Reclaiming Old Houses 
BY Charles Edward Hooper 
Photographs by the Author 
Editor's Notk. —So many people are seeking the old house as the ideal country home that the subject bears much more than a cursory treatment. Mr. Hooper's wide 
experience in dcafhtg zeith the problems of remodeling old homes makes him especially fitted to giz'e the practical instruction necessary to make the undertaking the delightful 
success that it is in so feze cases. For the first time the ztihole subject zvill be fully developed. The first article dealt zvith the choice of a house, and told zuhat one should 
know before purchasing — what is good and bad and the test for determining a satisfactory site and building. This treats of just zi'haf to do zeith a practical example. 
The next issue zcill take up the discussion of hardzoare. 
W HEN one has Iiecome 
possessor of an old 
house and then stands face to 
face with the real problem, it 
is well that he pause and con¬ 
sider the thing seriously. In¬ 
stead of lacing down rules to 
illustrate one method of han¬ 
dling the following problem, 
we will try to give material 
for this consideration by tell¬ 
ing how we attacked our 
own problem. 
To begin with, the origin,al, 
as near as we can get at it, 
bared of all tbe good and bad 
additions of later dates — 
mostly bad—had an eight- 
room plan in two stories, 
which stories were about 7 
feet 8 inches and 7 feet 2 
inches respectively. The ar¬ 
rangement is one of the early 
forms used in the Connecticut 
Valley, but the house itself 
was not as old as its plan. 
It had, however, a good solid 
oak frame, reasoipablv sound 
and fairly level, but unfortu¬ 
nately somewhat out of plumb, 
and the siding seemed to have 
been put on before the defect 
was discovered. We ha^-e con¬ 
cluded this from the fact that 
the doorways of the cross-par¬ 
titions flanking the front en¬ 
trance were true and plumb 
and the casing next the outer 
wall was tapered to fit — all be¬ 
ing old work. 
The outer covering was of 
double grooved siding, which 
The front of the house after alteration appeared plain and simple and 
is what would be most natural for the period and local conditions 
The rear is the river elevation and from this open air room the outlook 
is of the very best 
when fitted together showed an 
over-lap as in common clap¬ 
boarding. This was laid di¬ 
rectly on the frame without 
bo.arding — an old method — but 
the old-time brick wall-filling 
did not occur. There was no 
gutter to. the roof, which was 
hipped and of about a thirty- 
degree pitch. The old chimney 
was built largely of stone laid 
in clay mud (an okl custom) 
with occasional interjected and 
app,arently meaningless pieces 
of oak timber. The visible por¬ 
tions of the fireplaces were of 
brick laid up in lime mortar, 
with brown freestone caps and 
hearths. The caps were in 
good order, but the hearths 
were cracked and much the 
worse for fire; the whole chim¬ 
ney was unsafe .and had been 
unused for some time. 
When the job came into our 
hands there was a long tele¬ 
scopic addition of one and one- 
half stories .attached to the 
rear, extending from the cor¬ 
ner of the pantry to the post 
beyond the door. The first unit 
was evidently a new kitchen; 
the next .and the next, unclas¬ 
sified and all of different dates. 
Had its outreach not been 
stopped by a large apple tree, 
it might have gone on and on 
into the river. This series was 
ancient enough to boast of an 
old hand-nrade wooden gutter, 
but a covered piazza extending 
around four sides of the house 
Remodeled plan — first floor 
Oa R, Open Air Room: E, Entry; V, Veranda; L, Lavatory: 
S, Stairs: S. R., Servant’s Room; B, Buffet; S, Standpipe; 
L. F., Laundry yard; R. R., Reception Room. 
The old plan as it existed before 
alteration, showing the ar¬ 
rangement of early days 
k 
(27) 
