|
Work is nearing completion on the 1812 plantation house builder Dan Spear had brought from North Carolina to be rebuilt on his Spotsylvania property.
The plantation house kitchen is being remodeled into a modern space with cabinetry handmade in Charlottesville, commerical grade stainless steel appliances, and a wet bar. The 12-foot fireplace mantel is original and took more than 40 hours to restore.
A piece of timber shows marks from being pit sawn 200 years ago.
The original door hinges with leather washers date construction in 1812.
Wooden pegs hold the timber beams together. Nails were considered an expensive commodity and rarely used in the house.
The window shutter hardware is original to the house. |
THERE CAN BE no deadlines with a project like this—one that began almost 200 years ago in a North Carolina cotton field. So while he looks forward to the day when he and his wife, Debbie, can move in, home builder Dan Spear is prepared to give the project as much time as it requires.
Spear, who owns Spear Builders of Virginia, is reconstructing an 1812 North Carolina plantation house on his 82-acre homestead in Spotsylvania County. This more recent chapter in the house’s history began two years ago, when Spear set out to find an old log cabin to reconstruct on his property.
He didn’t find a log cabin. But he did find Craig Jacobs, who runs Salvagewrights, Ltd., a clearinghouse for “architectural antiquities” located in Orange County. In the fall of 2003, Jacobs had been in touch with the owner of a plantation house at Como, N.C., a few miles south of the Virginia border in northeastern North Carolina. Hurricane Isabel had torn off part of its roof, and the elements were beginning to take a toll.
Then, with perfect timing, Spear called to ask about cabins, and Jacobs wondered if he’d be interested in a 19th-century plantation house instead. Certainly worth a look, Spear figured, and off the men went to Como.
Spear was hooked immediately, despite the fact that disassembling, moving and reconstructing a very large plantation house would be an enormously expensive and time-consuming undertaking. Compared to his original hankering for a log cabin, this would be akin to building a jetliner rather than a balsa-wood plane powered by a rubber band.
The Como house was built to last, with huge posts and beams. The 12-foot ceilings on the two main floors, plus an attic, give the house imposing stature. The place was known as the Hare plantation, named for the family that built it. The plantation next door was owned by Richard J. Gatling, inventor of the Gatling gun.
Jacobs put together a crew that for the next several months would take the house apart, piece by piece, and label and catalog each one in order to rebuild it in Spotsylvania exactly as it was in the Como cotton field.
On many boards they found Roman numerals, a rudimentary numbering system used by the original builders. Spear said he and Jacobs have yet to break the code.
“We wanted every board to end up exactly where it was originally. Even the wear patterns and contours in the floors would be exactly as they were in the house,” Jacobs said earlier this year.
Three tractor–trailer loads brought the house to Spear’s property off Courthouse Road, a few miles north of the Courthouse, where a new foundation had been prepared to the house’s original dimensions plus space for an addition Spear wanted on the rear.
When The Free Lance–Star first visited the project in February, Spear said he wanted the house remain as authentic as possible. But some concessions would have to be made in the interest of comfort, convenience and cleanliness.
A jetted tub and a towel warmer are among the luxury features Spear has installed in the master bathroom. An addition on the rear of the house will include a screened porch and deck. He’s used an upstairs alcove for a laundry room.
The plumbing, electrical and heating systems would all be new. (“Debbie will let me know if it’s warm enough in here,” said Spear.) An unobtrusive air conditioning system was added. Drywall was used rather than plaster. And the floors needed to be sanded—lightly—to remove generations of grime without removing the patina.
“As his family moved away, the gentleman who had rented the house for 50 years decided to use the rooms as he wanted,” said Spear. Rather than hang hams all the way up in the attic, he decided to hang them in an upstairs bedroom. Sanding the floors helped rid that room of the smell, Spear said.
But the most fascinating part of the project, Spear said, was learning how such a house was put together 200 years ago, and the level of craftsmanship that existed then.
“They didn’t use fasteners; nails were expensive. Everything was done by post and beam, mortise and tenon,” said Spear, sort of like timber frame houses are built today.
“We had a crane to lift beams into place,” he said. The original builders must have used animals, ropes and pulleys.
The pine trees they used had to be huge, he said. The main structural posts and beams are 40-some feet long, many of them 14 inches square for their entire length. The center post begins at the floor of the English basement, then rises through that ceiling and the two 12-foot stories into an attic that’s another 10 feet at its tallest point. One beam was autographed with a flourish by an original craftsman using an awl.
Even the moldings, which Spear is leaving with the original grayish-blue milk-pigment paint, are one solid piece. “If they had a 19-foot wall, they used a 19-foot long piece of trim,” he said. He’ll add a coat of polyurethane to preserve the pigment on the interior doors and trim.
Workers discovered many interesting practices employed by the original builders.
On the main level, which would be seen and used the most, only the best heart pine was used for the flooring, while boards from slightly farther out in the tree were used upstairs. The floors on the main level were doweled to handle heavy use, while those upstairs were tongue-and-groove.
Even after so much time, Spear said that holes for dowels and pins lined up perfectly.
He noted that every “HL” hinge on every door was actually three thin layers of metal pounded together for strength by a blacksmith. Remarkably, some of the original leather washers used in fastening the hinges are still intact.
There is a frequent use of dentil molding inside and out. Small dentils on a wood fireplace hearth that was used for cooking were covered in grease and difficult to clean.
Many of the larger dentils that line the roof and porch were broken and needed to be repaired.
Because so much of the original siding was rotted, Spear chose to go with a beaded Hardee plank siding that is an accepted alternative in home restoration circles.
Much of the original glass was saved, with one pane signed by an original craftsman, and salvaged antique glass was used to replace broken panes. They give the windows a historic look but provide little insulation.
Spear has used cobblestones salvaged from Fredericksburg both on the ground and in a wall to enhance the front yard.
Once the Spears are able to move in, they’d like their existing house to become lodging for tourists looking for a country retreat just eight miles or so from Fredericksburg. They might even get a look at Spear’s automobile collection.
The house is still a few months from completion, Spear said, though he may never really finish working on it.
“It has been a fun challenge,” he said of the project. “But I wouldn’t want to go through it again.”
•Click here to read the initial story, published in February.
To reach RICHARD AMRHINE:
540/374-5406
ramrhine@freelancestar.com
