Interesting thread.

Our ca. 1813, 2.5 story, three-bay brick house in Lynchburg originally had a
1.5 story brick wing on its west end. The fireplace and doorway between the
primary chamber of the house and the wing remain. We call it a wing rather
than an addition because the chimney stack, which is integral with the
house, has four evenly divided flues...the fourth one serving the wing,
indicating that four fireboxes were planned in the beginning.

While we do not know that the wing was a kitchen, we think that it was.
Since the house was built by Quakers, slaves working in the kitchen were a
non-issue. However, beginning in 1814, slaveowners owned the house, and we
think that domestic servants may have lived in the garret of this wing.

The doorway between the wing and the house was bricked up very early,
judging by the mortar type and size of bricks used (probably around 1830).
We think that the door was closed to restrict ready access by the domestic
slaves to the house.

Perhaps the answer as to whether the wing was really a kitchen will become
apparent when we dig to pour the foundation for the new wing (the original
one was burned/demolished around 1900).


___________________________________________
W. Scott Breckinridge Smith
Historical Research & Consulting
Post Office Box 75, Lynchburg, Virga. 24505
H:434-528-3995 M:434-401-0020  www.WScottSmith.com  

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Camille Wells
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 2:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Kitchens Attached/Integral to Houses

Hey Jim.

Fairly straightforward answer to this one, although I could write a tome, as
this is indeed a research topic of mine‹and other architectural historians.
Throughout the South, with some variation in strategies, the kitchen became
integral to‹or as your house plans for Rockbridge County suggest, not
conceptually integral to, but attached to‹houses after the Civil War.  The
very old rap about fear of fire and distaste for cooking odors certainly
were additional reasons for building a detached kitchen, but the principal
consideration was:  who was doing the work?  Slaves.

Documents:  There are lots of references in family letters and
diaries‹mostly of southern women, not surprisingly‹to the difficulty of
managing meal-prep in a separate building after the War, of relenting and
building a new room for cooking onto the family dwelling-house, or as a less
expensive expedient, buying a cook stove and turning the dining room into a
space for cooking as well as eating.

Buildings:  At least in Virginia, the change from detached to attached
kitchens occurred pretty fast.  And at about the same time that
circular-sawn lumber also began replacing pit- and reciprocating-sawn lumber
in the Old Dominion.  While circular saw mills were in wide use in other
parts of the country after 1830, they did not start to outnumber other means
of hand-prepping or mechanically prepping wood for building until after
about 1870.  Census records and the buildings themselves tell us this.  Same
reason:  with bound laborers to keep busy, Virginia slave-owners had little
incentive to spring for efficient new mechanisms.  Once the labor is on
longer so readily available, new strategies start to make sense.

Exceptions:  In southern cities, where lot sizes made efficient use of space
a consideration‹even for the very wealthy‹kitchens sometimes were attached
or integrated into the house, even when slaves were doing the domestic
labor.  One good example:  John Carlisle¹s 1750-55 house in Alexandria,
where the kitchen and other service spaces were in the cellar.

Ah, but I feel a tome coming on, and your question deserves a direct reply
so that others may consider and respond.

Yr. Friend,
Camille.

>Subject: Kitchens & cooking
>Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 10:26:41 -0400
>From: Jim Watkinson <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>Listers:
>
>While this may not necessarily be the forum, there is no H-FOOD or 
>H-Architecture (though perhaps there should be for there are H-Quilts 
>and H-Water).  In any event, I recently ran across a set of blueprints 
>for a house built in or near Lexington, Virginia in 1890.  The plans 
>note a "Kitchen Addition One Story High" with a "Vegetable Cellar under 
>the Kitchen."  My question is, when in the South did most kitchens 
>become integral parts of large houses/households, rather than detached 
>buildings?  The possibility for fire prevention certainly must have 
>played a role, as did the availability or lack thereof of 
>slaves/servants, among other factors.
>
>It seems like it might be (have been?) an interesting topic for 
>investigation.
>
>Please pardon the cross-post.
>
>Regards,
>Jim Watkinson
>James D. Watkinson, Ph.D.
>Archives
>Library of Virginia
>>[log in to unmask]>
>804.692.3804


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