Hartwell Tavern-217' (Concord) (42.4548168, -71.2956134)
Description : Trips : References : Pictures
Description:
An interesting question from the NPS site
Why is the kitchen ceiling so low? Were people much shorter back then?
No, there was a great variation in height back then, as today. George Washington was 6'3." The average height in the 18th c. was about 1" shorter than today's average. Just like today, tall people got used to bending when they went from the higher-ceiling rooms like the tavern room into a back kitchen lean-to area.
Notice the kitchen is on the north side of the house, the side that gets the cold winds in winter. Low ceilings keep in the heat. Also, to minimize the wall exposure on the north side, many New England houses were built in a "Saltbox" style-- the long slanted roof sometimes even going all the way to the ground to protect the house from the cold north wind. Because of the low slant, the loft above the kitchen would have no headspace at all if the kitchen ceiling were any higher. The southern exposure (the front of the house) has the most windows, to maximize solar heat. Modern home-builders could learn much from these 18th c. houses about energy conservation.
From GNIS: Lexington and Concord. Lowell, Massachusetts: Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau, n.d.
Trips:
- October 18, 2018-Go to cousin in Canton, Connecticut
- NPS site
- Information on the Hartwell's
- National Park Planner
- NPS Hartwell Houses report
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