1753 House
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The 1753 House is a hut in the small town of Williamstown in the US state of Massachusetts and a historic landmark in the area. It stands on the western edge of the town in Field Park, the intersection of US Route 7 and Massachusetts Route 2 - and thus at the western end point of the tourist panoramic Mohawk Trail .
Architecture and equipment
It is a simple, small house made of wood shingles with a door and a window to the south, another window to the west and a stone chimney that breaks through the gable roof starting from a fireplace inside on the north side. The windows are protected by shutters . The floor of the lower level, in which there are four chairs next to a roughly crafted oak table, is made of sand and tamped earth. A simple ladder leads up to the second level, which is not completely continuous, but only takes up about half the length of the hut. Around the chimney - in order to utilize its waste heat - some sleeping places are grouped.
Idea and construction phase
The name of the cabin is misleading. In fact, it wasn't built until 1953 to mark the 200th anniversary of Williamstown. For the construction, however, only materials and tools were used that had already been used by British settlers when the city was founded in 1753 . At that time, every newcomer was instructed to make five acres of land usable and to build a house on it with a floor area of at least 4.57 × 5.48 meters.
In the run-up to the construction phase, it was first necessary to determine a location for the hut. The final decision was based mainly on the fact that the targeted place had geographical coincidences with numerous relevant places of the earliest settlement:
- It is close to the place where the first hut was built in 1753
- It is the center of the area in which the somewhat more comfortable houses were built from the 1760s
- It is only a few meters away from the location of the former first stone school building from 1763
- It is located immediately west of the first meeting house built in 1768 and its successor from 1798
- It lies along the street where the first tavern was opened in 1762
- It is in the area of the first seven houses built
The beginning of the work was preceded by long, extensive research in order to get as accurate as possible to the huts of the first settlers, both in architectural aspects and in the construction methods. At the same time, however, it was found that numerous relevant facts could not be found out, which is why an attempt was made to approach the work technique of the time to the best of our knowledge. Under the direction of Henry N. Flynt Jr. began the first tree felling work in February 1953. On the weekends, volunteers cut ash , American white oak and Weymouth pines with rough axes in the White Oaks area, from which the built-in trees also came in the settler days . The wood was then processed into the required parts, mostly beams. With the help of a splitting hammer and a coarse knife with a wedge-shaped blade , the so-called "Frow", about 700 shingles were made from ash wood for roofing and 1000 for facade cladding. This work step was by far the most time-consuming of the entire hut construction. As in colonial days, the actual house construction did not begin until June - that is, in the mostly constant, warmer and drier season. In July, 32 men erected the load-bearing frame made of sturdy oak, the individual beams of which are held together by one- inch pegs. On rafters made of pine wood, light, thin roof girders lie on which the shingles have been fastened with hand-drawn nails . These were then sealed - both on the roof and on the outer walls - with a mixture of clay and straw to make the building weatherproof. The foundation consists of unhewn stones that were embedded in loam and clay, and the oak lintel above the fireplace is both solid enough and built at a sufficient height that it suffers only slight damage from soot and heat over the decades . The chimney was formed from the stone foundations of the first Williamstown sawmill. The stones were first drained and then the joints were filled with loam and clay. The opening of the chimney through the roof turned out to be extremely complicated, as it did not end seamlessly with the roof shingles and any rainwater could have penetrated through small open crevices around it. To remedy this problem, the diameter of the chimney in the area of the opening was increased so that rainwater is now carried over the inclined stone surface over the sealing joints. The last step was the manufacture of the furniture. Around 108 volunteers ultimately invested around 1500 hours of work in the construction of the hut. Another 15 volunteers contributed material, such as wood or old hinges , free of charge . It is believed that two hundred years earlier, the settlers would have needed around 1000 hours of work to complete a structurally identical hut.
Recent history
On the night of September 22, 1953, the headlights were switched on, which illuminated the finished hut in the dark. Three days later, more than 500 residents of Williamstown celebrated the official inauguration of the building, which they had painstakingly built by hand, on September 25th from 5 p.m. On this occasion - according to the old traditions of the settlers - a public test of the strength and security of the door took place. For this purpose, Norman B. McWilliams fired a musket ball , while the superintendent of Williams College , Peter Welanetz, disguised as an Indian , shot an arrow into the door with a bow . This withstood the tests. On October 3, the last day of the anniversary celebrations, visited the governor of Massachusetts , Christian Herter of, accompanied by Congressman John W. Heselton the hut and sat-around. In 1972 the roof shingles had to be partially replaced and the fireplace was also renewed. Nowadays the hut is an important cultural venue and, among other things, the setting for outdoor theater performances . For example, Arthur Miller's drama Witch Hunt was presented in November 2006 . In addition, since 1974 there has been an annual Christmas carol singing organized in mid-December . However, this was canceled in 2010 due to the structural deterioration of the chimney and the associated risk of accidents. With financial support from the Community Preservation Committee , the repair was carried out very quickly. In addition, the hut is adorned with the logo of the “Williamstown House of Local History”, which is aimed at local history research and education.
Individual evidence
- ↑ “1753 House chimney deemed unsafe; carol sing canceled "in The Transcript , December 10, 2010
Web links
Coordinates: 42 ° 42 ′ 49.2 " N , 73 ° 12 ′ 37.7" W.