Vernacular/No Style

Doucette Ten-Footer // c.1850

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Here is a building type many of you may not know of… the Ten-Footer! This 10 x 10-foot square building is a well preserved example of a kind of shop historically used by many shoemakers in the late-18th to mid-19th centuries. In Stoneham during the 19th century there were many such shops scattered throughout the town as the area became a sort of hub for shoemaking. In the age before and just after the Industrial Revolution, many Massachusetts residents had home shops in the yards where family and neighbors could earn extra part-time money by doing piece work on shoes. These cottage industry shoe workers were paid for each pair of shoes delivered to the local distributor. Usually, the owner-shoemaker worked alone or with family members in the cramped space with materials like leathers, rubber, and straps stored in the attic space in a loft in the gable. This ten-footer was built in the mid 19th century and later owned by Peter Doucette, who ran a shoe shop here. The small building was eventually acquired by the Stoneham Historical Society and was moved behind their building, restored and it can better tell the story of the town’s rich shoemaking history.

Tudor Barn // c.1845

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Built in the 1840’s as a carriage barn, and once attached to a nearby mansion now gone, this barn sits near the eastern shores of Spot Pond, a major feature in the Middlesex Fells Reservation, just north of Boston. The barn sits in Stoneham, Massachusetts, and was a part of Frederic Tudor’s rural estate out in the “country”. Frederic Tudor is best known as Boston’s “Ice King”, he was the founder of the Tudor Ice Company and a pioneer of the international ice trade in the early 19th century. He made a fortune shipping ice cut from New England ponds to ports in the Caribbean, Europe, and as far away as India and Hong Kong. After the turn of the 20th century, many of the buildings surrounding Spot Pond were razed as to secure the watershed, protecting the surrounding town’s drinking water. Frederic Tudors large estate was razed, but the barn survived. Years of deferred maintenance and lack of preservation by the late 1990’s made the old barn threatened with demolition. This was exacerbated by a fire damaging the roof and in 2003, a wall collapsed. Local preservationists rallied together to acquire funding (both private and public grants) to restore the building. It remains a highlight on the walks around Spot Pond and Middlesex Fells Reservation, and is a visual link to the earlier days in what was once remote “Boston”.

East Blue Hill Post Office // c.1884

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Before the days of USPS trucks delivering mail to your door, mail was delivered to local post offices for pick-up daily. Due to this, many villages had their own post offices to service local communities better due to ease of access by residents. A post office first arrived in East Blue Hill Village, Maine in 1873, likely due to the distance traveled to the central village for mail. By 1884, George Long built this vernacular structure as the village post office, which belonged to members of the Long family, who also served as postmasters, until 1997. The post office is distinct in the state as the only known example of a purpose-built post office facility that is not owned by the United States Postal Service, and that was not built or adapted to its standards. The building sold out of the Long family in 1997, when it was purchased by the East Blue Hill Village Improvement Association, who have preserved it ever-since!

Jonathan Fisher House // 1796

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Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847) was born in New Braintree, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard College Divinity School. In the record of Plantation No. 5, (now Blue Hill), the selectmen voted to invite the Rev. Mr. Fisher to preach for four months in the summer of 1795. After his four month stint, the committee approached him, asking if he would stay and make the town his home, he accepted. He first built a primitive house which was outgrown by the time he had three children growing up in it! He had the current home built in 1814, attaching the original home as a rear ell (addition). Reverend Fisher died in 1847. His wife Dolly, died in 1853. At the end of the nineteenth century, Jonathan Fisher’s grandchildren decided to renovate the house. In 1896, they tore down the original house of 1796 and replaced it with a two-story addition to their grandfather’s 1814, giving it the current configuration. When the Fisher grandchildren who had been living there left Blue Hill, a number of local citizens concerned for the future of the building made arrangements that eventually led to the transfer of ownership of the house to a local non-profit foundation, the Jonathan Fisher Memorial, and made it possible for the house to be opened to the public. The Fisher House is open for tours in the summer.

Old Platte Clove Post Office // c.1885

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Believe it or not, but I occasionally venture out of New England, and a favorite place of mine to explore is Upstate New York. On a recent trip, I ended up driving through the tiny town of Hunter, New York, located in the middle of the Catskills. This charming little building was constructed c.1885 as the Platte Clove Post Office. The building was constructed to serve a rural portion of the town and was built as an early mixed-use building with the post office at the ground floor and small residence upstairs for the postmaster to live. The exterior cladding features both shingle and clapboard siding with overhanging eaves. The post office here ceased by 1911 and the use reverted solely to residential.

Rockbound Chapel // 1900

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Wrapping up our “tour” of Brooklin, Maine, I wanted to conclude with a feature on Rockbound Chapel, one of the village churches in the small coastal town. The chapel (like the Beth Eden Chapel) was constructed at the turn of the 20th century as a village church which saw increased use when the town’s population surged (relatively) in the summer months. The vernacular church building has pedimented lintels over the windows and door, and a steeple covered in decorative shingles which flare toward the base. There is something just so enchanting about these small rural chapels!

Beth Eden Chapel // 1900

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Almost at the southern, most remote tip of the Blue Hill Peninsula in Brooklin, Maine, I was stunned to come across this enchanting chapel. Completed in 1900, the Beth Eden Chapel is a small wooden frame building that appears to have been the first religious facility erected in the Naskeag area of Brooklin. Although it was erected by the Methodist Episcopal Church of Brooklin, the building was dedicated to the use of all Christian sects who wished to worship in the more remote section of town. Interestingly, the vernacular church employs some late 19th-century detail including the shingled flared siding and triangular motif. The chapel appears to remain open for summer months.

Sheafe Warehouse // c.1740

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The Sheafe Warehouse in Prescott Park in Portsmouth, New Hampshire was constructed in the first half of the 18th century in a spot ideally situated on the Piscataqua River to receive incoming ships. The design of the building is unique with a garrison (second story overhang) which enabled cargo to be unloaded directly from ships arriving in the port. The structure was apparently built (and named after) Jacob Sheafe (1715-1791) a prominent and prosperous merchant who followed in his father’s footsteps engaged in trade with the West Indies. The building was used as storage for centuries until the 1930s when the owner sold the warehouse to two Portsmouth sisters, Mary E. and Josie F. Prescott, the founders of Prescott Park. Interested in preserving the history of their native city, the sisters had the building moved to its current location and restored. The building (and the adjacent Shaw Warehouse) was listed on the State Register of Historic Places.

Shaw Warehouse // 1806

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The Shaw Warehouse located inside Prescott Park in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was constructed between 1806 and 1813 and is significant as a rare example of a vernacular warehouse building from the early 19th century. It is very vernacular, unadorned with a very functional use, but these types of buildings (like barns and stables) are some of the most charming and provide a link to working-class history from the past. The building is the only of its kind remaining in its original location in Portsmouth, and as a result, was listed in 2011 on the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places. It now houses offices for the nearby park.

The Dome Home // 2003

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This past weekend, I was lucky enough to stay at one of the most unique Airbnb’s in New England, the Dome Home in idyllic Kennebunkport, Maine! The house itself was hand-built in 2003 by trained architect and sculptor Daphne Pulsifer with her husband Daniel Bates, on 43-acres of forest just miles from the iconic Maine beaches. Inside, the house features numerous custom touches designed and built by the original owners, including light fixtures, floor tiling, hand-built oak doors, wall tiling, woodwork — much of it claimed from the property itself. The Dome Home is completely sustainable with solar panels providing all the power needed, making the property completely off-the-grid. The original owners sold the property in 2022 to the new owners who have lovingly updated the spaces, keeping the charm and unique qualities of the Dome. If you are ever in Kennebunkport and are looking for a unique, off-the-grid stay with all of the amenities of modern living, definitely check out the Dome!