[MassHistPres] Hip roof barns, tithing barns, plank houses

[Dennis De Witt]

Jim

I'm not sure this is the best venue for your interesting questions.   
You might want to also try the Vernacular Architecture Forum listserve.

As it happens the VAF-NE's Winter meeting at Sturbridge got snowed  
out earlier this and is delayed until April 19.  The program is below.

Might be a good place for networking.

Dennis De Witt




NEW DATE!
***If you registered for the postponed 1 March event, see  
registration instructions below.***

The Early Historians of New England's Architectural Heritage

New England Chapter of the Vernacular Architecture Forum

Winter Meeting

19 April 2008

Old Sturbridge Village

8:45 - 9:15
Registration & Coffee

9:15 - 9:30
Welcome & Introduction - Bill Flynt, VAF-NE President

9:30-10:20
Tom Denenberg (Portland Museum of Art), ""Preservation and Profit:  
Wallace Nutting and the Chain of Colonial Pictures Houses"

Wallace Nutting (1861-1941) played a key role in the early  
preservation movement in New England as the owner of his eponymous  
"Chain of Colonial
Picture Houses."  A Congregational minister turned author,  
photographer, and successful entrepreneur, Nutting served as the  
principal authority on early
American design in the opening decades of the twentieth century and  
played an important role in the development of a colonial revival  
aesthetic and
ideology in the United States.  He collected, reproduced, and  
marketed colonial artifacts, and the goods and experiences he offered  
his middle-class customers-often sold at individual structures within  
the "chain" promoted his idealized notions of a time and place that  
he called "Old America."

10:20-11:00
Arnold Robinson (Newport Collaborative Architects), "Norman Isham:  
Rhode Island's Early Preservation Architect"

The work of Norman Isham in documenting and saving many of southern  
New England's important colonial buildings is well-known in modern  
preservation
and architectural circles. As a trained architect, Isham brought an  
unusually methodical approach to his projects; however, there has not  
been a great deal documented about the man himself or about his  
philosophies and techniques as they evolved over the late-19th and  
early 20th centuries.

11:00 - 11:50
Tim Orwig (Boston University)"The Architect as Historian: Restoration  
Architecture of Joseph Everett Chandler"

Criticized for his early restorations, including the Paul Revere  
House and House of the Seven Gables, new research reveals that Joseph  
Everett Chandler
was not only a working architect who photographed and documented  
historic buildings, but was also prolific Colonial Revival architect,  
museum planner,
and architectural historian.

11:50 - 12:20
VAF-NE Annual Meeting

12:00 - 1:15
Lunch

1:15 - 2:00
Kathleen Curran (Trinity College), "Displaying American Decorative  
Arts: George Francis Dow's Period Rooms In International Context"

George Francis Dow's American interiors, which opened in 1907 in  
Salem's Essex Institute, are often considered among the earliest  
period rooms in the
United States. This talk places Dow's achievement in the context of  
displays of national art in European museums with which he was  
familiar.  Long viewed
as an "antiquarian," Dow was, in fact, among a small coterie of  
Americans who were aware of advanced methods of museum display in  
Europe.  His period
rooms were an attempt to bring modern exhibition techniques to the  
American museum.

2:00 - 2:50
Sara Butler (Roger Williams University), "Antiquarians and  
Economics:  The Invention of Cushing's Island"

Cushing's Island's picturesque landscape, dotted with Romantic  
Shingle Style cottages, is an artfully crafted nineteenth-century  
fiction.   This little-known project, located in the harbor at  
Portland, Maine, is the fruit of a surprisingly luminous  
collaboration between the most famous landscape architect of the day,  
Frederick Law Olmsted, and noted local luminaries, including Portland  
architect, John Calvin Stevens, antiquarian William M. Sergeant, and  
developer Francis Cushing.   Invented pasts collided with market  
forces in the process of inventing Cushing's Island.

2:50 - 3:45
Panel Discussion with Speakers, Moderator: Pieter Roos, (Newport  
Restoration Foundation)

Join the speakers in a panel discussion, moderated by Newport  
Restoration Foundation Executive Director Pieter Roos, to explore  
more about New
England's early historians, architects and antiquarians.  What are  
the implications of their research and practice for our understanding  
of early New England's architectural legacy?

________________________________________________________________________ 
________________________________________________
WHAT IS THE VAF?  The Vernacular Architecture Forum was founded in  
1980 to encourage the study and preservation of all aspects of  
vernacular
architecture and landscapes, through interdisciplinary and  
multidisciplinary methods.  The VAF publishes a quarterly newsletter  
and a series, Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, a journal  
Buildings & Landscapes, and awards the Abbott Lowell Cummings Award,  
for the best book in North American vernacular architecture; the Paul  
Buchanan Award, for excellence in fieldwork and interpretation, and  
the Henry Glassie Award, for special achievements in and  
contributions to the field of vernacular architecture. Its annual  
meetings, which emphasize intensive tours, are among its most  
distinctive traditions.  The VAF has recently begun to develop  
regional and topical chapters, and for over ten years New England's  
chapter has sponsored a number of field trips, workshops on building  
analysis, and this conference.  Membership in the New England Chapter  
is a free benefit of VAF membership for those in the six New England  
states and members receive
regular notification of Chapter activities.  To join, send your name,  
address, and dues to Gabrielle Lanier, P.O. Box 1511, Harrisonburg,  
VA 22801-1511.  $45 active member, $25 student.  For more information  
about the VAF, visit our web site at http:// 
www.vernaculararchitectureforum.org.

Directions to Old Sturbridge Village:  Old Sturbridge Village is  
located in the town of Sturbridge, MA, near the intersection of Route  
90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike) and Route 84.  Make your way to Route  
90/Mass Pike and take Sturbridge exit 9, which will be marked for Old  
Sturbridge Village with the brown signs used to indicate historic  
sites and parks.  After paying your toll, take the first right onto  
Route 20 west and follow the signs.  You will need to take the jug- 
handle on the right to make the left turn into the Village.  Park in  
the Village lot.  Then follow the path from the parking lot past the  
Tavern and the Bookstore on the left and the Visitors Center on the  
right.  The Conference Center is just past the Visitors Center on the  
right.

Weather: Since the Village is located on major roadways, we hope not  
to have to cancel, whatever the weather.  But if you are in doubt,  
you can call
508-347-3362 and an answering machine message will let you know if we  
have decided the predictions are too dire.

Lunch: You may order sandwiches, drinks, etc. for an informal lunch  
at the Conference Center, available for $12. A la carte options may  
also be
available at the Bullard Tavern in the historic area of the Village.
________________________________________________________________________ 
____________________________
***If you registered for the postponed 1 March meeting and plan to  
attend the rescheduled event, you need only re-register by email
(ldriemeyer at verizon.net) as we still have your registration form and  
payment.***

Please register in advance. We need an estimate of participants.

Send registration material to: VAF-New England, Preservation Studies  
Program, Boston University, 226 Bay State Road, Boston MA  02215

Name:___________________________________


Affiliation:_____________________________

Mailing
Address:________________________________________________________________ 
____

Phone:__________________ e-mail:___________________

VAF member $10 _____. Non-member $18 _____. Student $8 ______. Lunch  
$12 ______

VAF-New England operates primarily through donated funds and  
services.  Your additional contribution will help us to continue our  
program
of field trips and winter meetings.

Students should include a photocopy of their student ID.


Please make check payable to VAF-NE.

TOTAL ENCLOSED: ________
******************************
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On Mar 26, 2008, at 11:55 AM, jim_derby at verizon.net wrote:

> Hi Everyone;
>
> I am a restoration carpenter who is serious about studying historic  
> carpentry in general with a specific interest in my state of  
> residence, Maine. I would like to post several of my areas of  
> interest in this one email with hopes of learning more and  
> connecting with people of similar interest. I am a member of the  
> Traditional Timber Frame Research and Advisory Group (TTRAG) and  
> have started a similar, volunteer group here in Maine to focus on  
> Maine buildings called the Maine Traditional Building Research  
> Group (MTBRG).
>
> I have become aware that there are hip-roof barns in Maine but none  
> in New Hampshire and only one in Maryland. What other areas are hip  
> roof barns found?
>
> There were Mormon tithing offices in every Mormon settlement,  
> sometimes with barns and/or granaries to store tithed crops. There  
> are or were tithe barns near Quebec, also. Very little is known  
> about tithe barns in North America. Can anyone speak to this topic?  
> Where were any pre-twentieth century Mormon settlements in the East  
> where a tithe barn could still exist?
>
> Plank houses are widespread, though usually low in numbers.  
> Plymouth Plantation may have been the point of origin of (European)  
> plank houses in North America. They are concentrated from the  
> Boston area south to perhaps Rhode Island(?), but can be found in  
> most states. They have the nickname "boxed construction" in the  
> south and may have been referred to as balloon construction before  
> the well known type of stick framing took that name in the 1830s.  
> Are there any plank building experts out there? There are several  
> ways to build plank houses and double or triple boarded houses:  
> could you share some building methods you are aware of from your  
> areas?
>
> There are so many unanswered questions!
>
> Thank you;
> Jim Derby
> (207) 832-0635
>
> ******************************
> For administrative questions regarding this list, please contact  
> Christopher.Skelly at state.ma.us directly.  PLEASE DO NOT "REPLY" TO  
> THE WHOLE LIST.
> MassHistPres mailing list
> MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
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> ********************************