Abstract
The 18th-century houses that dot Connecticut’s landscape have come to be the very symbols of the state’s colonial past. Recent archaeological investigations at the buried remains of six period homesteads indicate that Connecticut’s domestic architecture was far more varied and dynamic than conventionally believed. Excavations revealed the continuation of ancient English house forms, including small one-room end-chimney and long and narrow cross-passage types. The excavations also provide new information on construction techniques, household material culture, food storage, and everyday lifeways of Connecticut’s middling sort, who formed the largest population sector, but about whom little is known from documentary sources.
In short, a “house,” wherever it may be, is an enduring thing, and it bears perpetual witness to the slow pace of civilizations, of cultures bent on preserving, maintaining and repeating (Braudel 1992).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baker, Emerson W., Robert L. Bradley, Leon Cramner, and Neill Depaoli 1992 Earthfast Architecture in Early Maine. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, Portsmouth, NH.
Baker, Emerson W., Robert L. Bradley, Leon Cramner, and Neill Depaoli 1992 Earthfast Architecture in Early Maine. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, Portsmouth, NH.
Barley, Maurice W. 1961 The English Farmhouse and Cottage. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, UK.
Beaudry, Mary C., and Douglas C. George 1987 Old Data, New Findings: 1940s Archaeology at Plymouth Reexamined. American Archaeology 6(1):20–30.
Beaudry, Mary C., Karin J. Goldstein, and Craig Chartier 2003 Archaeology of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. Avalon Chronicles 8:155–185.
Bouton, Nathaniel 1851 An Historical Discourse in Commemoration of the Two-Hundredth Anniversary of the Settlement of Norwalk, CT., in 1651; Delivered in the First Congregational Church in Norwalk, July 9, 1851. S. W. Benedict, New York, NY.
Branford Land Records 1732 Branford Land Records, Vol. 5. Branford Town Clerk’s Office, Branford, CT.
Braudel, Fernand 1992 The Structures of Everyday Life, Siân Reynolds, translator. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Buel, Richard, Jr., and J. Bard McNultry (editors) 1999 John Adams. In Connecticut Observed: Three Centuries of Visitors’ Impressions, 1676–1940, Richard Buel, Jr., and J. Bard McNultry, editors, pp. 27–39. Acorn Club, Hartford, CT.
Carson, Cary 2012 Correspondence with Ross K. Harper Concerning Analysis and Interpretation of the Ephraim Sprague House Site, Andover, Connecticut. Manuscript, Historic New England Archives, Boston, MA.
Carson, Cary, and Nat Alcock 2007 West Country Farms House-and-Estate Surveys, 1598–1764. Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK.
Carson, Cary, Norman F. Barka, William M. Kelso, Gary Wheeler Stone, and Dell Upton 1981 Impermanent Architecture in the Southern American Colonies. Winterthur Portfolio 16(2&3):135–196.
Caulkins, Frances Manwaring 1866 History of Norwich. Case, Lockwood and Brainerd, Hartford, CT.
1895 History of New London. H. D. Utley, New London, CT.
Connecticut State Archives (CSA) 1735 Estate of Thomas Daniels. New London Probate District, Connecticut State Archives, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
1742 Estate of John Taylor. Fairfield Probate District, Connecticut State Archives, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
1744 Estate of Hannah Daniels. New London Probate Court, Connecticut State Archives, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
1752 Estate of Samuel Goodsell. Guilford Probate District, Connecticut State Archives, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
1754 Estate of Ephraim Sprague. Windham Probate District, Connecticut State Archives, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
1758 Estate of Samuel Goodsell [Jr]. Guilford Probate District, Connecticut State Archives, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
1776 Estate of Damaris Brown. Killingly Probate District, Connecticut State Archives, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
1777 Petition of Ebenezer Story, 20 May. Revolutionary War Series, Vol. 7, pp. 273–274, Connecticut State Archives, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
1782a Estate Records of Ebenezer Story. Norwich Probate Court, Connecticut State Archives, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
1782b Nomination for Innkeepers for Norwich. Manuscript Records, New London County, Connecticut State Archives, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
Cummings, Abbott Lowell 1979 The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay, 1625–1725. Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA.
1993 Connecticut and Its First Period Houses. Connecticut Preservation News 16(1):1,8–10.
1994 Connecticut and Its Building Traditions. Connecticut History 35(1):192–233.
Deane, Samuel 1790 The New England Farmer; or Georgical Dictionary: Containing a Compendious Account of the Ways and Methods in which the Most Important Art of the Husbandry, in All Its Various Branches, is, or may be, Practised to the Greatest Advantage in this Country. Isaiah Thomas, Worcester, MA.
Deetz, James 1977 In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American Life. Doubleday, New York, NY.
1979 Plymouth Colony Architecture: Archaeological Evidence from the Seventeenth Century. In Architecture in Colonial Massachusetts, Abbott Lowell Cummings, editor, pp. 43–59. Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Boston.
1996 In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American Life, expanded and revised from 1977 edition. Doubleday, New York, NY.
Dodd, Stephen (compiler) 1824 The East-Haven Register: In Three Parts. Stephen Dodd, New Haven, CT.
Dwight, Timothy 1969 Travels in New England and New York, Vol. 2, Barbara Miller Solomon, editor. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Garvan, Anthony N. B. 1951 Architecture and Town Planning in Colonial Connecticut. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Harper, Ross K. 1990 An Ethnoarchaeological Study of the Cisterns in Oranjestad, Sint Eustatius, Netherlands Antilles. Master’s thesis, Department of Anthropology, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA.
2005 Historical Archaeology on the 18th-Century Connecticut Frontier: The Ways and Means of Captain Ephraim Sprague. Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly 41(2):9–16.
2006 Small Digs: Archaeological Excavations at the Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. House, Lebanon, Connecticut. Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut 68:109–130.
2008a Hunting, Trapping and Fowling in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut. Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly 44(2):2–16.
2008b The Household Economy of Lydia Goodsell: Archaeology of an 18th-Century Family in North Branford. Connecticut Preservation News 31(3):4–5, 15.
2008c The Ca. 1713 Benedict House Site, Wilton. Society for Historical Archaeology Newsletter 41(1):35–36.
2008d Report: Phase I Archaeological Reconnaissance Survey Brown-Elton Tavern, Site 20–2, George Washington Turnpike, Burlington, Connecticut. Report to Burlington Historical Society, Burlington, CT, from PAST, Inc., Storrs, CT.
2008e Report: An Analysis of the Artifacts from the Trash Pit/Privy at the Prudence Crandall House Museum, Canterbury, Connecticut. Report to Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism (CCT), Historic Preservation and Museum Division, Hartford, CT, from PAST, Inc., Storrs, CT.
2010a Thomas Daniels Archaeological Site. An Early 18th-Century Homestead. Manuscript, AHS, Inc., Storrs, CT. Archaeological and Historical Services, Inc. <http://www.ahs-inc.biz/Daniels/>. Accessed 14 January 2010.
2010b “Providence Brings to Our Doors, the Delicious Treasures of the Sea”: Household Use of Maritime Resources in 18th-Century Connecticut. Coriolis: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Maritime Studies 1(1):38–63. Coriolis <http://ijms.nmdl.org/>. Accessed 25 May 2010.
2010c “A Convenient House at the Place Called Brewster’s Bar” Archaeology at the Ebenezer Story Site, Preston. Connecticut Preservation News 33(1):10,15.
2010d Backyard Archaeology at the Cady-Copp House, Putnam. Connecticut Preservation News 33(5):10–11.
Harper Ross K., and Bruce Clouette 2006 Report: Phase III Archaeological Data Recovery Program Ebenezer Story Homestead/Tavern (Site 114–115). Archaeological and Historical Documentation Former Norwich State Hospital Property Norwich and Preston, Connecticut, Vol. 3. Report to Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Hartford, CT, from AHS, Inc., Storrs, CT.
2007 Report: Phase III Archaeological Data Recovery Program, the 1712–ca. 1770s Daniels Homestead (Site 152-128), Parkway South and Cross Street, S. P. No. 01-99, Waterford. Report to Connecticut Department of Transportation, Newington, CT, from AHS, Inc., Storrs, CT.
2009 Archaeology at the 1777 Ebenezer Story Site: The Household Economy of a Family of Fishermen-Farmers on the Thames River, Preston, Connecticut. Northeast Historical Archaeology 32:100–121.
2010a Cady-Copp Homestead. Site No. 116-22 Putnam, Connecticut. Commission of Culture and Tourism, The Last Green Valley, Hartford, CT.
2010b Ephraim Sprague Archaeological Site. A Time Capsule from the 18th Century. Manuscript, AHS, Inc., Storrs, CT. Archaeological and Historical Services, Inc. <http://www.ahs-inc.biz/Sprague/>. Accessed 9 March 2010.
Harper, Ross K., Bruce Clouette, and Mary G. Harper 2005 Report of Archaeological Investigations at the Cady- Copp House, Liberty Highway, Putnam, Connecticut, 3 vols. Report to Town of Putnam, CT, from PAST, Inc., Storrs, CT.
2007 Report: Phase II Intensive Survey, Site 99-31 and Phase III Data Recovery Program, Goodsell Homestead (Site 99-31), Route 22 and Village Street, North Branford, Connecticut, S.P. No. 98-90. Report to Connecticut Department of Transportation, Newington, CT, from AHS, Inc., Storrs, CT.
Harper, Ross K., Bruce Clouette, and Brian Jones 2007 Report: Phase III Archaeological Data Recovery Program at Site 161-23, the ca. 1713 Benjamin Benedict House Site. Route 7 Corridor Improvement Project. S.P. No.102-305, 2 vols. Report to Connecticut Department of Transportation, Newington, CT, from AHS, Inc., Storrs, CT.
Harper, Ross K., and Mary G. Harper 2007 Report: Phase II Intensive Survey and Phase III Data Recovery Program, The c. 1705 Ephraim Sprague Homestead (Site No. 1-12). Report to Connecticut Department of Transportation, Newington, CT, from AHS, Inc., Storrs, CT.
Harper, Ross, Mary Harper, and Bruce Clouette 2001 Foodways in 18th-Century Connecticut. Cultural Resource Management 24(4):13–15.
Harper, Ross K., Mary G. Harper, Bruce Clouette, and Daniel Forrest 2009 Report: Intensive (Locational) Archaeological Survey Proposed New Westhampton Memorial Library Addition to Sylvester Judd, Jr. House, Westhampton, Massachusetts, MHC Project No. RC36692. Report to Westhampton Memorial Library Building Committee, Westhampton, MA, from AHS, Inc., Storrs, CT.
Hastings, Scott E. 1990 The Last Yankees. Folkways in Eastern Vermont and the Border Country. University Press of New England, Hanover, NH.
Hempstead, Joshua 1901 Diary of Joshua Hempstead of New London, Connecticut. Covering a Period of Forty-Seven Years from September, 1711, to November, 1758. New London County Historical Society, New London, CT.
Hurd, D. Hamilton (compiler) 1881 History of Fairfield County, Connecticut. J. W. Lewis & Co, Philadelphia, PA.
Isham, Norman M., and Albert F. Brown 1900 Early Connecticut Houses. An Historical and Architectural Study. Preston and Rounds Company, Providence, RI. Reprinted 1965 by Dover, New York, NY.
Johnson, Rossiter (editor) 1904 George Henry Story. In The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Vol. 10, Rossiter Johnson, editor. Biographical Society, Boston, MA.
Kelly, J. Frederick 1924 Early Domestic Architecture of Connecticut. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. Reprinted 1963 by Dover, New York, NY.
Knight, Sarah Kemble 1825 The Journal of Madam Knight. A Treacherous Journey by Horseback from Boston to New York in the Year 1704. Theodore Dwight, New York, NY. Reprinted 1992 by Applewood Books, Chester, CT.
Larkin, Jack 2006 Where We Lived: Discovering the Places We Once Called Home. Taunton Press, Newtown, CT.
Lewis, Thomas R. 1980 “To Planters of Moderate Means”: The Cottage as a Dominant Folk House in Connecticut Before 1900. Proceedings of the New England-St. Lawrence Valley Geographical Society 10(10):23–27.
Long, Amos 1960 Pennsylvania Cave and Ground Cellars. Pennsylvania Folklife Magazine 11(2):36–41.
LoRusso, Mark 1998 African-American Archaeology: The Betsey Prince Site. New York State Museum <http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/research/anthropology/crsp/arccrspprince.html>. Accessed 1 December 2009.
Marcus, Richard Henry 1966 The Militia of Colonial Connecticut 1639–1775: An Institutional Study. Doctoral dissertation, Department of History, University of Colorado, Boulder. University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI.
Martin, Ann Smart 1989 The Role of Pewter as Missing Artifact: Consumer Attitudes Toward Tablewares in Late 18th Century Virginia. Historical Archaeology 23(2):1–27.
Moxon, Joseph 1703 Mechanick Exercises or the Doctrine of Handy-Works. D. Midwinter, London, UK. Reprinted 1989 by Astragal Press, Morristown, NJ.
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution 1965 Jessie A. Marshall. Application File, D.A.R. National No. 180988, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington DC.
New London Land Records (NLR) 1713 New London Land Records, Vol. 6, Part 2. New London Town Clerk’s Office, New London, CT.
1716 New London Land Records, Vol. 7. New London Town Clerk’s Office, New London, CT.
1717 New London Land Records, Vol. 7. New London Town Clerk’s Office, New London, CT.
1744 New London Land Records, Vol. 13. New London Town Clerk’s Office, New London, CT.
1749 New London Land Records, Vol. 15. New London Town Clerk’s Office, New London, CT.
Niemcewicz, Julia Ursyn 1965 Under Their Vine and Fig Tree. Travels through America in 1797–1799, 1805 with some further Account of Life in New Jersey, Metchie J. Budka, translator and editor. Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society, Vol. 14, Grassman, Newark, NJ.
Noël Hume, Ivor 1982 Martin’s Hundred. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY.
Norwalk Land Records 1713 Norwalk Land Records, Vol. 4. Norwalk Town Clerk’s Office, Norwalk, CT.
1715 Norwalk Land Records, Vol. 4. Norwalk Town Clerk’s Office, Norwalk, CT.
1724 Norwalk Land Records Vol. 5. Norwalk Town Clerk’s Office, Norwalk, CT.
1733 Norwalk Land Records, Vol. 7. Norwalk Town Clerk’s Office, Norwalk, CT.
1734 Norwalk Land Records, Vol. 7. Norwalk Town Clerk’s Office, Norwalk, CT.
1774 Norwalk Land Records, Vol. 14. Norwalk Town Clerk’s Office, Norwalk, CT.
1789 Norwalk Land Records, Vol. 16. Norwalk Town Clerk’s Office, Norwalk, CT.
Norwich Land Records 1771 Norwich Land Records, Vol. 22. Norwich Town Clerk’s Office, Norwich, CT.
1778 Norwich Land Records, Vol. 23. Norwich Town Clerk’s Office, Norwich, CT.
Preston Land Records (PLR) 1780 Preston Land Records, Vol. 31. Preston Town Clerk’s Office, Preston, CT.
1792 Preston Land Records, Vol. 2. Preston Town Clerk’s Office, Preston, CT.
1805 Preston Land Records, Vol. 14. Preston Town Clerk’s Office, Preston, CT.
1843 Preston Land Records, Vol. 20. Preston Town Clerk’s Office, Preston, CT.
1844 Preston Land Records, Vol. 20. Preston Town Clerk’s Office, Preston, CT.
1852 Preston Land Records, Vol. 22. Preston Town Clerk’s Office, Preston, CT.
1895 Preston Land Records, Vol. 31. Preston Town Clerk’s Office, Preston, CT.
1903 Preston Land Records, Vol. 32. Preston Town Clerk’s Office, Preston, CT.
Robin, Claude C. 1783 New Travels throughout North America: In a Series of Letters; Exhibiting, the History of the Victorious Campaign of the Allied Armies, under his Excellency General Washington, and the Count de Rochambeau, in the Year 1781. Robert Bell, Philadelphia, PA. Reprinted 1969 by Arno Press, New York, NY.
St. George, Robert Blair 1986 “Set Thine House in Order”: The Domestication of the Yeomanry in Seventeenth-Century New England. In Common Places Readings in American Vernacular Architecture, Dell Upton and John Michael Vlach, editors, pp. 336–364. University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA.
1998 Conversing by Signs: Poetics of Implication in Colonial New England Culture. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.
Sheldon, Asa G. 1857 Remedy for the Potato Rot. In The New England Farmer; a Monthly Journal, Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture and Their Kindred Sciences; Embellished and Illustrated with Numerous Beautiful Engravings, Vol. 9, Simon Brown, editor, p. 524. Joel Nourse, Boston, MA.
Shurtleff, Harold R. 1939 The Log Cabin Myth. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Sloma, Robert A. 1992 Archaeology and Vernacular Architecture in Vermont: Expect the Unexpected. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology, Glens Falls, NY.
Somerset and South Avon Vernacular Building Research Group 1986 The Vernacular Houses with Farms and Farmsteads of Alford and Lovington. In Somerset Villages. Crewkerne, Somerset, UK.
Sprague, Waren Vincent 1913 Sprague Families in America. Tuttle Company, Rutland, VT.
Stachiw, Myron O. 1999 Report: Integration of Resources for the Huntington Homestead. Manuscript, Governor Samuel Huntington Trust, Scotland, CT, and the National Park Service, Scotland, CT.
2000 Report of Archaeological Excavations at the Huntington Homestead, Scotland, Connecticut. Manuscript, Governor Samuel Huntington Trust, Scotland, CT.
Strickland, William 1971 Journal of a Tour in the United States of America, 1794–1795, J. E. Strickland, editor. New-York Historical Society Press, New York, NY.
Tilton, George H. 1918 A History of Rehoboth, Massachusetts. George H. Tilton, Boston, MA.
Trumbull, James H., AND CHARLES J. HOADLEY (editors) 1850–1890 Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 15 vols. Brown and Parsons, Hartford, CT.
United States Bureau of the Census 1850 Census of Population. Manuscript Schedules, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
United States Coast Survey 1841 Survey of the U.S. Coast: Thames River, Connecticut, from Gales Ferry to Whiptop Point. Manuscript Map T-87, U.S. National Archives, College Park, MD.
Webster, Noah 1828 The American Dictionary of the English Language, 2 vols. New York, NY.
Wheelock, Eleazar 1971 Microfilm Edition of the Papers of Eleazar Wheelock: Together with the Early Archives of Dartmouth College & Moor’s Indian School Charity School, and Records of the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire through the Year 1779. Microfilm, Dartmouth College Library, Hanover, NH.
Wilton Land Records 1845 Wilton Land Records, Vol. 9. Wilton Town Clerk’s Office, Wilton, CT.
1852 Wilton Land Records, Vol. 12. Wilton Town Clerk’s Office, Wilton, CT.
Wolcott-Huntington Papers 1777–1779 Continental Ship Confederacy Account Books. Wolcott-Huntington Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Harper, R.K. “Their Houses are Ancient and Ordinary”: Archaeology and Connecticut’s Eighteenth-Century Domestic Architecture. Hist Arch 46, 8–47 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376877
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03376877