{"id":10830,"date":"2023-08-21T15:23:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-21T19:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/?p=10830"},"modified":"2023-08-25T15:29:03","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T19:29:03","slug":"renovating-a-1721-building-and-what-we-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/2023\/08\/renovating-a-1721-building-and-what-we-found\/","title":{"rendered":"Renovating a 1721 building, and what we found"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\u2019re completing the final stage of renovations on our historic buildings. The renovation began in 2021 with extensive repairs to the 1747 Meeting House. Now we\u2019re working on repairing the crumbling facade of the Parish House, which was built in 1721 by Nehemiah Hobart, the first minister of First Parish. The Livingstone Company arrived today to begin work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we ran into a big surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The front facade was wood milled to resemble masonry blocks. Here\u2019s a 1936 photo showing the facade (click on any photo to see a larger image):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Detail
1936 Historic American Building Survey photo of the 1721 Nehemiah Hobart House in Cohasset<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But there was something completely different underneath that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the existing cladding, we found old clapboards. So the front facade was originally covered with clapboards!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only that, but the clapboards that were uncovered may be the original 1721 clapboards. They\u2019re attached to the house with what may be hand-made cut nails with forged heads. Each clapboard is about three and a half feet long, and the butt ends are feathered where they overlap. The outer faces of these old clapboards are well weathered, and it appears that they were never painted. [Update, 8\/22: A neighbor stopped by who has a graduate degree in historic architecture. He believes the clapboards are pre-Revolutionary War, but later than 1721. He believes they’re from the 1760s.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some photos to show you what we found:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The front of the Parish House showing the remaining original clapboards<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Close-up
Detail showing how the butt ends of the clapboards are carefully overlapped<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were some more surprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the clapboards, the spaces between the frame of the house were filled with old brick and mortar (called “nogging”). Some of the bricks appear to be quite old \u2014 not the modern water-struck brick, but irregular bricks that may have been hand-made. This apparently served as insulation and\/or fireproofing for the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Close-up
The old clapboards nailed to the house frame, with bricks and mortar under the clapboards \u2014 you can also see the back side of the lath and plaster of the inside the house<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And there were still more surprises in store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the triangular pediments over the first floor windows were removed, it appears that the original opening was for taller windows. We were pretty sure that the windows on the front facade were not original (the sash appear to date from the nineteenth century), and this may confirm that supposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could also see where the ends of the floor joists for the second floor were mortised into the girt or cross-wise beam. Notice how the original window frame apparently went right up to the girt, and the opening has been blocked in with a piece of lumber that is machine sawn, not hand hewn. This means the original first floor windows were probably significantly taller than the existing ones. And you can see a builder\u2019s mark, \u201cXII,\u201d which would have indicated which beam went with which post when erecting the finished posts and beams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Close-up
Above the window just to the left of the front door \u2014 the builder\u2019s mark is chiseled into the girt above the left edge of the window<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re now in the process of consulting with the Cohasset Historic District Commission. We received a permit from them based on replacing wood milled to mimic stone. But it\u2019s now clear that this was a much later addition to the building. (I\u2019m guessing it was added at least a hundred years after the house was built, i.e., in the nineteenth century.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, it has been an exciting day today, as we learned a lot more about our historic 1721 Parish House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll include a couple more photos below, for those who can\u2019t get enough of historic buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click to read the follow-up post….<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Close-up
A section of the clapboards<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Corner bracing near the front door<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Crossposted.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re completing the final stage of renovations on our historic buildings. The renovation began in 2021 with extensive repairs to the 1747 Meeting House. Now we\u2019re working on repairing the crumbling facade of the Parish House, which was built in 1721 by Nehemiah Hobart, the first minister of First Parish. The Livingstone Company arrived today … Continue reading “Renovating a 1721 building, and what we found”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[845],"tags":[1051],"class_list":["post-10830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-se-massachusetts","tag-historic-architecture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10830"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10862,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10830\/revisions\/10862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}