New Page 0

Date: 1811

Features: This house is a three bay saltbox design with a centered front door. 1/1 D.H.S. All the original windows are pegged at each corner. A centered dormer with two windows and a pedimented hood added over front door, perhaps in the 1940s. This house represents the only limestone building in the area in a saltbox design. The walls are 20 inches thick with raised mortar on the exterior. The stonework on the façade is nicely coursed with long and short stones alternating while the gable ends are haphazardly coursed. The limestone part of the house consists of two rooms downstairs with a sleeping loft above. Both rooms downstairs represent the way carpenters built many of our early houses: the hypotenuse of the building is an even number of yards or half yards. The hypotenuse of the front room is 9 yards while the measurement on the back room is 8 yards. In Victorian times a porch was added to south side, and later sided to become the kitchen. The rear limestone wall was removed in the 1940s and additions made to the rear.

Owners: This building is located within a 63-acre farm which Aaron Nutt sold in 1813 to his son-in-law, John Beck. It is part of a two-acre lot which John Beck sold in 1818 for $300, indicating the house was on the property by that tine. Rosetta Norris whose sons were stonemasons owned the house from 1831 to 1858.

Other: The house is currently owned by the historical society. (See page linked to the title of this page) Tom Williamson, Adam Zengel, Dave Hufnagle, and Dave Brooker, on a volunteer basis, were responsible for the restoration of this stone house. Beginning in July 2003 and with the help of other volunteers, they cleared the land, stabilized the north wall which was bulging, removed the 1950s chimney and fireplace from the den and repaired the foundation. They removed the hood over the front door. The wall between the kitchen and den was removed to create one large room. They reconstructed the bathroom. They rewired and added a sump pump. Matt Williams of Troop 516 repaired the garage as his Eagle Scout project. In November 2004, we moved the collections and the office of the curator into the Nutt Cottage.