Vernacular Buildings

Pierce-Guild Lightning Splitter House // 1781

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The Pierce-Guild House at 53 Transit Street in the Fox Point neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island, is one of the most iconic and photographed residences in the state. Known as a “lightning splitter”, the unique name is taken from local folklore that the sharp angle of the gable roof will deflect or split lightning if struck. Whether or not this superstition is true, the unique house form numbers to less than a dozen in Rhode Island. This house, arguably the most well-known for its location off Benefit Street, was originally built in 1781 as a modest 1-1/2-story cottage with a gambrel roof for Daniel Pierce (Pearce), a tailor. In 1844, the property was sold to George Guild, a grocer, who modernized the house by creating the massive gable roof to provide a narrow third floor, which was illuminated by the end windows and a diminutive dormer at the roof. The house retains much of its character, after a restoration by owners in the mid-late 20th century.

Kingston Powder House // 1806

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The Kingston Powder House is located at 16 Green Street adjacent to the historic Faunce Schoolhouse in Kingston, Massachusetts. The astylistic, 10-foot-square wooden building may seem like a generic structure, but it is significant as a rare, intact example of wooden powder house, and one of only four extant in New England (there are more numerous examples of brick or stone powder houses). The Kingston Powder House was constructed in 1806 to store gunpowder and shot for the town militia. It was likely constructed on footings or directly on the ground, making it relatively easy to move, possibly to keep it away from the growing town in case of explosion. The Powder House has been moved several times in its lifetime and has been settled here in the town center and is awaiting a restoration using Community Preservation Act grants. I can’t wait to see this building preserved!

Stonington Opera House // 1912

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The Stonington Opera House in Stonington, Maine, is a historic early 20th century community center and theater in a vernacular style. The theater was built in 1912, on the site of an earlier hall built in 1886, that seated more than 1,000 people and hosted national touring shows that arrive via steamboat from Rockland. The original theater was destroyed by fire in 1910 and was soon-after rebuilt. It continued the practice of the earlier facility, hosting theatrical productions, lectures, and community events. Its floor was covered with removable folding chairs, so that the space could be used for dances and other social events. It was fitted for screening films around 1918, which came to dominate its uses in the mid-20th century. Unlike other early theaters, which were generally incorporated into municipal buildings, this one was specifically built as a profit-making venture, and was designed to accommodate elaborate theatrical productions, and is probably the oldest of this type in the state. After being vacated for much of the later half of the 20th century, the Stonington Opera House was restored and reopened by Opera House Arts, a local nonprofit, in 2000, and is once again used primarily for film screenings and theatrical productions.

Scotland Town Hall // 1896

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The town of Scotland, Connecticut, is a rural community centered around agriculture and is the smallest municipality in Windham County’s ‘Quiet Corner‘. European settlement began in earnest following the purchase of 1,950 acres of land from then Windham, by Isaac Magoon, a Scotsman, who named the new village after his ancestral home. The present-day town hall and offices of Scotland, was originally built in the 1840s as a one-room schoolhouse. In 1894, the town voted to consolidate all the school districts in a single building, and to expand the one-room village school to accommodate them. The present two-story structure was completed in 1896 and was added to the front of the old building. It is unclear if anything remains of the original schoolhouse. The vernacular, Stick style building served as the town’s consolidated school until a modern school building was constructed in the 1960s. This building became the town hall/offices and remains a significant visual anchor to the town’s common.

West Cornwall Old Toll House // c.1800

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This modest, vernacular frame structure in West Cornwall, Connecticut, perhaps erected as early as 1800, has served a number of commercial purposes in its history, most significantly as a toll house. The structure was a toll booth for the two turnpikes which crossed near the site – the Sharon-Goshen Turnpike, and the Warren Turnpike, which ran along the Housatonic River. Before the days of EZ-Pass and transponders, travellers would pay their tolls to a worker in this building. Eventually the street became free to use, and the building was acquired for commercial use. It now serves as a showroom for a local cabinetmaker, but retains the original charm and historic sign above the door. How charming is that?

Georgetown Engine House No.5 // c.1860

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Following a devastating fire in Georgetown in 1874, local residents of the town petitioned at a town meeting to purchase a fire engine and a lot to erect a new engine house to prevent such a loss again. Within a year, voters approved not only the construction of a new engine house on Middle Street, near the commercial center of town, but also to move this charming single-engine firehouse at to a site to “the south part the town”. This structure was deemed inadequate for the dense commercial village and instead of demolishing it, town voters decided it could be relocated to another area and put to use. A volunteer company was formed for the new engine house and the small structure remained as a firehouse until the early 20th century when modern fire apparatus would no longer fit in the building. The building was sold by the town and has remained in private ownership since the 1920s, and its use is unknown to me, but the owners are doing a great job maintaining this significant structure.

Dry Mills Schoolhouse // 1858

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Before the use of automobiles for everyday use, the winding roads in towns all over New England were once lined by charming one-room schoolhouses, to educate children without forcing them to travel too long of distances (like many of our parents and grandparents who had to walk to school uphill both ways!) The Dry Mills School was built by 1858 and is the last one-room schoolhouse of twelve that were built in Gray, Maine. All of the others have  been sold by the town, converted into houses, and/or torn down.  The school was in operation from before the Civil War until it closed its doors to public education in 1958.  In the early 1990’s, at a cost of $12,000, the building and the original granite slab foundation were moved to their current location on the Maine Wildlife Park Road and has been restored to its original appearance thanks to local residents who advocated for the preservation of the building. The interior retains an original chalkboard, period wood stove and furnishings. Today, it is a living museum, attesting to the educational environment in the mid 1800’s and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Sherman’s Livery & Garage – Maine Trading Post // 1908

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This vernacular, shingled structure was built in 1908 to house two very different modes of transportation, horses and automobiles. The structure here is located in the charming village of Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Sherman’s Livery and Garage held stalls for horses on the ground floor with an elevator that moved hay, carriages and sleighs to the upper floor. Owners of horses could board them here and many would rent their horses to visitors who arrived to town by steamer, from this location. The building was set up for automobiles as well, but that began in earnest by 1915 when two Ford touring cars were added to the inventory here. Today, the building is known as the Maine Trading Post and houses Kaler’s Restaurant.

Hiram Lodge 39, Knights of Pythias // 1895

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Another of the extant, significant vernacular buildings in the small town of Hiram, Maine, is this large frame building on Main Street. Hiram Lodge #39, Knights of Pythias, was organized in 1883 and a building was constructed on this site around that time. The first meeting hall was destroyed by fire in 1895, and soon-after replaced by this large lodge building, which is possibly the largest wooden building in town!  On the destruction of that first “hall” by fire in 1895, the Lodge hired Alva Ward to build what is probably the largest wooden building extant in Hiram. The Knights of Pythias Hall is important as a remnant of Hiram’s earlier commercial prosperity, with general store on the first floor, a large hall on the second floor (where dances, theatrical performances, and public suppers were held), and the lodge hall on the third floor.

Hiram Village Store // c. 1850

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Hiram is a small, rural town in Oxford County, Maine, and has a handful of notable old buildings. The town was incorporated in 1814 and was occupied by white settlers as early as 1774. The land here has long been heavily wooded and the town’s name was inspired by the biblical King Hiram of Tyre whose kingdom was set among “timber of cedar and timber of fir.” The town’s two villages, Hiram Village and South Hiram, grew along the Saco River, and are typical rural villages built around industry and modest frame dwellings. This commercial building is one of the larger structures in Hiram Village and it dates to the mid 19th century. The structure was owned by Thomas B. Seavey, who purchased a store built on the site as early as 1816, from a Simeon Chadbourne. The store was enlarged and became a major hub of the sleepy town in the 19th and 20th centuries, but like many such structures, struggled due to changing of shopping habits and rural decline. The building, with its vernacular and Greek Revival lintels, appears vacant today.

Drake Store // c.1816

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The Drake Store is a vernacular, early 19th century commercial building located in the center of Effingham, New Hampshire. According to local sources, the building was erected around 1816 by Weare Drake, an original settler of the town at age 78, and his 23-year-old grandson, Thomas Parsons Drake. The store sold provisions and was home to a post office, when Thomas Drake served as the town’s postmaster. Within a few years, the store fell into disuse and the building was fitted up as an academy known as the Carroll Literary Institute. Due to insufficient enrollment, in the 1850’s, it was again occupied as a store by Alexander Mellen Drake (hence the sign) and changed hands several times before being purchased by Grange No. 313 in 1913, operating as a grange hall for local farmers. The building was given by the Grange to the Town in 1994 and purchased from the Town for $1 by the Preservation Society in 2002. The Preservation Society has been restoring the building through capital campaigns and grants and the old store shines once again!

The Old Hancock Tavern // c.1810

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Before the Centre Turnpike was laid out in 1808, better-connecting Middlebury, Vermont to towns east of the Green Mountains, visitors would have to travel hours longer to divert around the mountains. This new route cut right through the small village of Hancock, Vermont and the town prospered as a result. Along the route, this vernacular, Federal period tavern was built shortly after the turnpike aimed to take advantage of the new visitors driving through the town. This tavern/inn was operated for a time by a J. E. Wright as a hotel and the building has a perfect wrap-around porch.

Chaplin Congregational Church // c.1815

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Years before the small town of Chaplin, Connecticut was incorporated as a town, early residents here had this Congregational church built at the future town’s center. The following decades would see the village develop into a cohesive street of Federal and Greek Revival style dwellings and shops, many of which remain to this day. The church was technically completed by 1815, but it would be decades until funding was acquired to add the steeple, pews, and other finishings for the edifice. The structure sits on a raised stone foundation and is prominently sited on the town’s main street.

Whitefield Union Hall // 1900

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Finding a Grange Hall in Maine are almost as common as finding an old church, they are everywhere! Located the next town over from Jefferson, Maine’s Willow Grange Hall, the town of Whitefield has an equally charming example. The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry was established in 1867 to advance methods of agriculture, as well as to promote the social and economic needs of farmers in the United States. Communities all over built grange halls where farmers and residents could meet and discuss prices, trade, and share tips for larger crop yields. The Whitefield Union Hall was built in 1900, primarily under the auspices of the Whitefield Fish and Game Club, but with design input from the local Grange chapter, which contributed funds to its construction and was also a tenant. It was until 1919 the only public hall with a stage in southern Whitefield, playing host to dances, meetings of fraternal and social organizations, and other community events. The hall was managed by an association of the two organizations until 1947, and by the Fish and Game Club after the Grange chapter merged with another in 1969. The club closed down in 1974, and the hall is now managed by a union consortium of village community groups. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Weare Town House // 1837

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Weare, New Hampshire has a pretty cool history. Located at the northern edge of Hillsborough County, the land presently known as Weare was granted to veterans of the Canadian wars in 1735 by Governor Jonathan Belcher, who named it “Beverly-Canada” after many of the veteran’s hometown, Beverly, Massachusetts. After various disputes over the settlement and naming of the town, it became known as “Weare’s Town” before being incorporated by Governor Benning Wentworth in 1764 as Weare, after Meshech Weare, who served as the town’s first clerk and later went on to become New Hampshire’s first Governor. The town grew slowly during the 18th and 19th centuries around five major villages, with farmland and forests connecting them. Near the geographic center of town, this Town House was built in 1837 to be a government and religious center of the town. Originally, town meetings were held on the first floor and the Universalist Church met on the second floor and the local high school was installed on the second floor in 1919. The building remains the town offices with event space for rent inside today. The building is a great example of a vernacular Greek/Gothic Revival town house of the period with a two-stage tower with pinnacles at the corners of each stage and a louvered belfry at the bell.