DETAILS OF OLD HOUSES

Back Side or Rear of Houses. Fortunately most of these are not seen from the street, due to the proximity of adjacent houses. This is the first place for extensions and additions, such as a first floor kitchen with its small chimney, more sleeping rooms, and if one must or needs, and the compass points allow, a “sun parlor,” a columned piazza, French doors, wide dormers, even (but we hope not) the dormer room in the rear roof, and pergolas. If understanding care is exercised, part of this can be well done.

Roof Coverings. Regret it as one may, but quite properly under the fire ordinances, wood shingle roofs are fast disappearing, with the shadow lines cast by the thick shingle butts. It is, however, feasible to use individual non-inflammable shingles of dark gray or black which are inconspicuous, and if one has the price and inclination and strength of rafters, an asbestos reproduction of old shingles, absolutely faithful to type and attractive, is available and should be employed, as see the house at 86 Centre Street.

White Trim. We venture to make note of the largely prevailing present custom of painting white the exterior trim of houses, including particularly the window casings, referring only to the houses where the exterior walls are not painted white but are of shingles, weathered gray. This has the effect of outlining the windows and the edges of the facades with extreme emphasis. Attention is directed to those weathered gray shingled houses where, instead, the trim has been painted in harmony and not in sharp contrast to the gray. For this purpose some shades of gray paint have been used, and in some of the older houses a dull brown. The owner of such a gray shingled house, planning to re-paint the exterior, should look at the examples referred to and consider whether they would please his taste. In the early days of paint a red color was used, doubtless appearing as a dull reddish brown. In altering very old houses it has been found on the exterior of the beveled boards which were the outside of the wall when no shingles or clapboards were used.

Blinds. The louvered (slanted slat) blinds on exterior walls at windows and front doors began to come into use about 1840. They certainly do dress up a house but otherwise have little or no use at Nantucket. A really old house is in the best of taste without them and with a saving of expense. Always (on an old house) they should be painted a dark green. The earliest were quite heavy, without moveable louvers. Most now in existence are lighter weight and usually with tilting slats, an unnecessary provision. Solid paneled shutters, general in many parts of the country, as at Philadelphia, were not used at Nantucket.

Conductors. Fortunately, modern sheet metal down spouts from gutters to take the water down to or under ground are inconspicuous. They have been freely used to replace the older spouts which have decayed. It is, however, feasible, desirable and quite inexpensive to replace with wooden down spouts of either circular or square section like the originals.

Front Doorway. This opening into the house was closed by a door of six raised panels with flush mouldings, the topmost pair of panels small, and very seldom taken out and replaced with glass. A characteristic of these doors was that the middle rail was wide, almost 10”, with the bottom rail much narrower. Many of the old doorways had no glass about them, but as time advanced glass was used across the top of the doorway, spoken of as a top light or transom, and glass was employed vertically on either side of the door, known as sidelights. Very infrequently at Nantucket the muntins of the top light radiate from the center to either a circular or oval top, known as a fanlight.

Architectural ornamentation on the exterior wall surrounding the doorway, known as the frontispiece, was not employed in the older houses, many of which had plain plank frames with a header, but after the Revolution the frontispiece came more and more into use, but even then was not highly ornate. Many frontispieces now seen on the old houses were added in the period from 1800 to 1850 and followed the designs in English architectural books. Recessed doorways appeared in the classic period, accompanied by fewer panels and heavier mouldings. Plain double-boarded outside doors were undoubtedly used in the oldest houses. Paneled doors appeared in Nantucket probably about 1730.

Entry. The modern name for this is vestibule. Reference is to the enclosed projection over the front door infrequently found on the old houses. This had a gable roof and sometimes side windows. It generally entered directly into the stairway hall or, in older times, into the kitchen. It usually occurred that entries were not constructed with the original house but added subsequently.

Windows. At Nantucket, prior to about 1720, leaded panes were used. From then on to around 1790 small panes, about 5” × 7”, were used with wooden muntins, and mostly three lights wide. From about 1790 to about 1825 glass was generally about 7” × 9” with 24 lights, except that many narrow panes were used with less number of lights. Muntins grew smaller as time advanced. From about 1825 on, 12 lights were mostly used, with 8” × 10” and 10” × 14” glass, almost invariably 3 lights wide. The large panes (sheet glass) came into general use soon after the Civil War, about 1865, using one or two such panes to a sash. While our census shows in the old houses a large proportion having but 12 panes to a front window, it is a fact that in a majority of these houses part or all of the side windows and the rear windows are apt to be of 24 panes. Therefore at some period the front windows had been replaced to conform to the even then changing mode and the improved financial status of the owner, or frequently second-hand material was employed in building a new house, when old multi-paned sash was used at the rear and the sides while new 6-light sash were built for the front.

Window frames on old houses were of plank and projected from the wall. See drawings No. 14 and No. 15. It is most important to faithfully continue this practice in all alterations and new construction. The Nantucket carpenters are accustomed to make such frames.

Roof Walks. You will observe from quotations of old writings to be found later in this book that they were most frequent. They are not today, our analysis showing but 35 in a total of 319 houses. It has been stated that after the decline of whaling these walks were taken down when they got out of repair and since they no longer served a useful purpose. They were called “walks,” and for the purpose of identification they are here spoken of as roof walks. How the late William F. Macy decried their being called “captains’ walks” or “widows’ walks!”

High Basements. The massive chimneys were frequently of large area at the lowest level. This was for a bake oven and cooking fireplace, located in the basement. These basements extended several feet above and below the ground level, with ample windows, generally four panes high, and contained the kitchen, sometimes spoken of as the winter kitchen. The basements were sheltered from the wind and cold during the winter season.

Cupolas and Roof Balustrades. These were not employed here until about 1800, mostly 1830 to 1860, and are not much in evidence.

“95% Perfect.” Manifestly this was a generalization to crystallize an impression, yet our census analysis of 365 houses in the old districts shows but 46 modern or mixed type, intermingled; say 12½%. On the old houses we find various added modern detractions, frequently several kinds on one house, but many of them not serious. So let us estimate that these old-district dwellings are still 85% perfect—an astonishingly large percentage of unharmed oldness to be found in this day and generation in over 400 closely grouped houses. We have much to be thankful for.