Granite State Bound

SALEM, CONN. -- There are many ways to gauge the antiquity of an historic house, according to Brian Cooper of Early New England Restorations. Are sawn timbers straight -- or rotary-cut? Where are the baking ovens in relationship to the main chimney box? And how close is the structure to the nearest road?

With the Jabez Jones Homestead in Salem, Conn., one only has to look at the position of the dwelling on its lot; the spacious two-story center chimney building stood but a few feet from the old Norwich Turnpike, now designated Route 85.

The reasons were simple. In the Eighteenth Century, snow plowing was done by horse or oxen teams if it was done at all; frequently snowy roads simply were rolled to pack the surface for sleighs, commercial sledges and pungs.

Moreover, a scant 15 years after its initial construction, the early owners capitalized on their road-near location to build a 17 by 35 foot, two story ell, known as the Peck Tavern. With its own kitchen room, buttery and a tiny tap room, the Tavern would have presented a welcome stop for travelers bound from Norwich up country after 1775.

By the time Brian was interviewed on-site by Historic Homes and Properties, the Peck Tavern had been dismantled piece-by-piece, numbered like a giant jigsaw puzzle, and shipped to its new location in New Hampshire. It was the diminutive size of that tap room that was the cause of some discussion at that time, in fact. We were able to contribute the lore that some early dispensaries of liquid comfort (in pre-DUI days!) were known as "jug taverns" - establishments at which a traveler might stop to have his jug refilled before resuming his journey home.

Inside, the house had nearly been totally gutted, but it was still possible to see its outlines and amenities. With five rooms up and five rooms down, plus the ell, attic and cellar, the Jabez Jones house was spacious for its period. In fact the main structure measured a full 30 by 40 feet, as capacious as many barns of that era.

The large keeping room would have been an advantage either to a large family, or to the keepers of the Peck Tavern. And the full, eight-foot ceiling height eliminated much of the cramped, "hunched" feeling one gets in even broader, longer Colonial dwellings with a lower second floor joists.

"The construction here," Brian pointed up, "is all post-and-beam with girts (cross beam-ed) that are a full 30 feet long. It's very unusual.

"What's even more unique," he continued, "is that the frame generally is straight, plumb and square to an unheard-of degree in a house that's over 230 years of age."

We've heard many dismantler/restorers say that old-time woodwrights never threw anything away, and that's certainly the case with the Jabez Jones house. When Brian's team removed the interior lath and plaster, they discovered that the original front door had been double-wide.

"We thought it would be nice to re-erect the house with the original doors, but at first we believed they were long-gone. Then we discovered that they had been used down in the cellar as shelves, minus the wrought iron door latch. And, guess where I found that?" Brian Cooper chuckled. "Up in the attic, hanging on a nail, in pristine condition too!"

Even more, the buttery in the Tavern ell had been equipped with rows of shelves running down one side, across the back of the room, and up the other side. The mitered backwall shelves were "missing." Or were they? Actually, Brian found them used as shelves in the attic, near all the elements of an Eighteenth Century wooden loom. "We brought the shelves down and shipped them with the Tavern," Brian recalled; "I still have the pieces of the loom, and I'll do something fun with them."

The seven hand-cut granite fireplaces were being dismantled, stone by stone, during our visit. They will go with the frame of the house to its new owners in New Hampshire and will be reconstructed as working units, as will the meat smoking chamber the Early New England Restorations team found in the attic.

The house is unusual in that it was left intact without being modernized, and original features include the corner cupboard and fireplace cupboards, raised paneling and wainscotting, all interior and exterior four-panel doors complete with hardware, even a raised panel front staircase. Flooring is wide-board oak or pine. The wide-board chestnut sheathing also will be "recycled" as other elements in the re-erected house, though modern sheathing, insulation and plaster-over-blueboard walls will be added.

"Some dismantlers simply stack all the elements of the house in a trailer van," Brian said thoughtfully. "We go at the process in a much more orderly fashion because frequently we're the ones who have to do the re-erecting! It makes our job easier, and it saves our clients both time and money."

We watched Brian's staff bubble-wrap each piece, complete with its own computer-generated alpha-numeric label designed to make the daunting task of re-assembly less guess-intensive. Even pieces so distorted, altered or damaged by the ravages of time and weather they were no longer usable, are numbered and shipped to be used as templates in the creation of new replacements.

It's a truism that the old first-growth timber, from which this house had obviously been constructed, is harder and more enduring than its modern counterpart. And the innovative, creative craftsmanship that originally went into the Jabez Jones house is infrequently enjoyed today.

So we found it heartening and refreshing to know that more than 23 decades of tradition, historic significance and obvious care would find new life on a new site. Surely the spirit of Jabez Jones would feel gratified that his home has fallen on better days!