Cookhouse

When one sees the outside of this historic summer kitchen (22'x 22') with its amazing large red rock leaning exterior chimney, steep roof, weather board exterior and the antiquated porches, it makes one feel as if he or she had just been taken back near 200 years into rural America. This extraordinary old building exemplifies the life style of early 1800's.

Upon entering this building through the low batten doors you are now beginning to visualize how our ancestors lived. You see to your immediate left very steep stairs that take you to the room above that was probably utilized as a bedroom for the cooks; to the right is the fireplace where all the meals were prepared for the owners of this Plantation. The fireplace and interior chimney have large red rocks going from floor to ceiling with a width of eight feet and a height of ten feet. The top of the fireplace is unusual in that it uses a keystone to hold it in place and this building technique creates an arch. When one sees the four-foot wide opening with pots hanging from trammel hooks over the fire and Dutch oven resting upon red-hot coals, they can visualize how difficult and dangerous meal preparations were in this time period.  The hearthstones that were used extend the length of the room (20') and consisted totally of soapstone and with most of them six to eight inches thick and with sizes as much as three feet by four feet.  Soapstone is still one of the best heat retainers. There are no places locally to quarry these heavy stones so they had to be cut and brought here from a distance of at least sixty miles away.

The building itself lays on top of dry laid red rock about six inches in height and built in the same manner as the Smokehouse. The east side still retains some original beaded weatherboard. The flooring is heart pine with varying widths. The rafters above are all exposed. The walls are not plastered but are again of heart pine of varying widths. Under the stairs is an enclosed cupboard with a small beaded batten door with hand made rose-headed nails and original H hinges held by the same type nails with a leather washer.  The beams that are extended out show early sash saw milling in that the ends were split off and not sawed. Some windowpanes are original or near original for they are hand blown glass with their bubbles and lines showing the imperfections and distortions of glass making of the time. The size of the fireplace and chimney is extraordinary in another way in that it still stands after all these years because they did not use mortar but had only red clay or mud between the rocks. The upstairs door is the original with it clinched rose-headed nails holding the beaded batten door together.

There are some people who say this was the weaving house because there existed another building in back of the smoke house toward the entrance of the basement that resembled this one and it was the original cookhouse. I do not believe that to be the case because the amount of soapstone in the house and this building is directly across from the smokehouse for easy entrance. In all the plantations that I have visited in the state of Virginia I have never seen a weaver house across from the smokehouse. Also the fireplace has a hanger built in for the trammel hooks.

Renovation, rehabilitation and restoring of the cookhouse over the years have been done to fit the times. When we bought the property in 1978 it had been vacant for over 12 years and neglect had taken its toll. The roof leaked, the fireplace was one half fallen in, all the soapstone were sunken into the earth about three inches due to groundhogs living under them, the doors were broken and off the hinges, some of the flooring and seals was rotten, rats and vermin had eaten holes in doors and flooring, seriously warped floor boards and broken windows. The east side had an enclosed room ready to fall in and the front porch had rotten cedar posts and boards.

The back porch or room had been used as a kitchen for many years.  The wood, nails, sheetrock suggest to me that it was made sometimes in the 1940's. It had a place for a stove with a cinder block chimney.  I tore it all out and replaced it with poured cement floor and a railing of cedar post and then screen it in.  I do not believe the house had a back porch to start with because there are no clues to suggest anything was attached.

The front porch was added many years ago but was also not original to the building.  The cement was extremely worn and cracked and was probably done in the first part of the 20^th century.

Inside the house, at one time, they also had a stove that used wood because the round hole in the ceiling and a round tin extension through the roof.  The stairs were blocked off to keep the heat downstairs.  All holes were patched and the blocked off area was removed.  Half of the flooring was taken up and reversed because the inch and one eight board was worn to one half inch near the soapstone. Three boards had to be replaced due to rot.  The floor seals on one end also had to be replaced for the same reason. The interior of the walls was covered with many, many coats of paint and they were scraped and sanded down to the wood and a protector seal put on.  A jack was used to raise the level of the soapstone. The fireplace, besides being half caved in, had some kind of white mortor/plaster on the rocks and was removed and the fireplace was put back using today's mortar. A sealer was put on the red rocks to keep down the dust.  The floors were extremely warped and loose therefore all were screwed down and the high edges were sanded down. Again a protector was put on the flooring.  The major change was to put a half bath in one corner using old wood to blend into the interior.

Other facts that need noting; It was wired for electricity in the early 1950's and I added a new electrical box and changed the wiring. Because of the nails used, the roof had been replaced with crimped tin after 1890, all the weather boards, except the east side, were replaced after 1890 and the two exterior batten doors are not original to the building but were replacements put on after 1890.

Because this building was in such a disrepair condition, monetarily it was not warranted for repair. To help better understand the condition of the interior, it took me three months working ten-hours everyday to complete the renovations, rehabilitations, and restorations.

The design and construction of this building are typical of early homes. The overseer's house and another across the river on Green Hill plantation are both very similar to the summer kitchen.

Some questions that are still intriguing for me are; (1) was this house built as a primary residence to begin with and (2) did they use the two fireplaces in the basement of the manor house as a winter kitchen.

It is still my contention that both the Smokehouse and Cookhouse were built Pre or at the same time as the Manor house but not after, because of the nails found in them. What makes this historic Summer Kitchen remarkable is that the families that lived in the manor house had continuously used it as the kitchen since early 1800's until the mid 1960's.

With all the boring facts being said, it really does not truly express the extraordinary delightful feelings when one sees and walks into the middle of this spacious, restored historic room. For it is here that the spirits of the past seems to come out as you imagine how all the delicious meals that are being prepared in the fireplace with flames of hardwood heating everything and after having dinner, on a cold winter evening, you are now visiting with the long past decedents who are sitting on benches next to this beautiful radiating heat, some reading, while others are having friendly talk as night just passes slowly, slowly away.