DATED HOUSES
Reading edition
Many exterior features assist in suggesting the approximate date or origin of an old house and a knowledge of what is behind the exterior would allow a more accurate conclusion. But this information is not needed for our purposes.
We would like to say, however, that fixing a precise year date for the building of a house is most difficult here in Nantucket, just as it has been found to be, for those attempting to do so, in respect to old houses at off-island locations. There is no evidence of building material being derived from trees growing on this Island except by the early settlers. Statements found in early writings speak of house frames being brought from the mainland. There is knowledge of much timber and lumber and shingles being brought, principally from Maine, but also from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Packets made frequent voyages to Maine in the early days. Even firewood was brought from the mainland. Hence, second-hand building material was saved and used again and even again, including window-sash and doors. Houses were frequently moved in whole or in part. There are many larger and more expensive houses on the sites of smaller, older ones. Occasionally houses were removed to make room for lawns and to give more light and air to the remaining houses. In the years after the decline and demise of the whaling industry, great numbers were taken down and the material shipped away, often to distant points, or used for local firewood. As an illustration, Messrs. George C. Gardner and Allen Smith are reported to have taken down some 270 houses during a decade or more after the Civil War, many being sent to Cape Cod, at times cut into bays and shipped on deck.
Old Deeds and Wills record a certain lot of land “with house thereon.” Frequently, this causes the present-day owner to willingly assume that his present “house thereon” is the same. The number of houses out of this 319, where evidence could be adduced which would stand in a court of law, showing the year in which the existing house was built, are very few. But what of it, so long as we do not fool ourselves. The error in fixing the precise date of the building of a house is well described by Worth in Nant. Hist. Assn. V. 2, Bul. 5, which might be read to advantage by those who set much store in exact dates.