tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132898085410789426.post1491406599244295742..comments2024-03-23T05:35:06.468-04:00Comments on ancestral roofs: Poirot in BathAncestral Roofshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16755249835071665091noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132898085410789426.post-91045034206681127912015-02-11T17:39:54.990-05:002015-02-11T17:39:54.990-05:00Hi, it's me again : ) I was looking at your Be...Hi, it's me again : ) I was looking at your Beautiful pictures. I notices you have caught some spirits in the windows of your pictures. : ) AWESOMEAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132898085410789426.post-18234177950484675512015-02-11T17:30:33.593-05:002015-02-11T17:30:33.593-05:00Thank you soo much for saving this place! I used t...Thank you soo much for saving this place! I used to live in this house and it was wonderful! My family and I also believe that it is haunted. It would really be exceptional if you could find the history of the previous residents that was there from the day it was built to about 1940's? If it's possible : ) I really loved and miss that house. Thank you for the wonderful history. I loved it! : )Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132898085410789426.post-74346839528375415062013-12-18T19:10:59.359-05:002013-12-18T19:10:59.359-05:00Amazing to think the house was a part of such mome...Amazing to think the house was a part of such momentous events !! I love the building, and I'm just so happy that it's being preserved. It makes me want to read more about the town and the history of Bath.<br /><br />The heavy timber frames in the basement are intriguing, and hopefully they'll have an interesting story to tell. I didn't even know Cornell did dendro, so that was surprising to me. The oak cut date of 1498 is fascinating....its hard to imagine North America in its modern-day infancy. As an interesting sidenote, there was a White Pine chronology that dates from 1442 in Halifax. It was done by Mount Allison dendro lab in 2008......on Government House.<br /><br />http://www.mta.ca/madlab/2008-06.pdfMarknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132898085410789426.post-58119255551629252432013-12-18T09:22:21.548-05:002013-12-18T09:22:21.548-05:00Thanks so much Ron for the additional details...I ...Thanks so much Ron for the additional details...I had been wishing I'd brought a tape recorder to your tour, always so much information! I shall be looking forward to another visit, to watch the story unfold.Ancestral Roofshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16755249835071665091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132898085410789426.post-62869027808663514122013-12-18T09:12:28.759-05:002013-12-18T09:12:28.759-05:00Thanks everyone for your kind comments.
Dendrochr...Thanks everyone for your kind comments.<br /><br />Dendrochronology was performed by Carol Griggs at the Cornell Tree Ring Lab in Ithaca as part of their NY State and NE N. America Project. Interestingly the 1498 squared oak sill plate (10"x8") was the earliest historic timber they've seen from eastern N. America. Another surprise was that the addition was partly 1805 and partly 1819. It seems one of John Davy's outbuildings was reconfigured for a summer kitchen.<br /><br />At the SW corner of the building we discovered a small US military button and a Springfield 1795 musket ball at War of 1812 depth. The closest I could find in US military button references are some buttons of the NY state militia from the War of 1812, but I did not find a match. The musket ball was pocked in a manner described in English Civil War battlefield archeology used for close-quarter combat (ie - not hunting).<br /><br />Chauncey sent the USS Scourge into Bath (Ernestown) in November 1812 to take a schooner. They tried to tow the schooner in their pursuit of the Royal George but ended up scuttling it. That's all he says about the incident. British Military records indicate the Army was in Kingston and that the Canadian Militia had been recalled to Kingston. Local lore says that older veterans of the American Revolution (mostly Butler's Rangers and the King's Royal Regiment of New York) had a skirmish with the raiding US forces. If the foundation were built prior to the war and put on hold because of the war, the US forces may have been using it for shelter in the raid.<br /><br />We have an opportunity to get dates on the foundation as there was a large door and two barred windows with heavy timber frames. Dendrochronology may yield some additional secrets...<br />Ron Taskernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132898085410789426.post-69129401657512970832013-11-30T22:19:01.143-05:002013-11-30T22:19:01.143-05:00If you have an interest in early 19th century wood...If you have an interest in early 19th century wooden built heritage, be sure to visit Bath Ontario to see one of the largest collections of structures located in their original location. Under aluminum and vinyl siding you will find some amazing buildings similar to the Ham House waiting to be transformed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132898085410789426.post-53325317303646146702013-11-20T17:35:45.486-05:002013-11-20T17:35:45.486-05:00I'm completely captivated by these old places ...I'm completely captivated by these old places (I'm still digesting Fairfield Place that I saw this past summer). The dendro could have been done by the UWO....I think they have a program there of some sort. <br /><br />Don't understand how they made that rose ?! I don't get it....it was made by a divider ???<br /><br />thois was a greta post - I love seeing little details about places such as this...its the small things that are so interesting and instructive. Marknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132898085410789426.post-32927724139479958072013-11-20T10:16:28.861-05:002013-11-20T10:16:28.861-05:00Re the foundation Mark; the house structure was fi...Re the foundation Mark; the house structure was first believed to date from 1819, new evidence indicates 1816. Suggestion the foundation is older came from artifacts found there, like that musket ball which might be associated with pre-1812 war skirmish involving an American attempt to seize a boat being built at Bath (sorry, I'm a bit sketchy on the facts - there was so much going on it was difficult to attend to all of Mr. Tasker's talk). <br />Don't know where Ron Tasker linked up with dendrochronology sources, but he is very well situated within restoration architectural circles, I have heard. I'll see if I can find out.<br />Shoes: Good luck = warding off evil<br />Chamfered board - nice finishes on the planking - beaded pine interior walls, I'll email another photo.Ancestral Roofshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16755249835071665091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132898085410789426.post-3476784132001377992013-11-19T17:30:33.335-05:002013-11-19T17:30:33.335-05:00A few interesting things stuck out for me:
"...A few interesting things stuck out for me:<br /><br />"foundation is pre-1816"....is he suggesting there was a previous house there ? <br /><br />shoes...I've heard of this before....but to ward off any nefarious things, spirits, etc<br /><br />"PH" font is cool. very cool. also noticed the board its written on is ever-so-slightly chamfered by the look of it.<br /><br />dendro ?? didn't know they were doing it in southern Ontario. fascinated by the whole process, and its applications. It gets interesting when the immediate samples don't match up w/ the masters of that region....in such cases, it might suggest that a house was transported to the area from another region. Marknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6132898085410789426.post-79699572115242035712013-11-18T20:27:17.043-05:002013-11-18T20:27:17.043-05:00Thank you Lindi for the great article on the Ham H...Thank you Lindi for the great article on the Ham House. I'll have to ask my girlfriend about A. Christie's quote......she loves Poirot. <br /><br />Too much to comment w/ this piece, but the one assertion re: Bath being bypassed by the railway, and how that actually preserved the town, is very interesting to me. Its a situation that was repeated many times throughout North America. Paul Goldberger talks about this dynamic wrt Nantucket. From his website, I quote:<br /><br />"Nantucket had plenty of poverty, and plenty of preservation. Had the island been richer in the first half of the twentieth century, I wonder if any of us would want to be here now: prosperity could well have swept away a huge number of the things here that we all love and cherish. Now, time has redefined this place again, and a weak economy is the last thing this island worries about; instead, we face what I might say are the more pernicious challenges of prosperity. If poverty is an unexpected friend to preservation, prosperity can be its equally unlikely enemy.<br /> <br />You know as well as anyone how that can be, the way people can approach historic structures with the arrogance of believing their affluence gives them the right to do whatever they please with the older buildings, whether it is to demolish them, to gut them and exploit them by turning their facades into false fronts for entirely different kinds of buildings, or to imitate them in a way that disingenuously pretends to be paying homage, but is really doing the opposite, since it cheapens rather than honors your architectural heritage."Marknoreply@blogger.com