jharkin wrote:Greg
Of topic.. Where in CT are you? I grew up in Southbury and my father still lives in Brookfield... maybe if you have that shop open I could find an excuse to pop in on a trip.
I'm in Hampton. Not a whole lot to see here, but you are welcome to visit. Just give me notice so I can pick up my dirty cloths!

Back to my place. I will take some more photos and sketch some. Thoughts.
We are 25 miles from Boston. This town was settled in 1710 and we are on the Charles River, there supposedly was a water mill here back then. Plus the next town over, Milford, has an old granite quarry. So I think sources for hte sawn boards and the big granite foundation slabs were available back to the 1700s. Being near Boston I could see locals adopting modern nails and hardware quite early.
Agree, being you are that close to Boston many things were more available, INCLUDING a modern cooking stove
Both layers of flooring in the front of the house here go UNDER my walls. I can take a shot of the cross section in the basement stairwell.
That sounds right and I would assume it's all the original floor
In the addition I think that the 3.5" floor stops at the walls, which makes me think renovation.
I still wonder about the difference in the foundation stones of the addition.
I will take another photo of the chimney base side profile, there is quite a ledge under the boiler stack as if something was removed, and there are mortises where a girt under that wall was probably taken out... its just not as far out as I would expect for a big hearth extension.
OK, that all sounds good 'J'. Those mortises are an important clue, maybe.
Also, the parlor hearths with the greek columns. I take a new photo that shows it better, but the hearth extension is much WIDER than the current firebox, it actually extends a few inches beyond the pilaster on each side. Really makes me think there was a wider fireplace at one time that got rebuilt.
This is quite common to find and is exactly the same thought proses I went through 15 years ago, as my house has the same thing. The most common reason I would hear for this being done was as a place to put the tools for the fire. Who knows. As you can see in my fancy North Parlor that this hearth stone is way off. It's just the way it always was in this house.


I still think its possible, the house really IS as old as we think, but somebody gutted it in 1830 or so and heavily modernized it at the time the addition was put on. Maybe it suffered some major storm damage or something. The only thing that doesn't fit is the lack of evidence of old shingles where they cut the roof.
It may be Jeremy. I tend to write as if I am 100% sure but I need to remind everyone that I am no expert and I live by the words "never say never" when it comes to these houses. Jeremy, I just see all the clues pointing to the hose being the way it is now, and no clues showing otherwise. But AGAIN, I am not there looking with my own eyes. How do you get past the evidence that there were never any shingles under the ell roof? How do you explain that those roofers were always laid like that and show no signs of ever being cut away to open the access to the ell attic? Just the strongest clue to discredit I think. Anyone?
The large granite cap stones on the main house were decorative and not structural. There would be no reason for them to continue them on the ell. That's one way of answering that question. Not sure it is the right one. The fact that the main house foundation and the cap stones are not where the ell crawl space is, is also an indication it was all done at the same time. Added on ells would not have had the main house foundation match up as well as yours. Almost always some of, or all of that foundation wall would still be there. If those cap stones end cleanly at the ell foundation then that is another clue pointing to it being built at the same time. Most likely.
This is such a fascinating discussion !!! thanks Greg, James, Casey, etc
More info to come....
-Jeremy
Yes. .... I love this stuff. I hope I'm not wearing you out Jeremy. Hope others that know better will join in.