The tour was worth the ride, new friends and old, and saw some unexpected stuff…
Which should really not be the desired expectation of studying vernacular buildings, the exploration of the every day is of as much, or more value.
Have to dissent on the plausibility of that first barn being SR’d – There was but the one housing in the frame. I’ve seen this on occasion before – one odd housing – it may have been a way of dealing with tearout or wane – in scribe you’re are free to deal little problems in a variety of ways - - I’ve sometimes wondered if these out of place housings might not have been the genesis, the idea, that spawned SR, a little seemingly mundane action, that simply got some clever carpenter thinking.
And there were marks identifying address, not the typical chiseled numbers (nor marriage marks, which bridge joinery and mark both pieces at once, something I’ve seen but a handful of times) but cursive handwriting in pencil. Which stands to reason with the pencil layout.
I don’t see it (pencil) much in frames that early, but the first domestic production of pencils began in 1812 in Concord Mass, in response to the English blockade, replacing a void in the market and an obviously preexisting demand – So it does fit the construction date.
The out of the ordinarily large village barn fits the owners pattern, a well appointed large brick house, he was making a statement and probably expecting, he was leaving a legacy.
I for one, think he did both and more, and am glad of it !
"We build too many walls and not enough bridges" - Isaac Newton
