Room 001, Cellar History
The cellar contains elements of original construction, changes made when Col. Samuel enlarged the cel- lar to the east, and many subsequent repairs. Support of the first floor is now maintained by a combination of deteriorated older beams, recent sis- tering, and added posts.
In the original cellar, major timbers ran south to north, and joists ran east to west between the beams and the foundation walls or the chimney foundation. In the crawl space under the west addition, sleepers ran east to west again between the founda- tion walls and the chimney founda- tion, while sills sat completely inde- pendent of and above this framing on the outer part of the foundation walls. Original sills survive in sev- eral places: along the south wall of the west addition, though the outer face of that sill was removed and replaced with new wood in 2002;
along the west wall of the house to the kitchen, though new sections were spliced in in 2003; along part of the north wall of the west room;
and along the north wall of the mid- dle room as seen in the lean-to hall- way. An old, if not original, sill sur- vives along the east side of the kitchen.55
Col. Samuel Pierce enlarged the cel-
lar so that it extended to the east wall of his addition. He apparently removed the beam at the east end wall of the earlier cellar, and added a new north/south beam under the transverse sum- mer beam above. He then added a new north sill on the inner edge of the foundation to support the floor of the enlarged east room, and he added a new east/west beam at the center of the cel- lar ceiling under his new east room. That beam was attached to the north-south beam under the transverse summer beam by a dovetail joint. Joists
Figure V. 22. Raised north sill of the original house, as seen in the cellar. Note flat chamfer and triangular stop at the edge of the beam.
Figure V. 23. Crawl space below the west addition of c. 1700.
Original sleeper with floor boards laid over it is at the center of the picture. Original north sill, with floor boards running up to it is in the darkened area on the extreme right of the photo.
Room 001 through Room 110: Cellar and First Floor
ran north and south from the new beam under the east room. When the floor was later par- tially replaced in the east room, the east-west beam was removed, but the joists framed into it remain, now serving little function (Figure V.26).
More framing details can be seen next to the stairs to the cellar. The front-to-rear beam under the lean-to floor (probably the east end sill of the lean-to before the east addition was constructed in 1765) is visible below the rear (north) sill that Col. Pierce installed. The new sill, as seen in the stair well to the cellar, is angled on the back, almost like a chimney lin- tel for at least some distance, for unknown reasons. Several pieces of evidence show that
Figure V. 24. Dovetail joint cut into the top of the beam in the cellar under the transverse summer beam in the parlor (Room 103). The joint was likely cut by Col. Sam- uel Pierce to tie his east addition to the original structure.
Figure V. 25. Cellar under east room (Room 104), showing c.1765 joists left in place when the timber running from the dovetail joint described in Figure V. 24 to the east wall was removed (the removed timber was at the center of this view). Note new joists put in place to support the replaced floor in the center of the east room.
Figure V. 26. Junction of the north sill of the original house cut off for access to the cellar stairs (center of the photograph), end sill of the lean-to slipped under it, and empty pocket for removed joist.
the stairs to the cellar had a different configuration originally: the sill has been cut off just be- yond a joist pocket (joist still in place), leaving about a quarter inch of wood beyond the pocket.
In addition, the stud at this point in the back wall of the original house has a mortice and the remnants of a descending brace cut to allow access to the stairs.
The foundation walls, probably dry laid originally, have had their joints covered with mortar.
Parts of the floor of the cellar have been covered with cement. A coal bin was constructed in the northeast corner probably in the nineteenth century.
Inventory of Original and Current Architectural Elements and Existing Conditions 2001 and 2004
Room 001, Cellar
Element
Original Element
Current Element and Date, if Known
Existing Condition of Element 2001
Existing Con- dition of Ele- ment 2004
Framing Beams, joists, sleepers and sills
Original beams, joists and sills survive in places from 1683, c.1712 and 1765; there are also many later rein- forcing timbers
Evidence of powder post beetle infestation in original framing, new supports appear sound, supporting post is rust- ing
Same; infesta- tion inactive
Floor Probably dirt Cement in places, date of 1955 incised in the cement in front of the furnace
Sound, but uneven Same; moisture during heavy rains
Walls Roughly faced random rubble, dry laid
Same walls with mortar added in the joints
Sound, some mortar loss Same
Ceiling Framing and ceiling boards, whitewashed
Assorted framing and ceiling boards, some metal coverings near furnace, various dates
Fair, generations of utili- ties attached to ceiling and framing
Same
Windows Some kind of small win- dows in window wells on the front and possibly side walls. Window opening in the front wall was originally longer than the others are.
New or reconditioned cellar windows, some with wire mesh within the glass, 2001
Good Same
Special Features
Furnace; coal bin Water infiltration evi-
dent
New furnace, 2003
Room 101, West Room, Dining Room
This room was built as part of the west addition of c. 1712 and remodeled in the eighteenth century.
In the Georgian remodeling certain original elements, such as the exposed summer beam and chimney girt, were retained and integrated effectively into the new design. In 1768, Col. Samuel Pierce=s sisters were given exclusive use of the rooms on the west side of the house. The cooking implements listed in the west lower room in the inventory of that year suggest that the fireplace may have been fitted for cooking at that time.56 In April of 1785, after he had become sole owner of the house, Col. Samuel refurbished the west room by applying new plaster, paint and wallpaper. In the twentieth century and very likely before, the room served as the dining room.
Anne Shaughnessey said in an interview that there is a large space behind the current small fireplace, AThey said that seven men could fit in behind that panel in the dining room.”57 Recent examination of the chimney after removal of the grate at the back of the current fireplace confirms that the large firebox of the c. 1712 fireplace is preserved inside the chimney stack. This space might be the Ahiding place@ that tradition
ascribes to the house, which was supposedly accessed from above.
Appearance of the Room Over Time
Original Appearance
This room, built well within the period when post medieval or First Period architecture prevailed, would have exhibited features similar to those in the original house. A fireplace, much larger in dimensions than the current one, was present on the east wall. The recess around the
fireplace, in fact, defines the extent of the original fireplace. The plaster cove above may have been part of the original configuration of the fireplace (evidence of such a cove remains behind the chimney breast in Room 103 where portions of the fireplace as rebuilt c. 1712 can be seen through the closest). The inside of the c. 1712 firebox can be viewed through the back of the present fireplace. It had curved jambs like its counterpart in the parlor and was parged on the interior. The original very large fireplace lintel, at least twelve inches in height remains in place, visible under the stairs from the cellar. Other original features still visible in the room are the ceiling beams, and in the northwest closet, parts of the original raised sills. Work done in 2002 on the south elevation and 2003 on the west elevation exposed early if not the original paint evidence on the front and end girts:
salmon/orange paint, most likely red lead, painted in circles on the underside and along the chamfer.
Figure V. 27. View of the east wall in the west room.
Eighteenth Century Changes, c. 1785?
Like Room 103, this room was updated in the eighteenth century to conform to contemporary Georgian taste. The updating may have taken place after Col. Samuel Pierce (1739-1815) gained control of this part of the house. The west part of the house was inherited by his three unmarried sisters in 1768 to be occupied by them until they married. Rebecca did not marry, but died in 1778; Sarah and Anne married in 1773. Samuel Pierce noted work on the west room in his journal in 1785:
Mar. 29: I plaster our west room April 1: I Built our oven a New58
April 10: ...we move into our room after it is New Painted...
Aug. 22:. I finish and paper our west room
The work done in the Georgian period, whether or not it can be absolutely linked to Samuel Peirce=s journal entries in 1785, included furring out the south and west walls to hide the exposed sills and corner posts, plastering the ceiling, installing the cornice moldings along the walls and beams. This is the only room for which we have a reference to the installation of wallpaper in this period. As in Room 103, the beams were left exposed, but Georgian crown moldings were applied to them. What may have been done to the fireplace at this period is unknown.
Nineteenth Century Changes
Hints of a partial updating survive. The door to the hallway is a mid-nineteenth century door.
The architrave of this door has the same paint stratigraphy as the door indicating that it was installed at the same time. One minor deviation in the paint layers between the door and its surround suggests that, in the third repainting, these elements received a polychrome treatment in different, but related paint colors.59 The baseboards with a beveled top are consistent with mid-nineteenth century design, and were perhaps installed in conjunction with changes to the fireplace and other updatings in the nineteenth century. The grate and red-glazed hearth tiles may date from late nineteenth century or early twentieth century.
The closets in the northwest corner of the room are of uncertain history. The doors are
eighteenth-century doors and have as their upper paint layers the same sequence as is found on the hall door and architrave. Each has a distinct series of paint layers below the common upper layers. The evidence suggests that the doors have been in the room since the mid-nineteenth century, but possibly in different locations. Since their earlier paint layers do not match, one if not both, doors are not original to this space. More detailed paint research on the closets= outer walls and interior surfaces is necessary to clarify the chronology of the closets= construction.60 From the cellar, the back of a door south of the fireplace can be seen. The door was perhaps reused as a nailer for lath and plaster at some point.
Twentieth Century Changes
The floor of three-and-one-half-inch-wide tongue-in-groove boards was installed before 1910, an historic photograph shows. The moldings were applied to the flat wooden surround of the firebox by Mrs. Shaughnessey=s father in 1929.61 The pre-1910 photo shows the surround covered with wallpaper without the moldings. The door to the kitchen is a twentieth century door.
Building Element Description and Assessment
Framing
Framing in the west room shows displays the typical hierarchy of decorative treatment. The exposed summer beam is eleven inches wide and has a one- and-one-half-inch flat chamfer, lamb=s tongue stop and one pip. The chimney girt is also exposed and has similar flat chamfers and lamb=s tongue stops at each end and on either side of the summer beam. The corner post, visible in the closet
in the northwest corner, has an inch-wide flat chamfer and triangular stop. The raised sills are also visible in this closet. Elsewhere in the room the sills are hidden behind the furred out walls. A portion of the north girt is also visible in the east closet and has an inch-wide flat chamfer. Two pins, two feet apart, are visible in the north girt in the east closet, just about centered on the room (perhaps for studs for a rear doorway or window). The west end girt and front girt are now concealed.
Floor
Three-and-one-half-inch wide tongue-in-groove softwood flooring installed before 1910, an historic photo indicates.
Walls
Plaster, hard to tell if they have ever been redone. Exterior work on the south and west
elevations revealed two walls, the earlier riven lath and plaster, the later, furred out beyond the exposed sills, sawn lath and plaster.
Figure V. 28. Detail of the c. 1700 summer beam and chimney girt. Note the carefully-crafted stops on the summer beam, the stops on the chimney girt on either side of the junction with the summer beam (a refinement sometimes seen in 17th-century houses), and the cornice molding applied in the 18th century along the upper edge of the beams.
Dado cap None
Baseboard
Baseboards are six inches high and approximately one- and-one half inches deep with a bevel along the top on the west, south, part of the north walls, and rear part of the east wall, where it has a mitered return at the fireplace recess. South of the fireplace there is a plain, thinner five-inch high board with a flat top.
Fireplace/firebox
The current fireplace has a metal liner thirty-three inches high by thirty-six inches wide. A grate is incorporated into the liner with vents at the back for smoke to escape up the chimney.
The whole fireplace assemblage is recessed eight inches. The plaster cove, which curves up from the mantel to the rear of the chimney girt, is very likely an original c. 1712 feature.
Mantelpiece
Flat boards with applied small bolection moldings suggesting panels surrounding the firebox, installed in 1929 by Roger Pierce. There is an inch-thick, plain mantel shelf with wooden strips applied to hold plates.
Hearth
Three rows of six-inch-square dark red glazed hearth tiles of nineteenth or early twentieth century vintage.
Ceiling
Plaster with many cracks at right angles, roughly suggesting joist locations.
Cornice
Georgian double cyma molding, similar to that in the parlor. The cornice is found on the south and west walls and along the summer beam and chimney girt.
Doors
Closet doors have raised-field panels with quarter-round-molded grooves. The quarter rounds and feathers are approximately the same as in those in the parlor, suggesting that these are eighteenth century doors.
Door to front hall: a mid-nineteenth century door with long top panels and short bottom panels.
The panels are flat and have small echinus moldings at the edges on both sides.
Figure V. 29. Closets put in on the north wall during the Georgian remodeling of the west room (Room 101).
Door to kitchen: Although this door has two long (forty-three inch) top panels, and two shorter bottom panels, it is different from the mid-nineteenth century doors, such as the door to the hallway. The panels have slightly raised fields, and relatively flat feathers on both sides and there are no visible through tenons. In short, it is likely an early twentieth century door.
Door frames/surrounds Closet doors: none
Door to hallway: single architrave with cyma-molded backband, completely mitered, with thicker fillet than elsewhere in the house and narrower inner frame, with inner edge rounded, but without a bead; identified through paint research as having been installed at the same time as the hall door in the mid-nineteenth century.
Door to the kitchen: like the Greek Revival door surrounds in the house: three-and three- quarters-inches wide with a three-quarter-inch wide fillet at back band, then a one-and-three- eighths-inch wide bevel (not really an echinus molding, but a suggestion of one) ; an inch-wide fascia and a quirked bead next to the opening. There is no rabbet on the room side (the door now swings both ways). There was an earlier door hinged on the east side that swung open into the kitchen. The edge of the surround has been pieced where earlier hinges were positioned.
Windows
There are three windows, two on the west end wall and one on the south wall. All have 6/6 sash. The west wall ones are double hung sash of the 1920s. The south one dates apparently from the nineteenth century.
Window frames
Plain soffits and reveals. Sills have a half round molding along the edge. On front wall reveals are eight inches deep; on side walls, reveals are six inches deep.
Window surrounds None
Hardware
Closet doors have HL hinges and one added small flat square hinge above the bottom left closet hinge. There are recent small knobs with clasps on the closet doors. The door to the hallway has butt hinges and a molded glass doorknob put in by Mrs. Roger Pierce in 1930.62 The west windows have modern latches to lock the sash closed. The front window has none.
Special features
The closets have walls and shelves of seemingly different vintages and designs, possibly including reused elements,
Figure V. 30. The northwest corner post of the c. 1700 addition as seen inside the northwest closet. The post is joined to the two raised sills (just visible below it) that run at right angles from it along the north and west walls.
and will require more detailed study, including paint analysis, to understand. The western one is divided into a separate cupboard below. Both have wooden floors raised up by five inches so that the floor is flush with the exposed sill at the rear and side. The more central closet appears to have some of the earliest shelves (with half round edges).
Inventory of Original and Current Architectural Elements and Existing Conditions 2001 and 2004 Room 101 West Dining Room
Element
Original Element Note: all entries in this column refer to ca. 1712 elements
Current Element and Date, if Known
Existing Condition of Element 2001
Existing Condi- tion of Element 2004
Framing
Exposed and chamfered oak framing with painted salmon/orange daubs on girts and chamfer picked out in same color
Original framing survives, concealed except for sum- mer beam and chimney girt, and all framing, in- cluding raised sills, in northwest closet
Good condition. Light fixture in center of sum- mer beam. Large crack, dormant, has been filled with paint. Beam appears to have twisted but is in stable condition.
Same
Floor Wide boards Narrow tongue-in-groove
flooring, pre-1910
Good condition. Faded finish.
Refinished, shel- lac and varnish, 2003
Walls Outer walls: plaster; fire- place wall, possibly sheathed with shadow- molded boards
Plaster, date uncertain Small holes from picture hanging. West wall is poorly and extensively patched, indicating some water problem in past.
Plaster on this wall is peel- ing. Losses and voids are evident.
Good
Dado Cap None None NA NA
Baseboard None 6" high, 1 1/2" wide, with beveled top molding; 5"
high plain board south of fireplace
Good condition. Electrical outlet in southeast corner.
Same
Fireplace/
Firebox
Large, possibly fitted for cooking
Iron fireplace grate in- serted in small firebox, present by c. 1910
Good.
Same
Mantelpiece Probably none, perhaps a simple shelf below the plaster cove
Probable original recess and plaster cove; flat sur- round and mantel shelf, nineteenth or 20th century;
applied moldings, 1929
Good. Same
Hearth ?Probably brick hearth tiles
Dark red glazed hearth tiles; likely contemporary with fireplace grate, late 19 th or early 20th century
Fair condition. Some mild staining. One tile is loose.
Same
Cornice None Georgian double cyma
molding along beams and south and west walls
Good. Same
Ceiling Unplastered, probably plaster, 18 th century Good. Same
Doors Unknown, but possibly early two-panel doors
Hall door: 19 th century paneled door; kitchen door: 20th century;
closet doors: 18 th cen- tury raised-panel doors of uncertain origin, later installed on the closets
Large vertical split in hall door panel. Gap at joint in kitchen door.
Minor paint scrapes.
Good
Door Sur- rounds
? Door to stair hall: sin-
gle architrave, 19 th century; Door to kitchen, Greek Revival, mid-19th century
Good overall with some small gouges.
Same
Windows Leaded glass, diamond panes, location un- known
West wall: 6/6 sash, replacements of the 1920s; south wall: 6/6 sash, 19 th century
Some broken panes.
West wall north sill is bowed. Gap between sill and sash. Water damage is likely.
Good
Window Frames
? Simple molded reveals,
likely dating from the late 18 th century Geor- gian updating; top trim missing on west win- dows
Generations of fixtures have resulted in loss of original material.
Fair
Window Surrounds
? None NA NA
Hardware ? HL hinges on closets,
modern hinges else- where; glass door knobs installed by Mrs.
Shaughnessey’s mother
Good. Same
Special Features
Closets, date of con-
struction uncertain
Peeling paint at west wall of closet.
Light fixtures and surface electrical conduits, south, north, and east walls, 2003; light switch added to north of east door- way.
Room 102, Stair Hall, Entry
This room has the distinction of having been widened to the west by three feet perhaps thirty years after the original construction when the west rooms were added.
In general, staircases get updated more
frequently than other features of houses. They are often a focus of decorative treatment, being the first element a visitor sees and a logical place to make a statement about one=s taste and status.
In addition to being narrower in width before the west rooms were built, the entry must have been a good three feet less deep, front to back,
originally than it is now. The present arrangement, dating to the mid-nineteenth century, cut into what was originally chimney space. If the door south of the fireplace in Room 103 originally opened to a closet, as oral
tradition suggests, the earlier stairs would have had to run up in the opposite direction from west to east.
Appearance of the Room Over Time Pre-nineteenth Century History
Little evidence survives of the appearance of the stair hall before the mid-nineteenth century remodeling. There were, in all likelihood, three previous staircases:
1) the original stairs for an end chimney plan house in an entry that was narrower both front to back and side to side (perhaps much like the enclosed stairs that survive at the Capen House in Milton);
2) the staircase likely built when the chimney bay was widened;
3) a staircase or at least trim updated in the eighteenth century at the time of the Georgian remodeling of the other rooms. This prominent feature would surely have received some new treatment in the Georgian period.
Mid-nineteenth Century Remodeling
Shortly before or after Lewis Francis Pierce and his wife built their house across the street in 1846, the family apparently decided to redo the entry. The staircase is a fine example of mid- nineteenth century staircase design when a semi-circular stair, or an approximation such as this,
Figure V. 31. Stair hall, Room 102. View of the mid- 19th century staircase.
was fashionable. In fact, the stair hall with its enlarged staircase was the only space in the house, other than the kitchen, to receive a complete remodeling in the nineteenth century. This reveals the importance of the stair hall as a focal feature and perhaps also suggests, by contrast, that the other south spaces, particularly on the first floor, were beginning to be revered as artifacts of the Pierce ancestral home. Door surrounds were replaced with ones with large-scale moldings characteristic of the late Greek Revival period, and the entry doorway was redone with sidelights apparently for the first time.
Building Element Description and Assessment
Framing
Part of the front girt, cased in a plain wooden box, shows below the ceiling on the south wall.
No other framing is visible. The corner post for the original house (the lower portion of the one visible in the hall on the second floor) is not in evidence. Very likely, it was entirely removed.
The raised sill along the south wall was also cut back.
Floor
Brown linoleum, with a large heating vent next to the stairs.
Walls
Plaster. The walls are relatively smooth. They were replastered on new sawn lath at the time that the mid-nineteenth century changes were made.
Baseboard
Plain, inch-wide board with flat top, seven inches high.
(This seems relatively plain to go with the updated stairs, door frames, and entry doorway.)
Ceiling
Plain plaster not noticeably smoother than other ceilings, angled plaster under the rise of the stairs.
Cornice None.
Doors
Entry door: Suspected
twentieth century replacement. There is not a lot of paint build up, or marks of earlier hinges, though there is evidence of a door knob that has now been replaced with a Suffolk latch. The raised panels are relatively flat on both sides as are the feathers. Quarter round moldings have a
Figure V. 32. Staircase, showing curved wall and construction of the base- board around the curve.
small fillet next to the panel; there are no through tenons visible—in short, the door has features characteristic of twentieth century Colonial Revival doors.
Door to Room 103: None.
Door to Room 101: Mid-nineteenth century door with flat panels, long top panels and echinus moldings at the grooves.
Door surrounds
All three door surrounds are of the same mid-nineteenth century design and were likely updated at the time that the staircase was installed. They have broad, 2-inch back band fillets, 2-inch echinus moldings mitered at the corners.
They are flatter overall than some door frames of the period. Above the front doorway, there was not room for the horizontal portion of the frame, so it was omitted altogether. The vertical surrounds flank the sidelights.
Windows
The two four-light, nearly full length, side lights light the entry. Muntins have mid-nineteenth century profiles of a fillet and two ovolos.
Window surrounds See door frames.
Hardware
There is a Suffolk latch on the front door.
The latch may be old, but it is applied with screws. There is also a modern deadbolt.
Special Features The staircase is a three-run staircase, with a winder at each turn. There is an open stringer. Treads with half-round edges project over the
stringer and the risers, each with a fillet and cavetto molding below. The newels are cut from four-and-one-half inch square mahogany stock. They are turned and tapered in the central part and squared at the bottom and top.
Figure V. 33. Curved plaster soffit in- stalled over the staircase in the mid-19th century.
Pierce House Stair Hall, May 12, 1930. Leon H. Abdalian, Photographer.
The tops are turned into a flat knob. The inch-wide balusters are round in section. Pegs are used to secure the newels to the stringers. The wall of the staircase is curved at the corners where the stairs turn to suggest a semi-circular staircase. The baseboard that lines the wall of the staircase is fashioned into a graceful curve following the rise of the stairs and is constructed of slim boards set vertically so as to follow the curve of the wall. The ceiling of the staircase also follows the curve of the stairs below, so that it makes a graceful partial spiral above the stairs. (Note: by lifting a board on the attic stairs, one can see that the curve is supported by inch-wide boards set vertically and rising sequentially, to which sawn, nineteenth-century lath is applied.)
Inventory Original and Current Architectural Elements and Existing Conditions 2001 and 2004
Room 102, Stair Hall, Entry
Element
Original Element
Current Element and Date, if Known
Existing Condition of Element 2001
Existing Condition of Element 2004
Framing
Exposed framing, deco- rated and whitewashed, part 1683, part c. 1712
All framing concealed, except front girt, cased in plain 19 th century box
Good Same
Floor
Presumably wide boards Linoleum, 20th century Fair; uneven finish with some staining
Good
Walls
Plaster Plaster, updated in the 19
th century?
Sound with superficial cracking and staining
Good
Baseboard
None Plain board 7" high,
probably 19 th century
Good Good
Ceiling
Exposed joists and ceiling boards
Plaster, 18 th century or later
Sagging where ceiling meets trim of second floor
Good
Doors
? Entry door: 20th century
Door to Rm 101, mid-19th century
Fair; drags on floor Good
Door Sur- rounds
? Broad fillet and echinus-
molded architraves, mi- tered, mid-19th century
Peeling paint at base of lights
Good
Windows
Probably none 4 light sidelights, with slim muntins, part of the mid-19th century updating
Some broken panes 1 pane with small hole
Window Surrounds
None Like door surrounds, mid-
19th century
Fair Good
Hardware
? Suffolk latch on front
door, possibly early, but attached with screws to a 20th century door
Good Same
Special Fea- tures
staircase, probably en- closed
Curved at corners, but not a true semicircle, balusters round in section, handrail and newels mahogany, mid-19th century
Staircase in good condi- tion; worn finish; carpeted
Good, treads repaired but still need infill between baseboard and treads; new carpet run- ner, 2003
Room 103, Parlor, Family Sitting Room
This room was the hall of the original house, the place where cooking and most household activities took place. The first floor of the original house may have been separated into two rooms from the beginning by a partition running under the south-to-north summer beam.
Reasons for this belief are that the room would have been exceptionally wide, east to west, if undivided (approximately twenty-four feet wide by seventeen feet, six inches deep), and that the Capen House, a near twin of the Pierce House as originally built, had a partition in a comparable position.
Appearance of the Room Over Time Original Appearance
In its earliest configuration, the room would have displayed features characteristic of seventeenth-century architecture in New England and its English post-medieval precedents:
exposed sills, posts and beams decorated with chamfers and stops, exposed joists, and an unplastered ceiling. The T-shaped configuration of the summer beams in this room is unusual for seventeenth-century New England houses. One summer beam runs east to west (in a longitudinal position) from the fireplace to a second summer beam running south to north (in a transverse position) fourteen feet from the fireplace. The presence of this transverse summer beam is one reason why division of the space into two rooms is suspected. The logic of this summer beam arrangement is hard to explain otherwise, unless, as at the Gedney House in Salem, having two decorated summer beams in a room was just a vehicle for display.
Pierce House Middle Parlor, May 31, 1897. J.F. Guild, Photographer.
The front and rear walls of the room would have been plastered (remnants of the earlier plaster wall can be seen from the cellar behind the current south wall which was brought out so that window seats could be built). The east wall under the transverse summer beam may have been a vertical board partition decorated with linear shadow moldings (also
known as crease moldings) similar to that which survives in a relocated position at the Capen House. The floor would have been unpainted wide boards, though whether the existing wide boards are that old is uncertain. The walls and ceiling would likely have been whitewashed, a common treatment in the seventeenth century. You can see remnants of whitewash on the beam in the beaufat in the southeast corner, which has been inside a closet since the eighteenth century (elsewhere many coats of paint have been applied to the framing since that time). The fireplace would have been very large and deep. There may or may not have been an oven inside the fireplace.
Changes When the West Rooms Were Built
The fireplace and chimney appears to have been completely rebuilt when the west rooms were added; no evidence shows that a new stack was added to an existing one. The chimney bay was widened to accommodate the new chimney stack serving fireplaces facing east and west on two floors, if not also a fireplace at the rear in the lean-to. Portions of the north side and rear of that c. 1712 firebox can be seen through the closet north of the current fireplace. The corners were shaped into a curve, a treatment seen in finer houses of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The inside of the firebox was plastered or parged, a common practice in the period.
At the center of the fireplace=s rear wall was a smoke panel, where the brickwork slanted back away from the firebox to make the smoke draw up the chimney better. The c. 1712 fireplace was set back from the chimney girt so that the brickwork above the fireplace could be corbeled forward to rest against the chimney girt and support the hearth of the second-story fireplace.
The bricks were covered with plaster, which can still be seen behind the current chimney breast.
The plaster curves up from the firebox to the chimney girt in a cove. This sort of cove arrangement became increasingly common at the end of the seventeenth century.63
Pierce House Middle Parlor, Postcard, Date and Photographer Unknown.
Changes Made by Col. Samuel Pierce 1765 - 1778
Col. Pierce inherited the middle portion of the house from his father in 1768. A reference in his father=s inventory, though not specifically mentioning the middle room, refers to dishes in the Abeaufat.@64 The reference demonstrates that the beaufat, or buffet, was already in place in the southeast corner of the room (unless a closet in the east room was being used as a beaufat).
Paint evidence confirms that Col. Samuel built the beaufat in the southeast corner and other elements on the east wall of the parlor in 1765. It would make sense that he installed the closets under the transverse summer beam at the time that he was enlarging the east room and that, in anticipation of the more complete remodeling of the parlor, the changes would reflect the contemporary Georgian style. The architrave of the beaufat, the beaufat=s surviving original lower door, the east wall door and its architrave, and baseboards on the east wall of the parlor all have a red paint that predates the paint sequence found on the other Georgian elements in the parlor.65 It is possible that the east wall=s beaufat did not have an upper door originally, as some examples from the period do not have doors.66 Powell=s paint research indicates that the baseboards on the north and south
walls of the parlor also have the red paint on them, suggesting that their installation predates the general remodeling and that perhaps they were installed when the adjoining east wall was rebuilt in 1765.
In 1778, Col. Pierce recorded in his journal other changes he made to the parlor, if indeed, as we believe, is this room.67 Paint research indicated that all the changes were made at the same time, having the same sequence of paint layers. For that reason, the assumption is made that all of the work, though not mentioned in his journal, was carried out or completed in 1778.
Aug. 1: I Built the chimney Jams in our Parlor...
Aug. 14: I Plastered my Parlor Aug. 24: I finist off my Parler
The features that Col. Pierce installed in the parlor included a new fireplace wall, brought forward from the earlier wall by a few inches with paneled doors to the stair hall and to a closet south of the fireplace; a chimney breast with crossetted or eared moldings around an overmantel
Figure V. 34. Parlor, Room 103, west wall. HABS, MASS, 13-DORCH, 7-7.
panel and the firebox; window seats in a south wall newly furred out to accommodate them; a second, more elaborate beaufat north of the fireplace; and cornice moldings along the summer beams and front, rear and chimney girts.
Paint research, in addition to confirming the sequence of changes in the parlor, has given a more complete picture of the appearance of the parlor in the late eighteenth century.
The beaufat constructed north of the fireplace in 1778 was similar to the one in the southeast corner. Although the northwest beaufat was later altered into a full length closet and only one of its original curved shelves remains, paint research has made it possible to reconstruct substantially the beaufat=s original appearance.68 The beaufat had upper and lower doors separated by a counter at the bottom of the upper beaufat that lapped over the architrave slightly, just as the counter of the southeast beaufat still does. The scars where the lower H hinge of the upper door was located can still be discerned on the north architrave of the closet door. There were three shelves above the counter of which only the upper one survives though paint scars showing their location survive. Both beaufats had bright blue interior walls to set off dishes and glassware displayed in them, and dark red brown shelves. The edges of the shelves of the northwest beaufat were given a more elaborate treatment than those in the southeast beaufat. They were picked out in a bright coral red. Paint research also indicates that the window seats were originally painted a dark color.
The paint research raised an interesting question.
The horizontal rail over the fireplace opening to which the crossetted moldings were applied and then partially removed when the Federal mantel shelf was installed bears traces of the red paint found on the beams. The presence of red paint suggests that the board may have been reused from an earlier position when the new chimney breast was created. Most interestingly, when seen in a raking light, this board reveals a rectangle of roughened wood twenty-five-and-one-half inches wide slightly off center toward the north on the board in its current location. Brian Powell found traces of red paint in three out of four areas sampled within the rectangle.69 One hypothesis is that the board, in its previous use, had a raised feature that was subsequently planed away. The remaining red
Figure V. 35. Detail of the frame of the door to the stair hall from the par- lor illustrating how the chamfer and stop of the original chimney girt was integrated into the door frame in the 18th century. Note how the architrave is cut back in two places to accommo- date successive generations of hinges.
The upper cut is for a butterfly hinge, a hinge used in the early 18th century.
Figure V. 36. Details (left to right) of the frame of former door south of the fireplace, the crossetted chimney breast molding, the cornice moldings, and the chamfer stop on the summer beam. HABS, MASS, 13-DORCH, 7-9.
paint would indicate areas of the ground around the feature, but would not be present where the feature had been removed. Further paint research might help to define the shape of the feature.
Though part of a general Georgian remodeling of the house and installation of vertically sliding sash windows, the parlor received the most elaborate treatment. This should not surprise us since the parlor was the most public room in the house. What is surprising is that, although Col.
Pierce brought the walls out to hide the posts and raised sills in keeping with the Georgian notion of concealing structure, he chose not to case the summer beams and chimney girt in the room. Instead he integrated the beams and chamfers and stops quite effectively into the cornice assemblages and the chimney girt into the two south door frames. Col. Pierce also reduced the size of the fireplace considerably in keeping with the understanding in the eighteenth century of more efficient fireplace design.
Changes to the Parlor after 1778
Since 1778, no significant changes have been made to the parlor, and so it retains much of its Georgian feeling. A mantel shelf was added to the chimney breast probably in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. In a paint sequence that differed from that on the other 1778
elements in the room, the lower crossetted fireplace surround was painted black twice in intermediate paint layers. According to Brian Powell, black-painted mantelpieces were fashionable in the Greek Revival period. The firebox was refaced with new bricks sometime in the nineteenth century covering the eighteenth-century firebox. Between 1897 and c. 1910 (photos tell us) the hearth and face bricks were painted black. Paint research demonstrated that several elements in the room had been relocated or were not original to the space. The eighteenth-century window shutters were installed here in the twentieth century as they share only the most recent paint layers with other features in the room. The upper door of the northwest beaufat was relocated to be the upper door of the southeast beaufat some time after 1889 based on a drawing that shows the southeast beaufat without an upper door. A photograph of 1897 shows that by then an Italianate door had replaced the two doors on the northwest beaufat. Then sometime after 1897 that door was replaced by the earlier door to the stair hall, which was pieced out to fit its new location. Powell found that the strips applied to the sides of the door to widen it have few paint layers.70
Other changes, largely cosmetic, include the application of wallpapers shown in historic photos and the removal of paint from the perimeter of the floor.
Figure V. 37. Beaufat or Buffet in the southeast corner of the parlor, believed to have been installed by Colonel Samuel Pierce in 1765. HABS, MASS, 13- DORCH, 7-8.
Building Element Description and Assessment
Framing Beams:
The chimney girt is partially visible where it has been incorporated into the door frames of the door to the hall (Room 102) and the closet door at the north end of the fireplace wall. The quarter-round
chamfer makes a molding now over the doors; in the south doorway, the coved stop is visible, but not the pip. The chimney girt is also visible behind the 1778 chimney breast.
It has the quarter-round chamfer edged by fillets as seen on other beams in the room, and it is covered with the red paint identified as predating the completion of the Georgian remodeling.
The lack of any traces of whitewash on the chimney girt behind the chimney breast is unexpected.
The summer beam, eleven-and-one-half inches wide, runs longitudinally to the transverse summer beam. The chamfer is a one-and-one- quarter inch quarter round, with about a half- inch collar, coved stops and single pips. The transverse summer beam is finished in the same manner. There are no stops on the transverse beam where it meets the longitudinal summer beam (as there are in the west room), but a continuous chamfer with stops at either end.
Both summer beams have been incorporated unboxed into the Georgian cornice assemblage.
In the southeast beaufat, the east side of the transverse summer beam is visible with some white wash on it but no paint. The chamfer stop
Figure V. 38. South end of transverse summer beam as seen inside the beaufat, showing stop, still crisp after more than 300 years, and evidence of the whitewash that covered the walls and ceiling of the room before 1765.
Figure V. 39. View behind the current chimney breast in the parlor, looking south. Left side: back of the chimney breast overmantel panel. Middle: heating duct from the furnace in the cellar. Upper left: east side and bottom of the c. 1652 chimney girt. Lower right: lintel from the c. 1700 fireplace of which the south part was cut off in the mid-19th century. Back- ground, lower right: back of the mid-19th-century lath
is still very crisp, no doubt from having been inside the closet for over two hundred and twenty- five years.
Posts:
The only post now visible is in the south wall under the transverse summer beam as seen inside the southeast beaufat. The post is narrower than the beam. The beam is flush with the west side of the post facing the fireplace and hangs over on the other side. The post has an inch-wide flat chamfer, coved stop and a pip, the pip and stop being ten-and-one-half inches below the joint with the transverse summer beam.
Sills:
The edge of the raised sill on the north side of the room, previously exposed in the parlor, is just visible at the bottom of the wall in the lean-to hallway.
Floor
Wide softwood boards are as much as eighteen to twenty-and-one-half inches wide. The boards have been sanded except in the middle of the floor where there is an eighty-six by one-hundred- and-twenty inch rectangle which is painted cocoa brown. The southernmost eighteen inches of the rectangle are painted charcoal grey, but multiple layers of paint can be seen under the edges where sanding began. Some T head hand-wrought nails are visible. Where the boards
separated, the space was filled in two places with wooden strips.
Walls
Some of the walls are plaster from baseboard to cornice. In some places rough old plaster may be present. North of the door to the east room, three panels of sheetrock have been applied (some wire nail heads were visible). The spackled sheet rock joint lines are visible under the skim coat of plaster. Composition board has been applied to the eastern two-thirds of the north wall.
Dado cap None.
Baseboard
Front wall: three-and-one-quarter inches high with a heavily painted molding on the top.
Rear wall: Four inches high with an apparent ovolo molding on top.
East wall: Four inches high. May have had similar ovolo before the sheet rock was put over it.
Fireplace/firebox
The splayed jambs, the rear of firebox, and the facing of the surround are made of brick that is smoother and more regular than the brick used to make the jambs of the 1778 firebox that can be seen from the back through the closet. The current brick lining looks nineteenth century. It seems to have a red stain on it.
Behind both of these fireboxes, the early large fireplace opening and the curved jamb on the north side are visible.71 This large fireplace must date from the time that the chimney was rebuilt when the west rooms were added c. 1712. One can see a brick smoke panel much
darkened with smoke at the back, though the jambs are covered with plaster that seems remarkably clean for a fireplace that was used much. A blackened lug pole can be seen in the chimney throat. The portion of the fireplace lintel surviving from the c. 1712 fireplace has no chamfer on it, but this would not necessarily mean that it was a later replacement.
No evidence is seen here that bears upon the question of whether there was a third fireplace on the north side of the chimney.
Mantelpiece
The chimney breast is composed of a single overmantel panel surrounded by a molding eared (crossetted) at the four corners, consisting of a broad ovolo backed by a large fillet. The fireplace surround has the same crossetting and moldings. A molded mantel shelf with bed moldings and plain pilaster caps below was later fitted just inside the crossets. The small scale of the moldings on the shelf and associated features suggests a Federal period origin. The mantel shelf moldings are similar, though not exactly the same, as those on the current east room (Room 104) mantel.
One can see, by looking behind the current chimney breast from the closet, that in the c. 1712 fireplace a plaster cove ran up to the back of the chimney girt, as in the west room.
Hearth
Two rows of hearth tiles backed by a single row of stretcher bricks, all now painted black, installed in 1778 or later.
Ceiling
Plain plaster, repainted in late 2001.
Cornice
Georgian cornice with double cyma moldings applied by Col. Samuel Pierce in 1778.
Doors
Three eight-panel doors with four sixteen-inch-high raised panels alternating with smaller panels, four inches high, including the one to the east rooms and those flanking the fireplace.
Feathers are one-and-one-eighth inches wide. There is a single quarter round at the edges of the stiles and rails. There is no door to the hallway now. Measuring the door immediately north of the fireplace, which had been pieced out by five-eighths to three-quarters of an inch on both sides, suggests that, before the pieces were added, it would have just fit in the doorway to the hall and was moved from there after 1897. Also shadows in the paint of butterfly hinges on the door and the hall door frame exactly line up.
The divided door to the southeast beaufat is of similar configuration, except that it lacks the two smaller intermediate panels and is divided into upper and lower doors so that the top and
bottom parts can be opened separately.
Door surrounds
All except the southeast beaufat door have double architraves with cyma and fillet backband.
On those on the fireplace wall, the outer architrave is mitered; on the east wall, the outer architrave of the door to the east room is not mitered, possibly because of adjustments needed below the summer beam. This frame does not have a bead along the inner edge as all the others do.
Windows
The two windows have six-over-six sash, put together with wooden pegs. The muntins are slightly wider than three-quarters of an inch, and have quarter-round-and-fillet moldings. Note:
the window surviving in the upstairs hall and those stored in the attic have much wider muntins, indicating that the parlor windows are replacements, possibly of the Federal period. Perhaps these sash are replacements made after the loss of window glass mentioned in Col. Samuel=s diary in 1797.
Window frames
Window seats: seventeen inches high and eleven-inches deep. The seats slope slightly back toward the exterior. There is a single panel below and a panel at the back and each side, matching in configuration the panels in the folding shutters. The window shutters are
composed of three folding elements. Two fold back into one window reveal, and one folds into the other reveal. The middle element of the shutter is not paneled since it was not visible when the shutters were folded back. The shutters date from the eighteenth century, but paint research shows that they were not installed in the parlor until the twentieth century.
Window surrounds
Surrounds of the two windows are integrated with the cornice so that the vertical cyma and fillet is mitered against the lower cyma of the cornice, which becomes the top of the window architrave. The window surrounds are mitered only at the inner bead.
Hardware
Small H hinges with foliate ends attach all parts of the shutters together (two sets per element).
The door to the closet north of the fireplace and the door to the east room have H hinges and glass door knobs installed in 1930. The upper part of the southeast beaufat has two small H hinges with foliate ends; the lower part has two small plain H hinges.
Though no longer present, the door to the stair hall received butterfly hinges when the Georgian trim was applied, as shown by the paint scars and the cut in the beginning of the outer
architrave. Butt hinges let into the fascia at the beaded edge of the door frame later replaced the butterfly hinges.
Special features
Southeast beaufat or buffet. This cupboard is rectangular and divided into a top cupboard with three shelves and a bottom one with no shelves. The shelves are formed into an elaborate curve and semi-circular pattern typical of early beaufats. The inside of the closet is plastered; the shelves are painted.
Figure V. 40. Underside of the chimney girt, as seen behind the current chim- ney breast, with evidence in the darkened area of an earlier feature that was attached underneath the girt, possibly the frame of a closet door south of the fireplace, now brought forward to the plane of the current chimney breast and fixed in place.
Figure V. 41. The plaster cove above the c. 1700 fireplace as seen from be- hind the current chimney breast. Note:
evidence of whitewash or paint scored with circles, as one sometimes sees on fireplace lintels, etc., for unexplained reasons.
Figure V. 42. North end of fireplace lintel of c. 1700 fireplace in the parlor imbedded in the brickwork. Note:
plaster parging of the chimney throat (blackened from smoke) and plaster parging on the side of the fireplace, unexpectedly clean.
Element
Original Element
Current Element and Date, if Known
Existing Condition of Element 2001
Existing Condition of Element 2004
Framing
Exposed and decorated framing
Only original summer beams remain visible in the room; all others are concealed behind walls or in closets.
Good condition, utility in center of summer beam
Same
Floor
Wide boards
Wide boards, 18 th or pos- sibly 17 th century
Fair condition, paint history visible
Same; perimeter around north and east edges of area rug refinished, 2003 Walls
South and north: Plas- ter.
East wall, probably a vertical-board, crease- molded partition. West wall possibly partially sheathed.
South wall: redone when window seats added, probably in 1778; North wall and north half of east wall: sheet rock covering earlier plaster, mid-20th century;
West wall moved east a few inches and remodeled in the Georgian style, 1778
Seams and patching visible on east wall
Good. New lighting mounted, external conduits, and picture rail added 2003
Dado Cap None
None NA NA
Baseboard
Presumably none
Plain boards c. 4" high with simple molding on top, 18 th century
Good condition Outlets and electrical conduits for wall lighting
Fireplace/
Firebox
Large, deep fireplace likely replaced when west rooms were added.
Parts of three consecutive fireboxes remain: large, curved jamb box, c. 1712;
smaller firebox installed in 1778; single layer of brick covering 1778 firebox added in the 19 th century.
Some crumbled brick Same
Mantelpiece
?
Georgian chimney breast with overmantel panel surrounded by eared mold- ings, 1778. Federal style mantel shelf and pilaster caps added, early 19 th century
Surface splitting on panel board
Good
Hearth
?
Two rows of hearth tiles, one row of stretchers now painted black, probably 1778
Two tiles damaged Same Inventory Original and Current Architectural Elements and Existing Conditions 2001 and 2004
Room 103, Parlor, Family Sitting Room