[MassHistPres] Brick nogging

[Jonathan Shaw]

My family home, a 2 1/2 storey Victorian in the Italian Villa style (side-gabled roof on a symmetrical center entrance plan featuring a shallow projecting centered gable, and braced timbered construction) was built in 1857 in Sandwich, MA. It was built for my great-grandmother, Mary Waterman, and her first husband. John Jarves. There is brick nogging on all first floor exterior walls. Family history, orally transmitted, states that this was installed to preserve the health of John Jarves who had consumption [turberculosis]. He died of the disease in 1863. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the John and Mary Waterman Jarves House. I prepared the nomination papers, and I cannot recall now if I included mention in the submission of  the brick nogging on all first floor exterior walls. I have just made an google search for brick nogging, and one source states it was a European practice which was brought to the US early in the 19th century.

Jonathan Shaw


On Feb 2, 2010, at 10:50 PM, d-mountain at comcast.net wrote:

> There has been considerable speculation about the purpose of brick nogging and back plastering in recent days but has anyone found a period reference to the practice?  We know now that air spaces provide insulation and dense products like brick are good for thermal mass  but you need both to create an energy efficient dwelling.  I'm curious about what the builders of these early homes thought that they were accomplishing with these various practices of filling the void between the exterior and interior wall.
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