reproductions of colonial models, known as C.W. F-18-5. A reproduced latch, C.W. F-16, 7½", is also used on the closet doors. The bathroom door has, on the bathroom side, a new iron rim lock, Reading No. C-625, and a brass knob and rosette and key escutcheon on the living room side.

SHEATHED DADO

Where the partition is not pierced by door openings a dado of the same height (3'-2½") as the old dado found in the room has been placed. It has a cap which had been copied after that of the old dado, which will be described presently. Unlike the old dado, however, the new one is sheathed rather than paneled, the sheathing consisting of beaded random width boards running horizontally. Sheathing used in this manner as a covering for walls was not unusual in Virginia in the eighteenth century. Examples of old wall sheathing of this sort are found in the east room of the Market Square Tavern and in the Nicholson Shop.

OLD PARTS OF INTERIOR OF CHIEF INTEREST

In treating the interior of the Office we have chosen to describe first what was done to it to make it into a livable apartment. It is the old features of the room, however, which, for the most part are still intact though they are partly hidden by the new bath and heater rooms, which are of chief interest to us. Since, on the exterior, we started with the roof, on the interior we will first speak of the ceiling.

THE CEILING, AN INSIDE SHELL HUNG ON WOOD FRAMEWORK

As in the case of most domed buildings, this structure has an external "dome" or shell and interior one, with a separate framework forming the shape of each (see photo, p. 147). The curved rafters of the outer framework support the external "skin" or roof covering. The internal framework, which is "flatter" in its curvature, supports the plaster of the ceiling, which is new and applied to metal lath.

CEILING HAS SHAPE OF MEDIEVAL GROIN VAULT

Just as the roof proper has intersecting ridges or hips formed by the junction lines of four roof planes, so, in turn, the ceiling has lines of junction beneath hips, and these, because the ceiling is concave rather than convex like the roof, are depressed rather than raised. The form of the plaster ceiling is that of a flat groin vault, although it is not actually a true vault since the construction is not of the arched type.

WOOD "DROP" AT CROSSING OF "GROINS"

A wooden "drop" a turned wood decorative feature hung from the crossing of the "groins" or lines of intersection of the ceiling planes, corresponds on the inside to the finial on the outside. This drop looks old (photo, p. 147) and, apparently, was not renewed in the restoration of 1937-38, so that it is 161 likely that it is of the age of the other woodwork of the interior.

CORNICE, DADO AND MANTEL REMAIN TO BE DISCUSSED

The interior trim of the old front door and of the windows has already been discussed (pp. 151, 152). The remaining woodwork of the walls consists of three items, the cornice, the dado or chair rail height paneling, and the mantle, and we will discuss these in that order.

CORNICE

The cornice, which marks the junction of the curved ceiling planes with the walls, is old, though it has been repaired. It is 5½" high and is composed of moldings with which we are already well acquainted—a cyma recta, a cyma reversa and, at the base, a fascia, beaded at the bottom.

DADO

The dado, which is 3'-2½" high, is a fine examples of old woodwork. The panels, that is, the boards whose edges are inserted into grooves of the framework, are about 2'-2½" high and 1'-5½" wide on average. They are raised to the same plane as the surrounding frame and have the customary sloped tongue or bevel. The frame, on the panel side, is beaded. The dado had a cap or rail, consisting of a half round at the top, with a cove beneath, which formed the model for the cap of the sheathed dado of the new partition (p. 159). The base is a wood member 3½" high composed of a flat surface decorated at the top with a quarter round.

FIREPLACE AND MANTEL

The fireplace and mantel existed though some repairs were made to them. The fireplace opening, 2'-2½" wide and 2'-10½" high, is round arched. It is surrounded by a plaster enframement which is 8½" wide at the sides and 8" over the crown of the arch. This, in turn, is framed by a wood mantel 162 piece, the horizontal top part of which is 11" high and rather elaborate in its composition of moldings. Beginning at the bottom with a 7" high beaded fascia, it begins to move outward as it moves upward with the aid of two ogees, a quarter round and several intervening fillets. The upper quarter round and ogee do not "turn the corner" at the ends but are returned against the flat band on which they are placed. At the top of the whole is a mantelshelf which projects 6¾" and had its outer edges decorated with a fillet and a quarter round.

HEARTH

The hearth is of new hand made brick, 8½" long and 4" wide, set in pink cement, a modern method of laying these. The wood strips which separate the brick from the flooring at the sides existed and were left in place. No wood strip of this sort existed on the long edge of the hearth and none was put in. The hearth projects 1' -3¾" into the room.

CANDLE SCONCES

Above and at the side of the mantelshelf are two tin candle sconces, modern pieces made in the colonial manner.

FLOORING

The flooring is composed of old yellow pine boards which vary in their width from 4" to 9". These are faced nailed with old nails.

The Tayloe Office: Paint Colors

The Tayloe Office was repainted outside and in during the restoration of 1950-51. The colors used on the exterior were the same as those placed upon the outside of the house. The interior colors were duplicates of the colors which existed on the inside when the restoration of 1950-51 was started.

THE TAYLOE OUTBUILDINGS: THE KITCHEN

THE RECONSTRUCTED KITCHEN AS SEEN FROM THE SOUTHEAST. AT THE LEFT OF THIS ARE THE OFFICE AND THE HOUSE AND AT THE RIGHT AND BEHIND IT IS THE LAUNDRY.

THE KITCHEN A TOTALLY RECONSTRUCTED BUILDING

Having discussed first the outbuilding of chief interest, the Office, is seems reasonable to deal next with its nearest neighbor bordering the service court, i.e., the Kitchen. Since this is a totally reconstructed building, it will be handled in a more summary fashion.

FOUNDATIONS REASONABLY COMPLETE
FOUNDATIONS OF THE LAUNDRY

With the Kitchen, we have again, as in so many other buildings of Williamsburg, the case of a structure which, presumably, had outlived its usefulness, since detached kitchens gradually became obsolete in the nineteenth century, and was torn down. The only evidence which remained of it were its foundations and these were reasonably complete. The foundation plan, p. 42, shows the Kitchen foundations colored in purple. It was observed that this brickwork crossed in places the foundation of a smaller building (shown in vermilion), so that is was assumed that the Kitchen foundations were later than those of the smaller building. It appeared lilkely, 165 furthermore, that this smaller building, at the time the Kitchen was erected, had been moved to a position directly north of its first site, since the foundations of the chimney and of a building almost identical in size with the building which we believe was moved were discovered there. It is possible that this smaller structure was originally a kitchen, but, however, this may have been with the building of the Kitchen on its present site, it probably came to be used as a laundry.

RELATIVE AGE OF COLONIAL FOUNDATIONS UNCERTAIN; KITCHEN MAY HAVE BEEN ERECTED ALONG WITH SECOND HOUSE

The sequence of building periods, indicated on the archaeological plan by different colors, is not wholly certain. It is possible that the so-called "first foundation of Laundry" should have been colored yellow indicating that it co-existed with the original house. Then, again, the Kitchen may have been erected at the time the second (present) house was being built, so that its foundations, perhaps, should have been filled in vermilion. Within the colonial period it is difficult, from physical remains alone, to determine the relative ages of the foundations on a plot, unless one foundation overlaps another. So the building periods, as indicated on our plot plan, are tentative designations only.

DIMENSIONS OF KITCHEN

The Kitchen as reconstructed is a building with the following external dimensions: length (north-south direction), 28'-5" and width, 20'-1¼". In addition to this the massive chimney on the east side had plan dimensions of 10'-0" and 4'-6" (projections beyond the face of the wood wall).

FOUDNATIONS INDICATED BUILDING WAS OF WOOD

An examination of the plan of the Kitchen foundations (p. 42) shows a broken rectangle divided a few feet north of its center by 166 a cross wall. In addition to this the foundations of a large chimney are clearly visible near the southeast corner and of what evidently was a corner fireplace within the angle formed by the meeting of the east and north walls. The width of the foundations was 8" and since this in colonial times in Williamsburg almost invariably indicated a superstructure of wood the Kitchen was reconstructed as a wood frame building.

IT HAD ALSO BEEN ERECTED IN TWO STAGES
ORIGINAL PART ASSUMED TO HAVE HAD A - ROOF WITH SHED ROOF OVER ADDITION

Investigation also revealed that the east-west cross wall was bonded in (interlocked) with the parts of the east and west walls, respectively, which lay to the south and that the portions of the latter walls lying north of the cross wall were not continuous with the parts of these walls lying south of it. It seemed apparent from this that the cross wall had originally been the north exterior wall of the building and that the other walls of this period lying to the north of it represented the foundations of an addition. The original building, therefore, must have been one with its long dimension parallel to the street. It was assumed that this building, the dimensions of whose foundations were approximately 20'-1¾" x 16'-3", like other colonial outbuildings of its size, would have been A roofed, with its gable ends, naturally, on the shorter sides of the building. In roofing, over the reconstructed addition, a shed roof of lower slope was used, following a frequent practice in such cases in Williamsburg in the eighteenth century, a notable example being the roof of the Galt Cottage, an old building moved to its present Duke of Gloucester Street site from the grounds of the Eastern State Hospital.

SLOPES OF MAIN AND SHED ROOFS

The shed roof of the Kitchen has a slope of approximately 28° while the main roof slope is nearly 60°. The shed roof strikes the main roof about 4'-0" below the roof ridge, so that a "joint" is formed at this level. Although the fact is not clearly evident from our photograph on p. 164, the shed roof covers a part of the area occupied by the original kitchen as well as that of the addition.

ROOF SHINGLES AND MANNER OF LAYING

The roof covering of both the house and dormer roofs is round butted asbestos cement shingles of modern manufacture, laid from 5½" to 6" to the weather. There is the usual double starter course at the eaves and the ridges of the main and dormer roofs are combed, that is, the topmost row of shingles on the side toward the prevailing wind is laid with the upper parts of the shingles standing free of the roof for about 6" of their length. This is one of the devices used to prevent rain water from entering the joint formed by the meeting of the top-most rows of shingles on two intersecting roof slopes.

FOUNDATION BRICKWORK

Since the floor level at the front or south side of the Kitchen is only about a foot off the ground, and since the lowest weatherboard covers the house sill, little of the foundation shows on that side. The ground slopes toward the north sufficiently that the finished floor is about 1'-6" above the ground on the back or north side of the building. In consequence of this several brick courses of the foundation wall show on that side, enabling one to observe that the brick are laid up in English bond, which was the bond of the old brickwork found in place. Due to its fragmentary condition the old brickwork was 168 replaced by a wall of new brick of the same approximate size, viz., 8 7/8" x 3½". These brick are handmade brick, burned in the colonial manner in kilns operated by Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated at the edge of town.

CHIMNEYS; DESCRIPTION OF MAIN STACK

There are two chimneys, a massive one on the east front and another, secondary stack which rises within the framework of the "addition" at the northeast corner. The base of the main chimney follows closely the lines of the old kitchen chimney foundation discovered on the site (see archaeological plan, p. 42). As will be seen from the photograph, p. 164, the chimney is an outside one which diminishes in size by means of haunches or sloping planes at the sides (and in this case also on the face) to terminate in a T shaped shaft. This shaft with its cap rises to a height of about 6'-0" above the roof ridge. The cap is built up of four brick courses forming three bands which project slightly one beyond the other, the upper one being made up of two courses. Above this band is a cement wash which slopes inward to a single crowning top brick course which again lines up with the face of the shaft.

BASIS FOR DESIGN OF MAIN STACK
REASON FOR T SHAPE OF SHAFT

No evidence existed to indicate what the actual design of the old chimney was so that, starting with the base size which was given by the foundations, the form of the chimney was developed after a study of colonial chimneys still existing in Williamsburg and its vicinity. The portion of the chimney at the second floor level was made wide enough to accommodate a fireplace of moderate size on that floor since it was believed that 169 the loft over the original kitchen would have been used as a sleeping quarter and might well have had a fireplace. The design as a whole follows closely the form of the old chimney of the nearby St. George Tucker Kitchen, except that it is smaller, that is has no front haunch and that the top shaft is T shaped rather than square in section like the shaft of the Tucker Kitchen. The T shape is a common one in colonial chimneys of Tidewater, a good original example being the two T shaped chimneys of the old brick houses known as Kiskiskiak in the area in York County near Williamsburg which is under the jurisdiction of the United States Naval Mines Depot. A T shaped chimney derives its shape from the fact that it houses three square flues or sometimes one larger rectangular one and one smaller square one. In this case it was assumed that the fireplace of the Kitchen, which in colonial times was a very large one, would have required a rectangular flue of ample capacity and a smaller square sectioned one for the smaller second floor fireplace.

BRICK SIZE, BONDS AND COLOR

The brick of the old chimney foundation were slightly different in size from the foundation brick, measuring 8½" x 4" x 2½". In the reconstruction of the chimney new handmade brick were used^.* The old foundation was laid up in English bond, consequently this bond was used on the brickwork of the chimney base as far up as the top of the house foundation. From that point 170 upward, as far as the beginning of the shaft, Flemish bond was employed, since it was common practice in eighteenth century bricklaying in Virginia to use English bond for foundations and Flemish bond above them (in the case of brick buildings, this means above the watertable). The shaft is laid up in running bond. The color of this brick and the brick of the foundations is, in general, the traditional salmon pink of eighteenth century Williamsburg brickwork, though there is also a sprinkling among these of darker brick.

DESCRIPTION OF MINOR STACK

The smaller of the two chimneys which once served a corner fireplace (not rebuilt) in the addition and which now carries the flue for the basement heater is square (2'-2¼" on a side) and rises without diminishing in size to a height of 12'-5½" above the lowest point of the roof surface with which it is in contact. The cross sectional area of the chimney flue (and, thus, of the chimney itself) was determined by the method current in eighteenth century Virginia and of making it about 1/15 of the area of the hypothetic fireplace opening, the latter having been determined approximately on the basis of the foundation size. The chimney has the simplest possible type of cap, a two course band projecting 1" on all sides from the face of the shaft. It is laid up in running bond with the same type of new brick as the main chimney. Chimneys with simple caps of the character of this one were common enough in the eighteenth century. To mention one old example—Chippokes in Surry County had chimney with such caps.

WEATHERBOARDING

The external "skin" of the Kitchen consists of new beaded weatherboarding applied with an exposed width of about 6". The 170a boards are face nailed, the nails being especially made galvanized iron nails with hand hammered heads to simulate the heads of old handmade nails found on the main house.

CONSIDERATIONS WHICH DETERMINED LOCATION OF DOORS AND WINDOWS

There were no clues in the existing old foundations or in any old documents which indicated the location of original openings, so that windows were placed where, in 171 in light of the use which the Kitchen served in the eighteenth century, it seemed logical to locate them. In view of the fact that the main chimney extended to the east colonial property line (see plot plan, p. 141) an approach to the service court could have been placed east of the Kitchen only by encroaching upon the neighbor's land, so that is was assumed that a walk leading from the street to the court would have been west of the building. The most direct route here was between the Office and the Kitchen so a brick walk was laid there rather than west of the Office. This walk joins the court with a stabilizes gravel path leading from the south fence to the street.

TWO DOORS PLACED IN WEST FACADE

With the walk located in this position whatever doors the Kitchen might have had would, reasonably, have been placed in the west faèade of the building. This assumption is further strengthened by the consideration that the chief purpose of the building was to serve the house. The most logical place for doors to facilitate the constant intercommunication between the two buildings was in the west face of the Kitchen. The two doors were, accordingly, located there.

REASONS WHY TWO DOORS WERE PLACED IN WEST SIDE

The two doors are accounted for by the following considerations: the original smaller kitchen would have had its door in the west side of that building and, when the addition was erected, the latter, too, would have had a west entrance door. This was believed a reasonable assumption inasmuch as the addition probably served uses (possibly, for example, the preparing of butchered swine for smoking) which would have made a direct 172 entrance to the back room highly desirable. The north door on the west side which leads to the back room (in the present use of the Kitchen as a small dwelling, this is the dining room) now serves as the sole entrance to the building for the south door which is a simulated main entrance door is backed up by a necessary closet and does not operate.

BLIND "MAIN ENTRANCE" DOOR

The false main entrance door is six paneled on the outside and follows in its detailing a number of the first floor interior doors of the house, having a pair of rectangular panels at the top matched by a similar pair below with two slightly less than square panels between (see ill., pp. 128, 129). The size of the door is 6'-6" x 2'-10". The door is fixed and backed up with insulation board and the plywood which forms the wall surface of the closet beneath the stair. The door has no hardware. The exterior trim of this door is 4" wide and consists of an ogee backband resting on a flat board or fascia which is beaded at the bottom. The sill is of the square cut variety the ends of which extend to either side of the door opening just far enough to receive the vertical members of the door trim. It has a bead at the bottom which lines up with a corresponding bead of the weatherboards which are at the same level.

ACTIVE DOOR NORTH OF THIS

The active entrance door to the north of the false one is a new double sheathed door with random width vertical beaded boarding on the outside and the same kind of boarding, running horizontally, on the inside. Such doors are secure against warping since the wood fibres on the two side run at right angles to each other. ^{This door was warped 1/1/53} The two layers of sheathing are held 173 together in this case by new nails with hand hammered heads driven in from the outside and clinched on the inside. The door size is 6'-6" x 2'-8". It swings in on a pair of reproduced colonial type H & L hinges 9¾" high and similar to the hinge designated as CW, F-3. It has, also on the inside, a new iron rim lock, Reading No. C-625, as well as new brass knobs, a rose and key escutcheon of colonial character. The exterior trim of this door is formed by the projection to the face of the building of the members forming the head and jamb of the door frame. This is beaded on the free outside edge. The interior trim is similar to the exterior trim of the false door to the south. The colonial precedent for this door is the same example which served in the case of the new double sheathed door of the porch-kitchen of the house, viz., a door of the barn at Mount Stirling, Charles City County.

STONE STEPS

The two doors each have before them a single step of old stone salvaged from stone fragments found on the Tayloe site. The step in front of the false south door is about 12½" in depth and 5½" high and is set together from two matching pieces. The stone, apparently a gray sandstone, is much weathered so that the exact profile of its molding is difficult to determine. The north step consists of two pieces of pink sandstone about 2" thick resting on two courses of new brickwork.

WINDOWS; BASIS FOR THEIR SIZE AND LOCATION
WEST FRONT

The windows were placed where, in the judgment of the architects, they would have been located in the eighteenth century in a building of this type and size. The double hung variety was used because this was the type most generally employed at this time. No first floor windows were put in the west faèade because this 174 front already had two doors in it, but a window 2 lights wide and 4 high was installed in the gable end with its center axis about a foot north of the ridge line in the roof.

EAST, SOUTH AND NORTH ELEVATIONS

The great chimney occupied so much of the east facade that only one window was placed in this, an 8 light window similar to the one mentioned above, which was located in the addition or north end of the front. Two first floor windows each were placed in the south and north facades, since two windows in walls the length of these, 20'-1¾", gave a typical colonial relation of window openings to wall. The south room having doubtless been in colonial times a large one occupying the entire space of the original kitchen, the windows lighting this would have been larger, it was believed, than those serving the smaller rear room. In addition to this, the subordinate character of the rear space, at a time, the eighteenth century, when window glass was very expensive, would have dictated a more sparing use of it on the north side.

NUMBER AND ARRANGEMENT OF GLASS PANES

Thus, the first floor windows on the south front are 15 light windows, 5 lights high and 3 wide, with openings 4'-9¼" high by 2'-5" wide, while the rear windows are 9 light ones, 3 lights high and 3 wide, with a height of 2'-11¾" and a width of 2'-5". The other window type mentioned above, the 8 light window, is 3'-10½" (4 panes) high and 1' — 8¼" (2 panes) wide. The size of the glass panes in all of the windows of the Kitchen, including the dormer windows, is 8" x 10".

PRECEDENT FOR THESE WINDOWS

Windows of all these types were used often in colonial houses of Virginia. An old example of the 15 light window, 3 lights 175 wide and 5 high, is the first floor windows of Mount Airy, John Tayloe's great residence in Richmond County. Old 9 light windows like those of the north faèade, 3 lights wide and 3 high, are found on the second floor of Menokin, another stone house in Richmond County. Old 8 light windows, 2 lights wide and 4 high, are found on the second floor in the gable ends of the Bracken House in Williamsburg and also in the nearby Quarter.

DORMERS; TWO ON SOUTH ELEVATION

There are three dormers on the Kitchen, and these, with the 8 light window of the west gable end, constitute the natural lighting system of the second floor. Two of the dormers are located on the front (south) roof slope directly over the two first floor windows. The sash are double hung, each of the two which form the window being 2 light high and 2 wide, making and 8-light window, 4 lights high and 2 wide. As in the case of the house the front dormers are of the pedimented type. The house dormers, indeed, were taken as the model for the Kitchen dormers, the difference between the two being in their size (the dormer windows of the house are 15 light windows) and in the proportioning of the moldings used ( see p. 87 et seq.).

ONE ON NORTH ELEVATION AS IN CASE OF GALT COTTAGE

There is a single dormer on the broken rear (north) slope of the Kitchen, this being located at an equal distance from the ends of the building. There are many instances of colonial buildings in which the dormers of one roof slope do not correspond in number, size and location with those of the opposite slope. The precedent followed in placing a single dormer on the north roof slope of the Kitchen was the example of the Galt Cottage, mentioned above, a building comparable in size and roof character to the 176 Kitchen. Our dormer also has windows with the same number of lights as the Galt dormer (12), both windows being 3 lights wide and 4 high. The Galt dormer, like the north dormers of the house, which it follows in detailing, is of the gable ended variety, with tapering rake boards running along the dormer roof slopes and terminating at the bottom in an ogee curve (see p. 97).

DORMER ROOF SLOPE DIFFERS FROM THOSE OF KITCHEN ROOF; PRECEDENT FOR THIS USAGE

Both the south dormers and the north have a roof slope of approximately 38°, which is unlike either slope of the roof, proper, of the Kitchen, the slopes of the latter being 60° (main roof) and 28° (shed roof). This is not in accord with the usual eighteenth century practice of making the dormer roof slope the same as that of the adjacent main roof of the building. There are exceptions to this usage, however, and in this case the precedent for this exceptional practice is again found in the Galt Cottage where the dormer roof slopes are different from those of the house itself.

The roof covering of the dormers has already been discussed on p. 167.

FOUR OF SIX WINDOWS EQUIPED WITH BOARD AND BATTEN SHUTTERS

Four of the six windows of the Kitchen are equipped with shutters. The two windows of the south front have a pair of these each and the 8 light windows of the east front and west gable end have single shutters. They are all outside shutters of the board and batten variety and each is composed of two vertical boards, the joint between which is beaded. Each has, on the face which is inside when the shutter is closed, a batten or cleat top and bottom, the four edges of which are bevelled. 177 Each shutter swings on a pair of new 6" H & L hinges which have been reproduced from colonial models and which are designated as CW, F3. The shutters are also equipped with new holdbacks and cabin hooks copied after eighteenth century examples.

THREE COLONIAL SHUTTER TYPES REPRESENTED ON TAYLOE OUTBUILDINGS; PRECEDENT FOR SHUTTERS OF KITCHEN

The house shutters, as we have seen, are of the paneled variety and those of the Office have fixed louvres. So, with the board and batten shutter of the Kitchen we complete the roster of shutter types generally used in eighteenth century Virginia. It seems appropriate enough for this shutter type to have been chosen for the Kitchen, a more utilitarian and less pretentious building than the other two. There is sufficient colonial precedent for the use of battered shutters. The west dependency of Wales near Petersburg has them and a photograph made by Singleton P. Moorehead in 1929 of the brick Debtor's Prison at Gloucester Court House shows an, apparently old, battened shutter on a window facing the square. In the case of both of these old examples the shutter is given additional stiffness by having diagonal batten connecting the two horizontal ones, a feature which was not used on the Kitchen shutters since they are too narrow (1'-4" and 1'-7") to require it.

MAIN CORNICE OF KITCHEN SIMPLER THAN HOUSE CORNICE

As befits a dependency or building of subordinate importance such as this one, the front (south) cornice of the Kitchen is simpler than that of the Tayloe House itself. It is built up of about the same elements, crown mold, fascia, soffit and bed mold, but the brackets or modillions and the bottom fascia have been omitted. The overall dimensions are: projection from the face of the studding, about 11"; height about 9¾". Since 178 the constituent moldings are of the same type as those of the house cornice, the description of them will be omitted here (see pp. 79-81 for discussion of house cornice).

PRECEDENT FOR THIS

The south cornice of the Kitchen is a reproduction of a type in frequent use in Williamsburg and the Tidewater in the eighteenth century. Original examples were found in this city on front of the Travis House and on the small building known as Casey's Gift (now demolished).

CORNICE END BOARDS CUT TO PROFILE OF CORNICE

The cornice end boards which mask the ends of the south cornice, unlike those of the main cornice of the house, follow the cornice profile. This practice, which amounted to expressing the cornice form on the side elevations, was followed frequently in eighteenth century houses, the alternative to it being the type of cornice end board whose upper part followed the cornice profile but which, below the level of the projecting soffit, swung free and took some form dictated by the builder's fancy. The latter is the case with the house cornice end board. An old example of the former is the cornice end boards of Toddsbury in Gloucester County. The cornice there has modillion brackets and the form of these is also reproduced in the profile of the cornice end boards.

RAKE BOARD; DESCREOPTION OF THIS
NORTH CORNICE

The rake or barge boards which, on the end elevations, follow along the roof slope below the edges of the roofing taper towards the roof peak, being 4¼" wide at their lower ends and 3¾" at the top. The lower edge of the rake is beaded. A filler piece or extension of the rake board along the south slope 179 of the roof projects outs to cover the crown mold of the cornice. This filler piece, out at the lower end to the profile of the crown mold, is both part of the rake board and part of the cornice end board. A similar extension of the rake boards on the north slope covers the end of the north cornice, which, like the upper cornice between the two sloes of the gambrel roof of the house (p. 85), consists of a crown mold only. The rake board along the north roof slope is, of course, jointed where the shed roof joins the main roof slope.

CORNER BOARDS OF ONE WAY VARIETY

The corner boards, which receive the ends of the weatherboarding at the corners of the building, are the single faced type, unlike those of the house which show as flat face on each of the two sides forming the corner. The long side (3") of the Kitchen corner boards faces north and south depending upon whether it is on the front of the rear of the building. The end of the boards which are 1¼" thick, therefore, faces either east or west. The free edge of the board is decorated with a bead, ½" in diameter. It should be stated here that this is not decoration alone, since eighteenth century Virginia builders customarily avoided arris or sharp edge formed by the meeting of two places at right angles, preferring to soften this with a curve. It is likely that they considered this less susceptible to injury than the sharp corner.

One way corner boards such as those used here were very common in eighteenth century Virginia. An old example of this type of corner board is that found on the Timson House in Williamsburg.

"VESTIGIAL" CORNER BOARDS

Before taking leave of the subject of corner boards we should not fail to note that a strip intended to simulate the ends of two such boards appears on the two end elevations of the Kitchen at the points, which supposedly, mark the north corners of the original building. These extend up to a height of about 9'-0", the height, that is, of the bottom of a rear cornice similar to the front one, which, it is assumed, once existed. They are explained by a practice of the colonial builder of leaving corner boards in place when an extension was made to a building and of carrying the new weatherboards up to them. In our case these "vestigial" corner boards are intended to suggest that the Kitchen was erected in two stages. Old vestigial corner boards can still be seen on the house on Waller Street known as Spencer Lane House where they separate the main part of the house from an extension.

PAINT COLORS

The paint colors used on the exterior of the Kitchen (the white of the weatherboarding and trim, the brown of the doors and the green of the shutters) are the same as those used on the exterior of the house. The latter are listed on p. 136.

The Tayloe Kitchen Interior

EXTERIOR AUTHENTIC; INTERIOR ADJUSTED TO PRESENT REQUIREMENTS, IS NOT SO

With the above we conclude the discussion of the Kitchen exterior. This has been treated in very considerable detail, since it was the purpose of the architects to make the exterior reconstruction as authentically eighteenth century in character and detail as possible. With the interior of the building the situation is altered since, except in the case of avowed exhibition buildings, it is not the policy of Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated to duplicate exactly colonial interiors, inasmuch as these buildings are used as dwellings and must meet present day living requirements.

AUTHENTICITY OF INTERIORS DEPENDS ON NATURE OF BUILDINGS

The degree to which authenticity is preserved in a restored or reconstructed building depends upon the character of the building. In the case of a distinguished old house like the Tayloe House every effort is made, consistent with liveability, to restore and preserve all the old features of the building interior. In most reconstructions and particularly those of buildings whose present day use is different from the colonial one, this procedure is manifestly impossible. The latter was the case with the Kitchen which once, doubtless, was a building having two large rooms devoted to culinary and related uses, but which now serves as a living apartment for two people. The large divisions which once obtained there are still echoed in the internal planning by the placement of a partition wall over the line of the east-west cross foundation which divided the original colonial Kitchen from the addition. The main fireplace is in its old location but the opening is much reduced in size, since the great 182 opening which once existed to serve the uses of colonial cooking is no longer needed and would be, in fact, high undesirable. The old opening is, nevertheless, expressed by an oak lintel spanning what must have been the original width of the Kitchen fireplace opening, but part of this space is now taken up with a wood storage closet, closed off with a low door, a feature installed for the convenience of present day residents.

LISTING OF ROOMS INCLUDED IN PRESENT KITCHEN LAYOUT

The rooms of the interior are at present consist of the following: living room, dining room, kitchen and utility room on the first floor, and a single bedroom and bath on the second floor, along with several clothes- and linen closets on the two floors. These two floors are joined by a stair running along the west wall. This stair starts on the first floor at the point, close to the active west door which opens into the dining room, which is most convenient from the standpoint of present day use; it is not intended to represent the old Kitchen stair in its design of location.

ALTHOUGH INTERIOR HAS CHANGED COLONIAL CHARACTER HAD BEEN PRESERVED

Though the interior layout of the Kitchen had been changed to adjust the building to a new use, all of the elements of the design, such as doors and their trim and hardware; other interior trim such as cornices, window enframements, chair railings, base boards, etc.; sheathing of certain of the walls, stair detailing, flooring and other features in all but such definitely utilitarian areas such as the kitchen and its neighboring utility room, have been based with care and attention to accuracy on eighteenth century Virginia precedents. The interior, therefore, is authentically colonial in flavor and feeling even though no attempt was 183 made to reproduce the particular layout which this building once possessed. That, we suppose, would have been something similar to what we find on the interior of the Palace or Wythe House Kitchens, where the reconstruction had the definite objective of recreating the colonial condition of these interiors.

DETAILED DISCUSSION OF INTERIOR WILL BE OMITTED

We will, therefore, close the discussion of the Kitchen with this explanatory statement concerning the nature of the reconstruction of its interior. Since it is not and does not pretend to be a true reconstruction of the original Kitchen it is scarcely incumbent upon us here to trace the origin of the various colonial features and details installed within it.

THE RECONSTRUCTED TAYLOE LAUNDRY WITH THE OLD SMOKEHOUSE BEHIND IT

THE TAYLOE OUTBUILDINGS: THE LAUNDRY

LOCATION AND SIZE OF THE TAYLOE LAUNDRY

The Tayloe Laundry is a reconstructed A roofed building lying about 18'-0" due north of the Kitchen. It is a small structure, 16'-4¼" in length and 12'-3" in depth, with its long side paralleling the street. It served in the eighteenth century as a laundry, we believe.

THESE WERE DERIVED FROM OLD FOUNDTATIONS

The Laundry was erected on the position of colonial foundations discovered on its present site, as has already been explained (pp. 164, 165 and archaeological plan, p. 42). These foundations (purple on the plan) and the corresponding earlier ones (vermilion) furnished quite exact information as to the size of the building and location of the chimney and entrance platform.

IN ABSENCE OF INFORMATION ON ELEVATIONS, BUILDING WAS DESIGNED

No information existed concerning the form of the building above the ground, so that, as in the case of the Kitchen, the Laundry had to be designed. This was done in conformity with colonial precedent, the exterior details used on the Kitchen exterior, being, in many cases, duplicated here.

OLD INTERIOR WAS NOT RECONSTRUCTED

No attempt was made to finish the interior so that the Laundry is an exclusively exterior reconstruction. The fire-place was not restored, the wood framework was left exposed on the inside and the ground was covered with a gravel fill which forms the floor of the building. A ladder, made of 2" x 4" rungs inserted into two 2" x 6" studs on the west wall gives access to a loft, the center part only of which is floored over.

FRAME CONSTRUCTION BASED UPON WIDTH OF FOUNDATION; REASON FOR CHOICE OF A - ROOF

In the design of the Laundry the same approach was followed as in the case of the Kitchen. The width of the foundation of the east end wall, the only one which remained reasonably intact, was 8¾" and this signified, as one might have expected, that the building was a frame structure. A small colonial outbuilding like this one would have had the simplest type of roof, which was the A roof, so that an A roof was put on it and a typical slope for the period, 45°, was chosen for this.

BASIS FOR LOCATION AND DESIGN OF DOOR
HARDWARE OF DOOR

The location of the door was based upon the foundation of the entrance platform of the earlier laundry foundation (p. 42), since it was assumed that the building had been moved from its first site to the present one without undergoing alteration. The door was made the same size, 2'-8' x 6'-6", as the active door of the Kitchen and similar in type to that of a number of old doors of the house, viz., six-paneled with the 186 paneling on one side only. An old wood encased iron rim lock had been found in place on the door of the neighboring Smokehouse so that a similar one which the house resident, Miss Kelly had in her possession was placed on the inside of the door. This had no knobs and the door is opened with the aid of the big key which operates the lock. The door is hung on a pair of new 10" wrought iron H & L hinges, similar to the reproduction type designated as CW, F-3.

WINDOWS, THEIR TYPE SIZE AND LOCATION

Since the building is less than half the size of the Kitchen much smaller window would have been used in it than in the Kitchen and, accordingly, 8 light double hung windows, 4 lights high and 2 wide, were installed. One window only was placed in the south wall since this contained the door opening; one such window was located on the center line of the west gable end but none was put in the opposite chimney end. Two windows were installed in the north wall since all the Laundry walls this has the longest unbroken surface.

Three of the four windows have shutters, the one on the west side is much or more exposed than certain of the others. Furthermore, these are beaded board and batten shutters which serve the purpose of providing security as well as of light control, so that the west window would have needed a shutter quite as much as the other three. The shutters, except in size, are similar to those of the Kitchen and have new hardware of the type used on the latter (see pp. 176, 177).

CHIMNEY; METHOD OF DETERMINING ITS SIZE

The fireplace opening as revealed by the more recent of the Laundry foundations 2'-11½" wide. Although the fireplace was not reconstructed, this dimension was of service in determining the size of the Laundry flue, since flue sizes in colonial times, as at present, were based upon the size of the fireplace opening, the flue customarily having a cross sectional area equal to about 1/15 the area of the opening. Thus, knowing the width of the old opening and choosing a reasonable height, say about 2'-6", it was readily possible to calculate the probable approximate area of the old opening. The 1/15 rule was then applied to get the flue opening which, in conformity with modern practice, was provided with a flue lining which gave the flue area required. This was then enclosed with a single width of brickwork.

THE CORBELLED CHIMNEY CAP, A TYPICAL COLONIAL FEATURE

The same sort of corbelling (brickwork in which successive course projects somewhat beyond the one below0 was use to produce the chimney cap as was employed in the case of the main stack in the Kitchen. In this case, however, the topmost of the three projecting bands is a single course rather than a double one, as in the cap of the Kitchen chimney. The top of the cap was given a water shedding surface by running a cement wash from the edge of the brickwork to the projecting top of the flue lining. This cap is one of many variants of the frequently used corbelled cap of eighteenth century Virginia house construction. It is like the cap of the west chimney of Greenway, the home of two John Tylers, Governor of Virginia and President of the United States, respectively, which is located two miles west of Charles City Court House. The Greenway cap, 188 however, has a crowning brick course above its mortar wash and this has been omitted in the chimney cap of the Laundry since the latter is so simple and unpretentious a building.

SIZE AND COLOR OF BRICK; MORTAR AND BOND OF BRICKWORK

The chimney stack is laid up in running bond. The stack is built within the exterior wall of the house so that only the six foot length of the shaft which rises above the roof is visible on the outside of the building. The brick used in the construction of the chimney, as well as for the part of the building foundation appearing above ground, is the same new handmade brick used for the chimneys and foundation of the Kitchen. These brick are 8 7/8" x 4" x 2¾" in size and their color is generally of a salmon pink with and admixture of darker shades of red. They are laid up with a modern imitation of the old oyster shell mortar. The Laundry foundation, of which only two or three courses are visible on the outside, is laid in English bond.

WEATHERBOARDING LKE THAT ON THE OTHER TAYLOE BUILDINGS

The weatherboarding used to seal the walls of the Laundry is the same type of bead boarding as that used on the Kitchen. The boards have an exposed surface which varies from about 5" to 5½". These are face nailed with modern nails the heads of which have been hand hammered to give them the appearance of old nails.

CORNICE COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE KITCHEN

The cornice on the north and south elevations is another of the fairly numerous variations of a typical eighteenth century Virginia feature, of which the house cornice is an original, more elaborate example (p. 80). It is about the same size as the south cornice of the Kitchen (pp. 177, 178), 189 having a projection from the face of the weatherboarding of about 10" and a height, including the lower fascia, which is applied to the wall, of approximately 11". This cornice has the crown mold, projecting fascia and soffit of the Kitchen cornice but the lower end of the fascia board is beaded on the outside free edge instead of having a quarter round on the inside edge as does the same feature of the Kitchen cornice. The lowest member in the Laundry cornice, furthermore, as was mentioned above, is a fascia, 4" in height, while that of the Kitchen cornice is a cyma reversa. Thus, it is apparent, the two cornices are of the same general character, bring made of similar elements, and differ in detail only.

METHOD OF STOPPING CORNICE DIFFERS HERE FROM THAT OF OTHER BUILDINGS OF TAYLOE GROUP

The trim of the east and west ends of the building is similar in character to that of the other buildings of the Tayloe group. The upper members of the cornice are stopped, however, at both ends of the building, not by separate members, cornice and end boards, as in the case of the house cornice and the south cornice of the Kitchen, nor, again, by an extension of the rake-board as with the north crown mold or cornice of this latter building, but, rather, by two of the weatherboards of the end walls which are projected out. The beaded lower edge of the lower of these weatherboards is at the level of the beaded edge of the upper fascia of the cornice so that the bead, in effect, continues around the end of the building. The lower of the two projecting weatherboards having an exposed height insufficient to cover the ends of the upper fascia and the crown mold, the upper part of the latter is covered or received by the 190 bottom of the weatherboard above. These two weatherboards are cut to the profile of the cornice, which is thus expressed on the ends of the building.

RAKE BOARD TREATMENT

The rake boards of the ends are of the tapered, beaded type, being 4 3/8" wide at the bottom and 3 7/8" at the top. These are terminated against the upper of the two weatherboards whose sideward extension masks the cornice, the ends of the rakes being cut to an ogee curve.

PRECEDENT FOR CORNICE STOP AND RAKE BOARD DETAILING

The treatment of the cornice end and the rake boards described above is patterned after a similar treatment of the gable ended north dormer "pediment" which is extended out to receive the crown mold which constitutes the dormer cornice.

CORNER BOARDS

The corner boards are of the one way type like those of the Kitchen, the broader sides (3¼") facing north or south and the ends (1¼") east or west depending upon whether they are on the north or south face of the building.

DOOR TRIM AND SILL

The door has no trim as such, the 1¼" thick jamb and head boards extending out to the face of the building and receiving the weatherboarding. The free outer edges of these frame members are beaded. The door sill is the square cut type and extends past the opening only far enough to receive the vertical jamb members just mentioned.

WINDOW AND SILLS

In the case of the windows the frame members corresponding to those of the door, mentioned above are beaded on the edges toward the window openings but there is, in addition, a 2" wide unmolded enframement on the face of the building. The window 191 sills, like the door sill, are of the square cut variety, extending out at the sides to receive the vertical trim members.

THIS SIMPLE TRIM ADAPTED TO MINOR BUILDINGS

The two methods described above of the finishing door and window openings being of the utmost simplicity were appropriate for dependencies and minor buildings of all types and were used frequently in such eighteenth century buildings. Examples of this simple trim were found on old buildings in Williamsburg—on the outbuildings of the Archibald Blair House, for instance.

ROOF SHINGLES

The roof covering the Laundry consists of new round butted asbestos cement shingles similar to those used on many other restored and reconstructed buildings in Williamsburg.

PAINT COLORS

The paint colors used, the white for the weatherboarding and trim, the brown of the entrance door and the green of the shutters are identical with the colors used for these features of the house (p. 136).

STONE PLATFORM AT ENTRANCE

The stone platform before the door of the building is made up of five pieces of old flagstone of varying sized found on the Tayloe site. Its length, ca. 5'-0" and width, ca. 3'-0' are derived from the archaeological findings (see plan of first foundations of the Laundry, p. 42, which shows an entrance platform). The stone flagging is supported on brick and is raised about 5" off the ground.

PROVISIONS FOR VENTILATION

Ventilation of the Laundry is provided for by the "wedging cut" of three weatherboards near the peak of the east gable end of the building in such a way that cracks are produced which permit the air to enter. In the Kitchen ventilation was provided for the use of a grille (hidden by the chimney) near the peak of the east gable end of that building.

MUCH WEATHERED OLD DOOR OF SMOKEHOUSE. THE STRAP HINGES ARE OLD AND AN OLD WOOD ENCASED RIM LOCK IS ATTACHED TO THE INSIDE FACE. THE BUILDING HAD BEEN WHITEWASHED.

THE TAYLOE OUTBUILDINGS: SMOKEHOUSE

LOCATION OF SMOKEHOUSE; ITS TURNING TO PERMIT DOOR TO FACE SOUTHWARD

The Tayloe Smokehouse stands about four feet northwest of the Laundry (see plot plan, p. 141). It is slightly out of parallel with the latter, being so turned that if the plans of its south wall were extended westward it would meet the plane of the north face of the Laundry, extended, at an angel of approximately 5°. It rests today on the foundation on which it stood when the restoration of the Tayloe site was undertaken in 1950. It was turned on this foundation during the reconstruction of the Tayloe service court so that the door, which 193 formerly faced west, now opens to the south. It was turned, presumably, for two reasons, to wit, because in its old position the door would have been undesirably close to the entrance to the reconstructed east privy and because the new position, with the door facing south, makes the Smokehouse much more readily accessible from the Kitchen and other buildings grouped around the paved area which we speak of as the service court.

GROUNDS FOR REVOLVING SMOKEHOUSE; THE THREE POSITIONS OF THE LATTER

The restorers had sufficient precedent for taking the liberty of revolving the Smokehouse a quarter turn on its axis. Reference to the archaeological plan, p. 42, will indicate that the building had already been shifted about repeatedly in the course of time. Three positions of the structure are revealed in the foundations and outline of the building. The foundations colored in red in the plan and designated as fourth period overlap the (purple) foundations of the Laundry so that the former must have been laid after the Laundry had ceased to exist on that site. The "red" foundations also appear to overlap the "brown" ones and though the latter are interpreted on p. 42 as being later it would seem that they may, in fact, be earlier. But these latter foundations were so ragged that it was impossible to be sure of the their relative age.

ITS LOCATION WHEN LAUNDRY OCCUPIED ITS SECOND SITE IS UNCERTAIN

The present foundation of the Smokehouse is shown in outline only because the building stood in that position when the drawing was made in 1949. It is apparent from the above that it would be difficult to determine where the first foundation of the Smokehouse stood and what the location of the building was during the period the Laundry remained on its second (purple) 194 site. If the latter position was its present position we must concede that the building was moved to two other locations (red and brown) after the disappearance of the Laundry and subsequently returned the spot from which it started. It is evident that nothing certain can be stated about the position of the Smokehouse during the time the Laundry occupied its present site. The Smokehouse was allowed to remain where it was found since its location was a reasonable one. To make it more convenient to use from the Kitchen and the Laundry it was turned so that it could be entered from the south.

SMOKEHOUSE FIRST RESTORED 1930-31

The restoration history of the Smokehouse is the following: it was first reconstructed in 1930-31 for the Williamsburg Holding Corporation by Perry, Shaw and Hepburn, Architects. The foundation was renewed at that time using new handmade colonial type brick and a floor was laid of the same brick at a level such that the peripheral brick rested on the wood sill. A new sill was installed; the old flush boarding was patched and a new roof of square edged asbestos cement shingles was substituted for the deteriorated wood shingles.

BUILDING DETERIORATED DURING YEARS OF NEGELCT

Little was done, apparently, in the two decades intervening between this first restoration and the second, which took place in 1950, to keep the building in repair. It was left unwhitewashed; vines were allowed to envelop it so that the siding deteriorated from dampness, and dampness, caused by the fact that the earth on which the brick floor rested was level with the sill top, encouraged termites to settle in the sill and honey-comb with holes. A considerable replacement of wood parts 195 was necessary, therefore, when the time came for the building to be re-restored.

FOUNDATION BUILT IN 1930 WAS RETAINED; BRICK FLOOR WAS RELAID

The brick foundation, which stemmed from the first restoration, was intact so that this was left in place. It is laid up in English bond, the customary bond for foundations in the eighteenth century. The brick floor was taken up and relaid so that its surface is now slightly below the top of the foundation.

OLD BOARDS RE-USED WHENEVER POSSIBLE

As much of the old boarding was salvaged as possible, replacements being made where this was necessary. The south front was in the worst condition so that all of the boards on that face of the building, except the lowest one, have been replaced by new ones. All of the boards are old on the east face, except for the five lowest; on the north front they are all old or appear old, and on the west only three of the middle boards are old.

THE METHOD OF JOINING AND NAILING THE BOARDS

The boards are unbeaded and they are brought together in a simple joint in which adjacent edges of the boards are cut at a 45° angle and abutted. They vary in their width, some of them being 13" wide. They are face nailed with new nails the heads of which have been hand hammered to give them the appearance of old nails.

CORNICE, A SIMPLE CROWN MOLD

The cornice consists of a crown mold only, 3" high. It is customary the Virginia colonial molding with a cyma recta above and a cyma reversa below, separated by a fillet. It was necessary to renew parts of this. Just how much of the molding which was found in place was installed in 1930 is uncertain.

CORNER BOARDS

The corner boards are of the one way type, the broad sides facing either north or south. They are 3 3/8" wide and 1" thick 196 with a ½" bead on the free edge. They have been patched in places with new material.

OLD DOOR; DESCRIPTION OF THIS

The only opening in the building is the old board and batten door on the south side which is placed about in the center of the faèade and is raised 1'-2" off the ground (ills., pp. 184 and 192). This is 6'-1" high and 2'-6" wide and swings out on a pair of old strap hinges nearly two feet long which pivot on pintles attached to the western stile of the frame. On the inside are three bevel-edged battens, above the center one of which is an old rim lock, 6" x 9" in size, which was found in place. This lock is encased in wood, the front face of which has been decorated with an incised pattern. The door has weathered to such an extent that the graining of the pine boards stands out beautifully in relief.

DOOR FRAME AND SILL

The door frame consists of unbeaded stiles, 2½" wide, with a headpiece of the same width resting on them. The sill is square cut and projects but slightly from the face of the boarding. It is of the same width as the headpiece. The frame and sill are replacements. An irregular stone step which, following the first restoration, stood at the entrance doorway has not been replaced because, probably, the height of the sill above the ground is not as much as it once was since the revolving of the Smokehouse has brought the entrance over higher ground.

FRAMEWORK

Except for the sill, the Smokehouse framework was pretty much intact, so that little needed to be done to it. Some of the asbestos cement shingles which had been put on the roof in 1930 were missing so that it was necessary to replace these with 197 shingles of the same material and type.

FINIAL

A wood finial which had been placed at the peak of the pyramid shaped roof in 1930 was sufficiently well preserved to permit it to be retained. It consists of a square base beaded on it upper edges with a turned down "onion shaped" member perched upon it. (See discussion of finials, p. 157).

EXTERIOR PAINTING

The exterior of the Smokehouse has been primed with a coat of oil paint whitewash undercoat #1124 and finished with a coat of Dri-Wall. Dri-Wall was used as the exterior finish because it has the matt appearance of whitewash combined with the waterproofing qualities which whitewash does not possess. The interior, with its exposed framing, has not been painted or whitewashed since smokehouse interiors, for reasons which are evident, were left untreated in the eighteenth century.

VIEW OF EAST PRIVY ("NECESSARY HOUSE") SHOWING SOUTH AND WEST FACADES

THE TAYLOE OUTBUILDINGS: THE PRIVIES

LOCATION OF PRIVIES IN RESPECT TO NORTH-SOUTH AXIS

The position of the two Privies (called "necessary houses" in the eighteenth century) may be seen on the plot plan, p. 141. Though an effort was evidently made by the builders to plan them symmetrically with respect to the axis which runs through the center of the two doorways of the house and the garden ramps, it will be noted that this symmetry is not complete. The east Privy is about 1'-3" closer to the axis than the west and it is about 3'-0" farther to the north than the latter. Both are approximately parallel with the other buildings, excepting the Smokehouse which, as we have observed, stand askew.

THEY STAND ON SITES OF OLD PIER FOUNDATIONS

The present reconstructed Privies are located precisely where they were in the eighteenth century since they are placed on the sites of two sets of pier foundations which were uncovered in the course of the excavations. The eastern foundations are shown on 199 the archaeological plan, p. 42, the western ones not, since they lie just west of the westmost area included on our page.

DESCRIPTION OF OLD PIER BRICKWORK

The two sets of foundations were very nearly the same size, the east ones being 9'-2¼" x 5'-5". The piers were L shaped, the length of the external sides being about 1'-5". The thickness of the piers varied from 8" to 8¾" long, 3 7/8" wide and 2½" high. Their color was designated by the archaeologist simply as "red" and the mortar was the colonial oyster shell type. The piers were laid up in the customary English bond. It should be noted that the south-east pier of the west series was missing.

PLAN SIZE GIVEN BY FOUNDATIONS; ELEVATIONS REVEALED IN PHOTO

Thus, the plan dimensions of the Privies were exactly determined by the old foundations. Fortunately, a photograph of the Tayloe buildings, made sometime before the turn of the century, was available which showed the then still existent Privies. This furnished much information concerning the elevations—the approximate height of the Privies; the roof type and the door location. (A print of this photograph forms the headpiece of p. 1. It is, however, so reduced in size that many of the features of the Privies which can be seen without difficulty in an 8" x 10" print are hardly discernable in it).

THE LATTER ESTABLISHED ROOF TYPE AND DOOR LOCATION

From the old print it was evident that the Privies had A roofs of moderate slope so that the buildings were given A roofs with a pitch of approximately 45°. The doors were placed in the middle of the south faces of the Privies because the door of the east Privy was clearly visible in the photograph and this was in 200 the center of the side of that Privy which was turned toward the street. It was assumed that the door of the west Privy , though this was not in evidence in the picture, had also been in a similar location in that Privy.

DOORS MADE SIMILAR TO ENTRANCE DOOR OF OFFICE

The two doors were patterned after the old entrance door of the Office although their dimensions (6'-0" x 2'-6") are not the same of those of the Office (6'-2" x 2'-11", see p. 151). To describe the doors briefly—they are paneled on the exterior and have a board and batten surface on the inside. The panels of the outside are four in number, the upper pair being 2'-5" in height while the lower two are 2'-3".

HARDWARE OF DOORS

The doors are provided with the following reproductions of colonial hardware: a pair of 8" H & L hinges F 3 and a thumb latch, C. W., F-14. They also have modern night latches with cover plates. The hinges, thumb latches and cover plates are of wrought iron.

DOOR TRIM AND SILLS

There is no external trim, in the sense of a wood enframement placed around the opening on the exterior face of the building. In lieu of this, the door casing is brought out to the face of the building to receive the weatherboarding. The free edge of this casing is beaded, following the usual principle of rounding edges which would have otherwise been sharp. The sills are of the square cut variety and are of the width of the door frame.

ARCHIBALD BLAIR PRIVY AND SMOKEHOUSE HAD SIMILAR DOOR TRIM

Two old outbuildings of the Archibald Blair House, the Smokehouse and the Privy, had trim similar to that discussed 201 above. This is clearly visible in a photograph of these buildings made before their restoration in 1930-31 (see architectural report on the Archibald Blair House and Outbuildings, p. 36). An examination of this photograph will also show how closely the Blair Privy (it was undoubtedly that originally) resembles those of the Tayloe House. The Blair Privy, of course, has two doors but it may earlier have had but a single one.

PROCEDURE FOLLOWED IN FIXING HEIGHT OF WALLS

The old Coleman photograph gave the architects a general idea of the height of the Privies so that the architects, bearing this in mind and using their judgement as to how, in all likelihood, the original builders would have proceeded, established a reasonable height for these structures. In order to protect the sills from dampness they were raised two brick courses off the ground. This resulted in a floor level of about 1'-2" above the grade on the south side. An inside height of 8'-0" (from the finished floor to the bottom of the cross ties, which, had the interiors been finished, would have been the approximate ceiling height) was considered feasible which resulted in a height on the exterior , from the top of the door sill to the bottom of the cornice, of 6'-8½". With a cornice height of 5" the total height of the exterior walls was thus established.

STONE STEPS

It should be added that to facilitate negotiating the 14" rise from the ground to the floor of the Privies a stone step the height of the two exposed courses of foundation brickwork was placed before each of the entrance doors. There steps are old pieces of worn sandstone which appear once to have had molded nosings.

WEATHERBOARDING

The Privies, as in the case of other buildings of the Tayloe group, are covered with beaded weatherboarding, with an exposure of from 5" to 6". The boards are attached to the studding by galvanized iron nails with hand wrought heads driven into the faces of the weatherboards.

CORNER BOARDS

The weatherboards are stopped at the corners by one sided beaded corner boards, 3½" long and 1¼" thick. The flat faces are on the long sides of the buildings.

CORNICE AND CORNICE STOP

The cornice consists of the crown molding used elsewhere on the buildings (cyma recta, fillet and cyma reversa) resting at the bottom, against a fascia, 2" high and beaded at the bottom. The crown mold of the cornice is stopped at each gable end by a weatherboard which continues out on either side far enough to receive it. The ends of this weatherboard are cut to the profile of the crown mold. The fascia below the crown mold is stopped by the corner board. This method of stopping the cornice crown mold is the same as that used on the Laundry, which is described on pp. 189, 190, and the precedent for it is the same as in the case of the Laundry.

RAKE BOARDS

The inclined sides of the gable ends of the building are provided with rake boards to cover the joints between the ends of the weatherboarding and the roof covering. These are a typical colonial detail and are similar in every respect except size to the corresponding features of the Laundry. They taper toward the roof peak from a width at the base of 4½" to 3" at the top. The lower ends are cut to an ogee curve which rests upon the weatherboard whose ends extend out to 203 stop the cornice. The free lower edges of the rake boards have the customary bead.

SIMULATED CLEANOUT DOORS ON NORTH FACES OF PRIVIES

At the base of the weatherboarding on the north face of each Privy is a simulated cleanout door, occupying the height of the bottom four weatherboards and extending from pier to pier. The presence of this door is suggested by saw cuts in the weatherboarding but the door is not hinged and does not open. The door has not been made to operate inasmuch as the interior of the Privy has not been reconstructed and an operating door would serve no function. The Privies, it should be noted, serve today only as storage places.

PRECEDENT FOR THESE

The cleanout door detail is based upon similar features found in old privies in various parts of Virginia. One of the best preserved of the privies investigated which had this arrangement was the one at Bowman's Folly, an estate on the out-skirts of Accomac Court House. Another old privy having a cleanout door of this sort was that at Wales in Dinwidie County, near Petersburg.

LOUVRED VENTILATION OPENINGS

Each Privy has a ventilation "window" or opening about 1'-8" high and 1'-4" wide, exclusive of the frame, on the center line of each end. The bottoms of these openings are elevated about 5'-9" off the ground or, in other words, a few inches above the average eye level. Each opening has eight fixed wood louvres slanting downward and outward at an angle of 45° and overlapping, so that the view through the opening is largely cut off.

FRAMES AND SILLS OF THESE OPENINGS

The openings have an enframement, similar to that of the doors, which is formed by extending the beaded outer ends of 204 the casing far enough forward to receive the weatherboarding. The sill are square cut and extend to the sides just enough to receive the stiles of the frame.

PRECEDENT FOR LOUVRED OPENINGS

Such louvred ventilation openings were used frequently in colonial necessary houses. An old privy having them is that on the Coke-Garrett property in Williamsburg, one of the two or three old privies which remain in town (another is that at the Barraud House but this had windows rather than louvred openings). The Coke-Garrett louvred openings are similar to those used on the Tayloe Privies except that they flank the door on the long, entrance side, instead of being on the ends.

ROOF SHINGLES

The Privies are covered with round butted cypress shingles (in reality these are square butted shingles with the ends cut off on a diagonal). It should be stated that these shingles have been impregnated with a chemical which makes them fire retarding. Such shingles are sometimes used in the restored area, instead of the more frequently employed asbestos cement shingles, when a building is small and set apart from other structures.

PAINT COLORS

The paint colors used on the exteriors of the Privies are two in number only, white, #696 for the weatherboarding, trim and louvred openings and dark brown, #205 for the door. These colors are the same ones used on the house for the corresponding features (p. 136). The interior are unpainted.

OLD PHOTOGRAPH OF COURTHOUSE OF 1770 SHOWING AT EXTREME LEFT THE TAYLOE STOREHOUSE BEFORE ITS ROOF WAS LOWERED AND A STORY ELIMINATED

THE TAYLOE OUTBUILDINGS: STOREHOUSE

RESTORATION OF STOREHOUSE GOOD EXAMPLE OF APPLICATION OF SOUND PRINCIPLES OF RESEARCH; CONDITION OF EXISTING STRUCTURE

The restoration of the Tayloe Storehouse (see plot plan, p. 141) is an excellent example of the application of deductive reasoning from existing archaeological remains and documentary materials to the solution of what, at first blush, might seem a well nigh impossible task. When the architects arrived on the scene in 1950 to undertake the rebuilding of the structure which bordered upon what was once a lane or roadway running just within the western colonial lot line, what they found was a dilapidated relic which bore a closer resemblance to an eighteenth century ice house than to the storehouse it was believed to have been. The then existing building consisted of a brick wall some seven feet high half imbedded 206 in the ground which sloped off rather sharply to the west, with an A roof, enclosing weatherboard gable ends, resting upon it. The walls were in a bad state of repair; the heavy wood sills which rested upon them and received the roof rafters were partially rotted; the rafters themselves had long since superseded wood shingles as covering the roof. The building, after passing through many vicissitudes, was, clearly enough, in the final stages of decline.

PLAN SHAPE AND SIZE AND WINDOW LOCATION DETERMINED FROM BASEMENT BRICKWORK

Certain facts of importance were immediately evident from the building itself. The plan shape and size were given by the existing foundations which, when measured, proved to be approximately 24'-9" long and 16'-5½" wide. The number and location of the basement "windows," that is, grilled openings, though altered in the nineteenth century, were still in evidence. The original size of these was apparent from the diverse character of the old and new brickwork and from the fact that the original brick sills were still in place, embedded in the masonry. (See ills., pp. 207, 208). The openings were restored to their original size by the removal of the late brickwork. There are three such openings on the south side, the restored size of which is approximately 2'-3" by 3'-9". The present, restored size of the east basement window is about 2'-3" x 2'-11". There are no such openings in the basement walls of the north and west sides.

It was almost without exception the practice in eighteenth century Virginia to leave basement openings unglazed to permit 207 VIEW FOR THE SOUTHWEST OF THE TORSOLESS STOREHOUSE (THE MIDDLE STORY HAD BEEN REMOVED) BEFORE ITS RESTORATION WAS UNDETAKEN IN 1950. THE BASEMENT OPENINGS REMAINED AND GAVE THE LOCATION OF THE PRESENT BASEMENT DOOR AND "WINDOWS." SOMEWHAT MORE DISTANT VIEW OF THE STOREHOUSE AFTER ITS RESTORATION, SHOWING THE SAME TWO SIDES OF THE BUILDING. THE FRAME SUPERSTRUCTURE WAS REBUILT ON THE BASIS OF EXISTING DOCUMENTARY AND PICTORAL EVIDENCE AS TO THE APPEARANCE OF THE OLD BUILDING. 208 THE STOREHOUSE BEFORE ITS RESTORATION, AS SEEN FROM THE NORTHEAST. AN OLD "WINDOW" OPENING STILL EXISTED IN THE EAST WALL. IT WAS NOT BELIEVED THAT THE PATCHED AREAS IN THE NORTH WALL HAD BEEN WINDOWS, SO THAT NO BASEMENT WINDOWS WERE PLACED IN THIS WALL WHEN THE BUILDING WAS RESTORED. THE STRUCTURE VIEWED FROM THE SOUTHEAST FOLLOWING ITS RESTORATION. THE STEPS AND DOOR IN THE EAST WALL AND THE TWO FIRST FLOOR WINDOWS IN THE SOUTH FACE WERE PLACED IN THOSE POSITIONS ON THE BASIS OF STATEMENTS BY OLD RESIDENTS THAT THEY REMEMBERED SEEING THESE FEATURES IN THE OLD BUILDING. 209 the free circulation of air throughout the basement area these were provided with wood or iron grilles to keep out intruders. Six wrought iron bars, 1" square, were therefore placed in each of the south basement windows and four in the east. These are horizontal and turned so that the two edges are horizontal and vertical. The ends of the bars are inserted in the stiles of wood frames built of members 3 3/8" high by 3 7/8" wide. The external free edges of these frames are beaded and they are joined by pegged mortise and tenon joints. Slightly projecting square cut wood sills complete the enframement of the openings. Behind the iron bars have been placed, for the sake of present day comfort, metal screening and modern hardware.

MEASUREMENTS OF BRICK WALLS

The old brick walls, when measured, were found to be 7'-10" high. Their thickness, up to a height of slightly more than 6'-0", is 1'-2½". By means of two 1" setbacks this width becomes 1'-0½", a thickness which continues for about 1'-6" to the top of the wall.

BRICK SIZES

The brick, which are in a rather soft condition, vary rather considerably in size. Of a number of brick measured the length varied between 8½" and 9". The width between 4" and 4½" and the height between 2¼" and 2 5/8". The height of six courses measured from top of brick varied between 16¾" and 18½".

MORTAR JOINTS AND BRICK BOND

The mortar is of the oyster shell type and joints are of varying widths, but generally wide. The bond, though 210 irregular, is English to a point three brick courses above the watertable (formed by the setbacks mentioned above) and above this, running bond.

BRICK COLOR

The color of the brick is generally salmon pink but there is a liberal admixture of brick of a deeper red. Only a few glazed headers are in evidence. The walls were at one time painted and large patches of a bluish gray paint color remain on the brickwork.

WALLS ARE OLD IN LARGE PART

Although the walls, as they exist today, are in large part old a considerable amount of repair work was done on them, especially around the door and "window" openings. When new brick was used in this repair work, it was handmade brick of the same approximate size and color as the old. The mortar use in this work was also made to match the old type and color.

GROUND LEVELS OUTSIDE THE WALLS AND WITHIN HAD RISEN AND REQUIRED LOWERING

It was evident from an examination of the earth around the basement walls and from the level of the ground within them that the ground level both outside and in had risen considerably since the eighteenth century. The older grade levels were established by excavating until packed, undisturbed earth, indicative of the original levels, had been reached. The first of the old levels which needed to be determined was the ground level just outside the west doorway. This was found to lie more than a foot beneath the existing grade. The same was true of the original packed earth floor within the building. The original grace on the east end was found to be a little over four feet above the grade at the west end. The accumulated earth was removed and the original leves at the ends and within the building were reestablished. Earth was also removed along the sides of the 211 building and the levels at the ends were connected by slopes of easy gradient which more closely approximated the eighteenth century condition.

LOWERING OF GROUND LEVELS MADE UNDERPINNING NECESSARY

The lowering of the basement floor level and the ground level adjoining the west end of the structure brought the bottom of the basement walls within a few inches of the surface of the ground. To secure the walls at this end against movement induced by frost, it was found desirable to underpin the brickwork with concrete footings carried to about 14" below the level of the floor. These were run beneath the brick walls from the west end some six feet eastward to a point where, due to the continuous rise in the ground which takes place from west to east, the old walls are sufficiently deeply covered with earth to be immune to the effect of the temperature changes. Within the walls, in lieu of paving the floor, a 4" layer of gravel was placed over packed earth.

GUNITE AND DAMPROOFING APPLIED TO OLD WALLS

To render walls below grade more moisture resistant, a coat of gunite 2" thick was applied to the outside surfaces of the old brickwork from the base of the wall to a point just below the surface of the ground. This was also painted with dampproofing and terra cotta drains were installed beside the walls just above the level of the bottom of the brickwork.

BRICK DRIPS

Brick drips made of commercial brick and a single brick length in width were let into the ground along the north and south sides of the building about 8" away from the basement walls, to prevent the pitting of the ground by water falling from the eaves of the roof. Fragments of old drips of this sort had been found adjacent to the house so that it was assumed that drips would also have been used here.

OLD DOOR OPENING FURNISHED POSITION AND SIZE OF PRESENT WEST ENTRANCE DOOR

The position and width of the basement doorway in the west end were already established in the door opening which existed there when the restoration of the structures began (see photo, p. 207). The old opening was located on the center axis of the end and its height, reduced over against what it once had been by the rise in the grade level, was 6'-4". The north side wall of the opening was reasonably intact and in the case of the south wall which was very ragged, enough closer brick were still in place to indicate the original position of the jamb. Thus, the opening width, about 3'-9-½", was established. The opening height was not left entirely to conjecture because the head was established by the position of the lower surface of the house sill and the bottom by the already determined basement floor level. The opening height, thus established, became about 7'-7".

DOOR FRAME

In keeping with the location of the door in a rather rough and irregular brick wall, a heavy wood frame, cut to a width of about 4-¾" and a thickness of 3-¾", was inserted in the opening. The stiles and head of this frame are joined by mortise and tenon joints secured by wood pegs passing through them. The frame is undecorated except for a bead run on the free edge toward the opening on both the outside and inside faces. There is no trim as such.

DOOR SILL

The stiles of the door frame rest on a new limestone sill 3-¾" high at the center of its width and 14-½" wide. The sill on the inside rises about ½" higher than the gravel fill of the basement floor (which is about 2-½" above the grade level outside) and stands on the outside about 2-½" above the grade. No sill of any sort was found here but was needed and stone was used 213 for the sake of durability in the place of wood, which, placed upon the ground, would have rotted in time.

BOARD AND BATTEN DOOR

A beaded board and batten door, the type most frequently used in colonial Virginia on outbuildings of this type, was hung in the openings on new wrought iron strap hinges. The boards and battens are held together by modern nails with hand hammered heads showing on the outside and with the ends clinched on the inside. The door, for security purposes, has been provided with a Corbin rim night latch with a wrought iron cover plate obscuring a keyhole on the outside.

PRECEDENT FOR THIS DOOR

An old board an batten door of this type used for the four doors of the Storehouse was found in place on the Tayloe Smokehouse (p. 196). This door also had original wrought iron strap hinges, so that the precedent for the doors and hinges was found on the Tayloe property itself.

OLD FRAMING REPLACED BY NEW WOOD STRUCTURE ERECTED IN MODERN WAY

The entire building above the level of the basement walls is reconstructed of new materials. Though the old sill, the rafters and the studs of the gable ends still existed when the building was taken over for restoration, these were in such poor condition that it was deemed advisable to replace them with new members. Not only was the structural framework renewed; since the building was to be an exterior restoration and since, in the case of exterior restorations, only such features as are visible on the outside are kept authentically eighteenth century in character, this new framework, as to timber sizes and joinery methods, was also made to conform with present day building practice.

SILL AND NOTCHES GAVE SPACING OF OLD STUDS

In two matters only was account taken of the existing framework. One of them was the spacing of the old studs. No first floor studding actually existed since this floor had at some time been eliminated, so that the roof rested directly on the house sill which in turn rested on the brick walls. But there could be no doubt about the positions of this vanished studding since the notches into which their tenonned ends had been inserted still existed in the sill. The stud spacing had been on the whole fairly regular, the center distance on the long sides of the building having been between 1'-9" to 2'-0", except for two bays of each wall, viz., between the third and fourth studs from the ends. Here the center to center distance was about 2'-6".

FIRST FLOOR WINDOWS PLACED IN WIDER STUD BAYS OF LONG WALLS

It was known for the old photograph (p. 205) which shows the Storehouse that the latter had had two windows, symmetrically placed, in the south facade of the main story. It was assumed that these windows had been located between the studs which had the wider spacing and also that the north side had had a similar pair of windows, since the notches in the sill showed that the north wall had also had the two somewhat wider stud bays and since Messrs. George and Tucker Coleman had stated in 1943 that they remembered having seen them there before the structure was lowered. So a pair of like window was placed in each wall between doubled studs located at the approximate positions of the old studs which had had a wide space between them. These windows were provided with square cut, beaded frames which were nailed on either side directly to the inside stud of each pair. The width of these frames was established at about 2'-3½".

METHOD OF SPACING INTERMEDIATE STUDDING

Having located the "window studs", the remainder of the studs in the north and south walls (between the windows and between each window and its end of the building) were spaced at more or less uniform distances, between 2'-0" and 2'-3", or approximately what these distances had been in the eighteenth century. The spacing of the studs at then ends of the building was established in much the same was after the door in the west facade and the door and window in the east face had been located.

CARE TAKEN IN LOCATON OF STUDDING IN ORDER TO GET ACCURATE NAIL SPACING

The object of the care taken in the location of the new studding was to make the distances between the vertical lines of nails which held the flush boarding of the exterior to the studding approximately what they had been originally. An examination of the lines of hand hammered nail heads on the finished building will reveal that the spacing is approximately 2'-0", or about what the stud notches indicate it must have been in colonial times.

PITCH OF NEW ROOF DERIVED FORM SLOPE OF NOTCHES CUT IN RAFTERS

The second way in which the old framing affected the external appearance of the reconstructed building was in providing the means by which the pitch of the new roof was determined. It should be explained that the roof pitch at some period, probably at the time the height of the building was cut down, had been altered, the original rafters having been recut and reused. The roof pitch which obtained after the lowering of the building was about 37½°. That the pitch had at one time been greater was indicated by the existence in a number of the rafters of a notch or channel cut half way through the broad side of those rafters about 4'-0" form the rood ridge.

PHOTOGRAPH OF INTERIOR OF STOREHOUSE BEFORE ITS RESTORATION, LOOKING SOUTHEAST. ONE RAFTER NOTCH IS VISIBLE (IN RED CIRCLE), THE OTHERS BEING TURNED AWAY FROM THE CAMERA.

THE TAYLOE STOREHOUSE, CONT'D.

The presence of these signified that collar beams had originally connected certain of the rafter pairs^*, being joined with the rafters by means of a half lapped joint. The consideration which made these notches useful in determining the original roof slope was the fact that they were tipped so that the bottom edges of the notches were no longer horizontal as they must once have been to receive the collar beams. Computing the inclination which the rafters would have had in order for the lower 217 sides of the notches to be horizontal gave the pitch of the original roof, which was, of course, the same as that of the rafters. This angle proved to be about 51°. That the old roof was a gable—ended A roof was clearly evident in the old photograph (p. 205). The roof type and pitch having thus been determined it was readily possible to reconstruct the roof approximately as it must have been in colonial times.

DERIVATION OF HEIGHT AND WIDTH OF WINDOWS

In the course of the foregoing discussion of the structural framework of the Storehouse we mentioned the windows of the first floor but we did not conclude the subject. We indicated that the window frame width which in all five window openings is the same, viz., 2'-3½", was derived from the widths of certain of the old stud bays which were wider than the others (p. 214). No information quite so definite existed to aid in the determination of the height of the windows. The proportions of the windows in the south facade of the at that time unaltered Storehouse were observable in the old photograph, however, and so a window which seemed approximate in its proportions the window in the photograph.

CHARACTER OF FRAME

The window frame used is composed externally of flat members 2½" wide and something less than 7/8" thick which are beaded on their free edges. The corresponding frame members on the inside are flat unbeaded boards 2¼" wide and 1 1/8" thick. The intermediate head and jamb pieces are undecorated, square cut members 4 3/8" x 1 5/8" in size. The window frames project far enough (ca. ¼") from the face of the flush boarding to act as a stop for this. The sill are of the simplest square cut type 218 projecting about ½" from the face of the flush boarding and lining up at the sides with the stiles of the frames. These window frames, as far as their external appearance is concerned, are similar to the outside window frames of the Kitchen, Laundry, and Privies. They all are of a type commonly used on outbuildings in colonial Virginia.

OPENINGS HAVE NO COLONIAL TYPE SASH, BUT ARE EQUIPPED WITH BARS AND SHUTTERS

As in the case of the basement openings below it was assumed that the first floor windows had been unglazed in the eighteenth century. This assumption was based on the fact that many out— buildings used for storage purposes (storehouses, stables, etc.) had, in those areas, at least, which were devoted to storage, unglazed openings provided with bars and shutters. The bars were needed for security reasons and the shutters for temperature control, since the latter could be closed in inclement weather. The five first floor windows, therefore were equipped with bars and shutters having colonial type shutter hardware and they were, to al external appearances, left open. Seven bars were used in each opening and these are square sectioned wrought iron bars, 5/8" on a side, which were turned so that they present an edge rather than a flat side to the observer. Logically enough, they are lighter in weight than the bars used in the basement openings. The shutters, of which there is one to each window, as of the beaded board and batten type used on the Kitchen, Laundry and Smokehouse. These are the type customarily used on outbuildings in colonial Virginia.

THESE ARE ALSO PROVIDED WITH MODERN CASEMENT AND SASH

In actuality the window openings were not left open even 219 though they were not provided with eighteenth century sash. For practical reasons, as in the case of the basement windows below, single-paned inswinging casement windows with modern butt hinges and casement hardware were placed in the openings behind the horizontal bars.

EVIDENCE FOR LOADING DOORS ON WEST FACE AND SIDE ENTRANCE DOOR ON EAST ELEVATION

We know from two different sources that the west faèade had two loading doors above the basement level. The doors, one above the other, are visible in the old photograph, p. 205. The two long times residents of the town whom we have mentioned before, the Messrs. George and Tucker Coleman, commenting on the appearance of the Storehouse, stated that they recalled having seen a door in the west end at the first floor level and another in the attic story. They likewise remembered a first floor door in the east end which was served by a small flight of steps. As to the function of the two west doors, since they were both elevated off the ground, they could have served only as loading doors and in addition, we know that a loading arm existed above the upper one before the building was reduced a story in height. These doors were serving as loading doors when the brothers Coleman saw them.

STUD NOTCHES THE BASIS OF TWO WEST LOADING DOORS

It was possible to derive a reasonable approximation to the original opening width of the two doors above the basement level in the west side by taking into consideration the center to center distance (3' 7½", more or less) of the pair of stud notches in the house sill at the middle of the facade. This, it was thought, would have permitted a door about 3'-0" in width so that both doors were made 3'-0" wide, which is 2¾" less than 220 the width of the basement door below. The two doors were made 6'-0" high, which seemed a reasonable height for this width.

DESCRIPTION OF FRAMES AND SILLS

The two doors, like the window openings described above, were given simple square cut frames held together by mortise and tenon joints secured by wood pegs. The external frames are made up of members 2frac12;" wide and 1 1/8" thick with a ½" bead cut in the free edge. The interior frames which, like those of the windows, are unornamented, are rectangular unbeaded strips 2 1/8" wide and 1 1/8" thick. The external frames project slightly to receive the flush boarding. The sills are square cut and project about ½" beyond the wood facing of the building. Their width is the same as that of the frames.

DOOR HARDWARE

The two doors are equipped with reproduced colonial type wrought iron strap hinges and 6" wrought iron cabin hooks and staples (CW F—21).

WINDOW AND DOOR OF EAST FACE LOCATED BY REFERENCE TO NOTCHES IN OLD SILL

A study of the stud notches in the old sill served as the basis for the location of he window and door openings in the east wall. A pair of widely spaced notches forming the third stud bay from the north end was assumed to represent a bay which had once contained a window and accordingly, a window the size and character of the other first floor windows installed here.

DETAILED DISCUSSION OF BASIS FOR PRESENT LOCATION OF EAST DOOR

A stud notch existed at about the middle of the old east sill which had seemed to preclude the possibility that the door had been located on the central axis of the east gable end. The stud spacing from the center stud notch to the south corner, however, presented the same objection since a normal door could not have 221 been fitted in between any pair of studs; inasmuch as the spacing, center to center of notches, was in all cases approximately two feet. Two bays, evidently, would have been required to receive a door. It was not considered impossible, however, merely because of the existence of the intermediate notches that a door had existed in this facade in the eighteenth century since the sill might have been notched for a more or less uniform spacing of studs and then one of these might have been omitted to permit a door to be built. It was believed that the latter had been the case.

One of the considerations which led to the placing of the door where it now is, in the first two bays south of the center notch, was the circumstance that the center to center distance between the notches flanking these bays was 4'-4" while that between the two notches on either side of the center notch was about 4" less. It was thought, in other words, that the door would have been located in the wider opening. Furthermore, the old sill in the location chosen for the present door was more rotted than elsewhere in its length on the east front, which signified, the architects believed, that a door had been in this location, the repeated use of which in inclement weather had exposed the will and caused its deterioration. To have moved this door farther south (two more bays remained for possible use) would have rendered it less convenient, and, in addition, it would have produced a less pleasing relationship of the door with the first floor window and the centered ventilation grills of the third story.

POSSIBILITY THAT DOOR DID NOT EXIST IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY DISCOUNTED BY ARCHITECTS

The thought naturally occurs that this door may note have existed at all in the eighteenth century, that the function of the building in colonial times was such that it was never intended to be entered from the house side. The Coleman brothers, to be sure, remembered having seen a door here sometime late in the nineteenth century but the door which they saw, of course, might have been a late one. In spite of the above considerations the architects felt that it was reasonable to suppose that a door had existed in the east faèade in colonial times since such a door would have made the Storehouse interior much more readily accessible from the house than it would have been if the west door alone existed.

CHARACTER OF DOOR AND FRAME OF EAST ENTRANCE

The door and door frame used are the same type as in the case of the loading doors, which, of course, is appropriate for an entrance door. The beaded exterior trim is precisely like that of the loading doors and the interior trim is also similar except that it 2½" wide rather than 2 1/8", the width of the loading door trim.

HARDWARE OF EAST DOOR

The hardware is entirely new. Two 10" H & L hinges, reproduced after colonial models, were used here instead of the strap hinges placed on the loading doors. A modern Corbin night latch (#356) was installed for security reasons, rather than the cabin hooks and staples used on the loading doors. The keyhole was disguised on the outside with a wrought iron cover plate.

LOADING ARM, ITS FUNCTION, MEASUREMENTS AND DETAILS

A loading arm or "cathead", used for raising heavy objects to the level of one of the other of the two loading doors, projects from the west side about 9" above the top of the upper door on the center line of the facade. This is a 4" x 6" wood beam which extends 4'-0" beyond the face of the building and, including the wall thickness, 3'-6" inside of it. It is supported on the inside on two of the collar beams which connect the rafters at a level of about 3'-0" below the roof peak, 223 being secured to them by lap joints. The top of that part of the beam which is cantilevered to the outside had been sloped in both directions form the center in order better to shed water, and the two lower edges, for most of their distance, are chamfered, the chamfers ending in "lamb's tongues". These are curved surfaces on the order of spherical triangles which effect the transition between the flat plane of the chamfer and the sharp edge of the beam.

IRON STRAP TO SUPPORT PULLEY WHEEL

A wrought iron strap to hold the hook supporting a pulley wheel has been hung over the beam at a joint about 3" from its end and secured in place by two wrought iron nails driven into the beam at either side. The strap is made of a 5/8" round wrought iron bar which is flattened to a band 2" wide where it passes around the beam.

PRECEDENT FOR THIS LOADING ARM

Loading arms of one sort or another were used in the eighteenth century, as they are still used today , on barns, stables and storage structures of various kinds to facilitate the hoisting of farm produce and goods of all descriptions to the upper floors of these buildings. Sometimes they were simple beams such as the one used on the Storehouse. Old examples of these are very hard to find today since the heavy work which the members were called upon to perform and their exposure to the weather combined to make them short lived. Singleton P. Moorehead discovered such a loading arm, however, on a barn at Little Plymouth in King and Queen County some years ago and has a sketch of the wrought iron hoist hanger which was still in place on this beam. The hanger was almost 224 exactly like the one used on the Storehouse. The flattened top was 4" wide and the flat sides 6" long so that the beam dimensions must have been approximately the same as the present one, viz., 4" x 6".

OTHER FORMS OF LOADING BEAMS USED IN COLONIAL TIMES

The loading beams also took other forms. Ernest Frank found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, a painting by Samuel Scott (1702?-1772) entitled "Old East India Wharf at London Bridge" which shows a loading crane consisting of a horizontal wood beam combined with a vertical wood post and diagonal brace to form a triangular member. This was supported against the side of the building above the loft opening and swung in a semicircle so that the load could be brought close to the opening.

HOODED HOISTS

Another hoist form still found in Virginia which, without question, went back to colonial times had the beam covered by a small A roof or hood. A barn in King William County photographed by Mr. Moorehead has this feature. Projecting hoods of this character also served as protection for the loft door opening and they were also frequently used over entrance doors of houses. Singleton Moorehead also observed an old example of such a hood over a second story entrance door in the gable end of a building at Deer Chase near Wilton on the Piankatank River. This hood was supported by a pair of elongated posts two stories in height. A wood stair ran along the one side of the end of the building and terminated in a platform under the hood.

LOUVRED OPENING IN EAST GABLE END; DIMENSIONS OF THIS

One further wall opening remains to be discussed, 225 viz., the louvred attic opening in the east faèade. This opening is on the center line of the elevation, its head being about 5'-0" below the roof peak. Including the frame, it is 3'-3" high and about a foot less than that in width. The frame is similar in character to those of the grilled openings and consists of a flat band about 2½" wide and 7/8" thick, beaded on the free edge toward the opening. The sill is the square cut type and its width is that of the frame whose stiles rest upon it. The members are held together by mortise and tenon joints, secured in place by pegs.

THE LOUVRES; THEIR SIZE AND PURPOSE

In lieu of glass the opening had been furnished with 11 fixed louvres or slats ½" thick, set at an angle of about 52½°, the slope being toward the outside. The purpose of these louvres, of course, was to admit air to the loft and at the same time to shed water.

BASIS FOR USE OF LOUVRED OPENING

Although there was no evidence on hand which proved that such a louvred opening had existed in the east gable end of the Storehouse in the eighteenth century we are justified in assuming that one would have been put there for the purpose of ventilating the loft. Ventilation louvres similar to these have been observed in a number of buildings in Virginia, among which are the storehouse at Brandon; a barn at Port Royal and Bruton Church in Williamsburg, where they are located in the steeple.

FLUSH BOARDS; NAILS AND NAIL HEAD PATTERN

The Storehouse is covered with beaded flush boarding varying in width from about 6" to 10½". This is held to the studding by galvanized iron nails with hand hammered heads, except at the buidling corners and around the window and door openings where 226 copper flashing occurs and where copper nails with hand hammered heads were used.* The nail heads form a pattern of vertical lines which are spaced, roughly, about two feet apart, the positions of the lines being dictated by the locations of the studs. These locations, as we have said, p. 215, were based upon the positions of the stud notches found in the old sill of the building which came down to us.

REASONS FOR USE OF FLUSH SIDING RATHER THAN WEATHERBOARDS

One may inquire why flush boarding was placed on the building when weatherboarding was in such common use in the eighteenth century. In the first place, the brothers Coleman remembered having seen beaded flush boarding on the structure before it was lowered. This, in itself, of course, is not conclusive proof that the building had had this type of siding in colonial times although it is presumptive evidence since a building practice once established is likely to be perpetuated. An even better basis for the flush boarding, perhaps, is the fact that many barns and similar outbuildings in eighteenth century Virginia were covered with it. The reason for this, in all likelihood, was that flush boards, not being split into two wedge sectioned pieces as was weatherboarding, formed a sturdier covering than did the latter for a building which received much rough usage.

EXAMPLES OF OLD OUT-BUILDINGS WITH FLUSH BOARDING

Examples of the use of flush boarding as the covering for old outbuildings in Virginia are plentiful. Since siding is subject to frequent renewal the same question may be asked concerning the validity of these examples as was asked above about 226a the authenticity of the flush boarding which the Coleman brothers saw. The answer is the same, viz., that the covering material found in use, say twenty-five years ago when these buildings were examined and photographed, was probably the same, in most cases, as that which preceded it for generations, back into the eighteenth century.

The following examples, among others, of outbuildings with flush boarding, were recorded photographically in 1929: an outbuilding on the Wythe property; the smokehouse on the Archibald Blair plot and the stable of the Annie Catlett place at Port Royal in Caroline County. Then, of course, the Smokehouse on the Tayloe property itself came down to us with a covering of wide, unbeaded flush boards (p. 192 et seq.).

WOOD STEPS AT EAST ENTRANCE; BASIS FOR THESE

In their statement concerning the building Messrs. George and Tucker Coleman said that they remembered that a small flight of wood steps lead to the entrance door on the east side of the Storehouse. Steps of some description, of course, would have been necessary in any case since the floor level, at present, at least, is about 4'-0" above the ground. Though stone might have been used for the entrance steps of a residence, it would scarcely have been employed in the case of a utilitarian structure like the Storehouse since, because it is not found in Tidewater Virginia, it would have been much too expensive. There were, then, several reasons for providing the east entrance with a flight of wood steps in the reconstruction of the Storehouse.

DESCRIPTION OF STEPS

The steps as built are of a type frequently used in such locations, viz., riserless steps made of boards supported by heavy plank stringers. There are six treads 10½" wide and 1¾" thick, which have, cut out of each end, two 2 ¼" wide tenons which fit into mortises in the stringer, penetrating the full depth of the latter, 1 frac34;". The front edges of the planks are shaped into half round nosings, the diameter of which is 1". The transition between the half round and the flat underside of 228 the tread is effected by a bevel or sloping surface about 2½" in width. The vertical rise from tread to tread is slightly less than 7½". The upper edges of the stringers are decorated by beads ½" in diameter which also runs across the horizontal top parts and their vertical bottom edges. The overall stair width is 4'-2".

RISERLESS STEPS OF PORCHES OF LITTLE ENGLAND

Two sets of steps of the same general character as those of the Storehouse give access to raised covered porches on either side of the old wood wing of Little England of Sara's Creek in Gloucester County. One of these flights of steps is made up of wood members more or less normal in thickness while the other is remarkable for the robustness of the wood elements of which it is composed, the round topped stringers, to judge by their appearance in the photograph is the Colonial Williamsburg files, being 3" or more thick, while the treads are only a little less heavy. An interesting detail of both of these flights of steps is the treatment of the ends of the projecting treads; these are chamfered off at what appears to be a 45° angle.

TRIM STILL TO BE TREATED

The window and door trim have already been discussed. We have still to speak of the cornice and cornice end boards, the rake boards and the corner boards.

CORNICE SIMILAR TO THAT OF KITCHEN; PRECEDENT FOR THIS

The cornice which runs along the eaves on the north and south fronts is exactly like the south cornice of the Tayloe Kitchen (p. 177) except that its projection from the front face of the studding is somewhat greater than that of the Kitchen cornice, the projection of the latter being about 11" and of the former about 1" more. The height of both cornices is about 229 9¾". Like the Kitchen cornice the cornice of the Storehouse is composed, from top to bottom, of a crown mold, fascia, the flat underside or soffit of the upper part of the cornice and a bed mold. These elements are similar to the same parts of the house cornice (see ill., p. 80) but, of course, the Storehouse cornice lacks the modillion blocks which add richness of effect to the latter. Two old examples of modillionless cornices similar in character to those of the Storehouse and Kitchen and which have been studied by Colonial Williamsburg architects are the cornice which existed on Casey's Gift in Williamsburg before the latter was taken down and a cornice observed and sketched by Ernest M. Frank at Liberty Hall, Essex County in 1948.

CORNICE END BOARDS AND RAKE BOARDS

The cornice end boards, like those of the kitchen, are cut to profile the cornice itself. The rake boards, which are continuous with these cornice stops, follow the roof line from the cornice level to the peak of the roof. These are tapered, like those of the Kitchen, being 4¼" at the bottom and 3¾" at the roof peak where they meet. The rake boards are similar in character to those of the house (p. 83) which are composed in part of old and in part new pieces made to resemble the old boards. The boards are beaded along their lower edges from their tops down to their junction with the cornice end boards. Here the bead continues down the vertical inner edges of the end boards.

CORNER BOARDS

The corner boards, against which the flush boarding strikes, are single faced and have their 3 1/8" wide faces on the long sides of the building and their 1 1/8" thick edges on the end facades. Their free edges are beaded. Old corner boards like 230 these are found on the Timson House.

ROOF COVERING

The roof is covered with Ludowici "Georgian" roofing tile with straight butts. These are laid with an exposure of 6½" over asphalt felt. Each tile is secured to the roof sheathing beneath by means of two 2¼" wire nails.

PAINT COLORS

The color scheme which was carried out in the painting of the Storehouse exterior is the following: white (Dri-Wall) for the weatherboarding, trim, the slats of the louvred opening and the stringers of the east steps, and dark brown, #205, for the doors, shutters and window bars. These step treads are painted gray and the door sills are painted dark gray and the door sills are a tope color, #25.

Since the interior is unfinished it was left unpainted and unwhitewashed.

THE TAYLOE STOREHOUSE: INTERIOR

BUILDING INTERIOR HAD BEEN LEFT UNFINISHED

There is no need to discuss the Storehouse interior in detail inasmuch as the building is an exterior restoration. The interior has been left unfinished with the studding and joints uncovered and a gravel floor at the ground or basement level. The buildings has been wired for electricity but piping for heat and water has been omitted.

INTERIOR SPACE UNINTERRUPTED FOR BASEMENT TO ATTIC

The interior presents an interesting appearance and it would lend itself well to living if the necessary heating, bathing and cooking facilities were provided. The circumstance which gives unusual interest to the interior is that normal floor heights have not been adhered to and the space "flows" without interruption from the basement level to the attic.

FIRST FLOOR AND ATTIC ARE BALCONIES REACHED BY LADDERS

The first floor, which is reached by a ladder from the basement, is, in reality, a balcony only occupying something less than a third of the possible floor area at the east end. The east entrance door opens upon this balcony. The attic story, which utilizes about two-thirds of the available area of the buildings, extends (at the level above) from the point where the balcony leaves off to the west wall. It, in turn, is reached from the balcony via a ladder. The basement space below extends two stories to the underside of the floor of the attic. Neither of the two upper levels is closed off by walls, wood railings only having been provided along the edges of these floors where the latter end in open space.

INTERIOR COULD BE CONVERTED TO UNUSUAL DWELLING

These spaces at the three levels are, therefore, continuous and the interior is a single spacial unit. If converted into a 232 dwelling for one or two persons we would have a case of interior design three dimensional to an extent not found in the usual house.