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NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 (Expires 5/31/2012) 2280 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service 614 JU 3201 National Register of Historic Places NAT. REG LAGES Registration Form This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in National Register Bulletin, How to Complete the National Register ofHistoric Places Registration Form.If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions Place additional certification comments, entries, and narrative items on continuation sheets if needed (NPS Form 10-900a). 1. Name of Property historic name Wheeler Family Farmstead other names/site number Capt.
Truman Wheeler House 2. Location street & number 817 South Main Street not for publication city or town state Great Barrington Massachusetts code MA county Berkshire code 003 vicinity zip code 01230 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that thisx nomination request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60.
In my opinion, the propertyx meets does not meet the National Register Criteria.I recommend that this property be considered significant at the following level(s) of significance national statewide x local Brond Signature of certifying official Brona Simon, SHPO, MHC July 8, 2011 Date Title State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribai Government In my opinion, the property -meets _ does not meet the National Register criteria Signature of commenting official Date Title State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government 4. National Park Service Certification 1, hereby, certify that this property is: entered in the National Register determined eligible for the National Register - determined not eligible for the National Register removed from the National Register Patuik Anduus Signature of the Keeper 9/6/2011 Date of Acti WHEELER FAMILY FARMSTEAD Name of Property 5.
Classification wnership of Propert Check as many boxes as apply private public - Local public -State public - Federal Category of Property (Check only one box) building(s) district site structure object Name of related multiple property listing (Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing) N/A 6. Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions) DOMESTIC, single dwelling DOMESTIC, secondary structure AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE, storage; outbuilding; animal facility 7.
Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions) COLONIAL, Dutch Colonial COLONIAL, Postmedieval English Berkshire, MA County and State Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count.) Contributing Noncontributing 7 1 0 8 buildings district site structure object Total Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register 0 Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions) RECREATION & CULTURE, museum Materials (Enter categories from instructions) foundation: STONE, Granite walls: WOOD, Shingle WOOD, Weatherboard roof: METAL other: N/A NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Wheeler Family Farmstead Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 Page 1 Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current physical appearance of the property. Explain contributing and noncontributing resources if necessary. Begin with a summary paragraph that briefly describes the general characteristics of the property, such as its location, setting, size, and significant features.) Summary Paragraph The Wheeler Family Farmstead is located on the southern edge of the town of Great Barrington, in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. The once-rural area, with East Mountain a prominent eastern backdrop, has developed into a busy commercial strip along U.S.
Route 7, which follows the course of the Housatonic River through Connecticut and Massachusetts. With its headwaters in Berkshire County, the Housatonic is a major interstate watershed located midway between the Hudson and Connecticut rivers, supporting scores of agricultural and industrial centers along its route to Long Island Sound. At its peak, the Wheeler Family Farmstead contained 130 acres extending west from the nearby Housatonic River, and west across Rt. 7, then known as the Sheffield Road. Now, without its farm setting and separated from the river, the nominated property contains 1.5 acres, with the historic house and surviving farm buildings that have accumulated there since the mid 18t century. Five generations of the Wheeler family occupied the farm, and each has left its imprint on it.
The family's progenitor, Truman Wheeler (1741-1815), began assembling land for the farm in 1768, and in 1771 he purchased the house in which he apparently had already been living and operating a store since his arrival in Great Barrington from Woodbury, Connecticut. The two-story, wood-frame house with connected outbuildings evolved through a number of stages, and incorporates elements that appear to date from a ca. 1733 dwelling. The Wheeler House is distinctive for its combination of both Dutch and English framing methods, a regional feature resulting from the interplay of cultures along the New York-Massachusetts border, an area that was in dispute during most of the 18" century. The evolution of the house reflects the changing composition of households and local taste over the ensuing 200 years.
The house is positioned near the highway, with its associated farm buildings arrayed behind it. Two 18*-century farm buildings survive- - a wagon house attached to the house, and a workshop that may have originated as a barn. Other buildings illustrate the periodic improvement of farm practice, such as a late 19*-century hay barn and an early 20-century cow house and silo. While the house has evolved to its present appearance over many years, it nevertheless reflects its Colonial-period roots both inside and out. Set well back from the road, it stands facing west on a relatively flat, grassy parcel with several mature trees. Two driveways on the south side of the house lead east to the outbuildings. The nominated property contains a total of seven contributing buildings and one contributing structure. There are no noncontributing elements.
Narrative Description The Wheeler Family Farmstead contains the following components. Refer to the attached site plan (Fig.I) for locations. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7 - Page 2 1. Wheeler House (ca.1733-ca. 1920) 2. Workshop (late 18" century) 3. Animal Shed (mid-19" century) 4. Hay Barn (ca. 1895) 5. Cow House (ca. 1910) 6. Heifer House (ca. 1910) 7. Silo (ca. 1910) 8. Carriage House & Stable (ca. 1820) (Expires 5-31-2012) Wheeler Family Farmstead Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) 1. Wheeler House (ca. 1733-ca.
1920) The exterior of the house has been restored to its early 20t*-century appearance with the removal of vinyl clapboard siding installed in the 1970s, and the addition of a metal roofing system fabricated to look like wood shingles (IMAGES 1-3). The re-exposed wood shingle siding was applied over wood clapboard siding, which itself was installed sometime in the 19 century, at least on rear sections, where it is exposed with machine-cut nails (Figs.3&4). The wood-frame house is composed of a rectangular, gable roofed front section with a two-story front façade, and a large, square-plan, two-story rear ell with a cross- gable roof. A one-story wagon house was later connected to the rear of the ell, having originated in some other location (IMAGE 2).
It is currently under restoration and its walls are largely disassembled, including a privy that had been attached to the north wall and is now moved back to a temporary location (IMAGE 4). The roof profile of the front section is skewed, because the front was raised from 1½ stories in height to two stories, while the rear wall was not. The front façade has a center entrance that contains a pair of paneled doors, with a single window above it and pairs of windows flanking it on both stories. A simple Classical cornice with shallow soffits decorates the roof line, abutting the tops of the second-story windows in New England fashion (IMAGE 1). If any other frieze, corner, or window trim was present, it has been obscured by the shingle siding. A porch sheltered the entrance ca. 1915, but it is unknown what had been present - or not - in other stages (Figs.3 & 4).
The brick center chimney has been reduced in size from its original dimensions. Mid 19*h- century 6/6 wood sash fill the upper windows, with late 19'"-century 2/2 sash in the taller, lower windows. A small, square window was added to the north end of the house (IMAGE 1). Like the front section, the ell is comprised of first and second stories, constructed at two different times. Fenestration is intact; sash types vary in ways similar to the front (IMAGES 2 & 3). A deep, late 19t*-century porch on the south side of the ell fills the whole of the recess (IMAGE 2, Fig.4); a more recent porch once on the north side of the ell, has been removed. The many stages in the long construction history of the house are discernable on the exterior, distinguishing it as a meaningful architectural object. Descriptions of the more significant stages follow. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev.
8/2002) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) Wheeler Family Farmstead Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 Page 3 STAGE I The first stage is embodied in the wood bent frame of the north room on the first story of the house (Fig.5). It was erected before Truman Wheeler acquired the property in 1771, possibly as early as 1733, when Samuel Dewey is believed to have built a house there.
(Even though Wheeler did not obtain title to the property until 1771, he probably had been operating his store there since his arrival in Great Barrington in 1764.) The structure, roughly measuring fifteen feet across the front, and seventeen feet in depth, is fashioned in an 18"-century Dutch-American manner, with five posts spaced about three feet apart on the front (west) and rear, connected by large beams spanning the entire depth of the interior. Much of this frame is concealed, particularly the beams, which are covered with a later plaster ceiling, but enough evidence is visible to associate the construction method with the Dutch building tradition, brought to western Massachusetts by settlers and craftsmen migrating east from the Hudson River Valley.
The relatively slight dimensions of the beams and the absence of bracing "corbels" beneath the joints would, in the Hudson Valley context, date the frame to the 1740s or 1750s. The inside faces of the posts on the front wall are presently exposed on the interior, either by original design or later "restoration." They measure around six inches square in section, with approximately three inches of their sides exposed beyond plaster panels recessed between them (IMAGE 6). The posts are joined to a cross beam by a beveled mortise joint, with the base of the beam resting on a one-inch seat cut into the vertical member; two pegs secure the through-tenon to the post (Fig.7). There is no visible evidence of the walls having been nogged in the Dutch manner - that is, packed with a clay and straw mixture around horizontal slats wedged between the posts.
Apparently, the exterior of the frame was sheathed with boards and covered with clapboards, which was typical of the locality. The front façade probably contained an entrance and a window in the center two bays, although no residual features of them can be seen. The existing windows in these two locations represent Stage II additions, installed to balance the enlarged front façade of the house (IMAGE 6). There are two posts on the north wall that may indicate a fireplace location; otherwise, posts were not structurally necessary on end walls. Perhaps they supported the brick hood of a Dutch jambless fireplace, positioned above an opening in the ceiling and framed by the two end beams and side trimmers aligned with the posts. Aside from the posts, no particular evidence of this feature has been identified.
There may have been a second entrance on the rear (east) wall; however, that is impossible to discern under the current conditions. The third and fourth posts from the north do not exist on this wall, and were avoided or removed to create an unexplained gap in the wall framing, possibly opening on an adjoining annex or outshot on the rear of the building. (The two ceiling beams above the opening are joined to a beam running between the second and fifth posts.) If it did exist, this feature was removed when the current kitchen ell was built, leaving only the anomalous framing condition as an artifact. With the exception of the corner posts, the south wall was removed when the house was enlarged and the existing chimney was added in that location (IMAGE 5). (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Wheeler Family Farmstead Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 Page 4 Some of the original first-story floorboards survive, but visible alterations occurred in later stages. This floor is supported by a combination of hewn beams and logs with flattened tops, the latter representing repairs. They are mortised into the tops of sills on four sides of the building, over a shallow crawl space.
(Since there is no basement, the exterior walls are not visible, but based on repair actions that occurred in sections of the house, the exterior sills were probably replaced at the turn of the 20" century.) As in the floor above, the floor beams have large dimensions and span the space from front to back; yet their span is interrupted by a cross beam running about three feet in from the east wall. This corresponds with marks on the floor above for a partition in the rear of the main room, the purpose of which is not known. The position of this partition and the framing gap in the rear wall are likely related, but more than that has not been discerned. The narrow space at the back of the plan may have contained a ladder/stair leading to the garret.
In a Dutch model, it could have also contained a recessed bed, but no evidence of such a feature has been documented, even in the Hudson River Valley. The dwelling was 1½ stories in height, with the wall posts extending two to three feet above the beam joints. This was common practice in Dutch houses, and the posts carried plates on which rafter butts were nailed. The original rafters are not extant. They were replaced with heavy hewn rafters in Stage II, when the house was enlarged (these rafters were altered later, when the front wall of the house was raised to two stories). Stage I pine floorboards in the loft are intact, and they were planed smooth on the bottoms to present a finished ceiling to the room below, a fact now hidden under later plaster. Truman Wheeler is said to have made an addition to his house in 1771, in anticipation of his marriage to Hulda Caldwell later that year.
However, it is not clear if this account refers to Stage Il or Stage IIl. In any event, Stage Il can be effectively dated between 1764 and 1771. The addition comprises the second principal room on the south side of the house, and the chimney and entrance lobby in between it and the Stage I building (Fig.5). It lengthened the building by about 22 feet. The added sections were constructed in a manner consistent with New England plank-framing methods. Posts were erected in the corners of the principal room connecting to sills on the top of the stone basement, and plates at the top create a rudimentary box frame having approximately the same dimensions as the Stage I north room (15 by 17 feet).
Wide, inch-thick planks were nailed to the sills and plates to complete the exterior wall structure; and a layer of wood clapboards was nailed to the exterior of the planks tying the laminated wall together horizontally. Like the Stage I section, the addition was 1½ stories in height; a gable roof was constructed over both sections with hewn rafters, which survive, although they were altered when the front of the house was later raised to two full stories. The chimney occupies the center of the space between the rooms, with a fireplace opening on each side (Fig.5). The stone mass was built directly on grade, although a basement was dug under the new south room and walled with stone. Initially, this basement was accessible only from a hatch at the east side of the south wall.
The area in front of the chimney was enclosed with a plank wall containing an entrance; the paneled double doors are distinctive to western Massachusetts in the mid 18"-century (IMAGE 1). Board walls with doors separate the lobby from the flanking rooms. The forward chimney placement (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Wheeler Family Farmstead Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 _ Page 5 precluded fitting a stair in front of the chimney in the lobby. Stairs were put behind the chimney, accessible through a door in the south room.
This arrangement is unusual in the Massachusetts context, although it was a fairly common practice in England, where the center-chimney hall-parlor plan originated.' Two openings for windows were cut into the plank wall on the front of the house, and one in the center of the south end. The enlarged front façade was designed to be symmetrical with two windows on either side of a central entrance (IMAGE 1). The partial upper story had no windows. The 1½ story height, predetermined by the precedent of the Stage I house, was typical of Hudson River Valley houses, but less common in New England. Thus, even in its expanded form, the house still displayed characteristics identifiable with the Dutch. This condition was mitigated by the presence of a New England doorway and pronounced center chimney.
Despite its mixed origins, the Stage Il house, with its two-room center- chimney plan, exemplifies the middling farmhouse type that proliferated throughout New England in the 18' century? The walls and ceiling of the new south room were plastered, and it would have been at this time that the exposed beams in the ceiling of the north room were plastered over. The walls of the north room were also renovated at this time, and if there was a fireplace on the north wall, it would have been removed and the walls reconfigured with front and end windows, to match the south room. Original pine flooring has been preserved in the south room, although in the basement it is evident that some of the hewn beams and sills have been replaced. The fireplaces constructed in each room are small for cooking, supporting speculation that there was a third room - a kitchen - attached to the rear by this stage.
The chimney walls are nicely finished with wood paneling, installed in this period. The paneling in the north room is limited to the fireplace, with tall vertical panels on the sides and two long horizontal panels across the top (IMAGE 5). This feature is essentially intact, except for the much-later addition of a mantel shelf. The door to the entry lobby is set within a plain board wall and simply trimmed; a corresponding blank board wall fills the space behind the chimney in the ambiguous area at the rear of the room, which may have been partitioned off at this time. The paneling in the south room is more extensive, distinguishing it as the better of the two rooms (IMAGE 7). The paneling spanned the entire chimney wall, encompassing the fireplace as well as doors on either side of the room.
The fireplace is framed by an elegant French-styled bolection molding, an elite design popular in the mid 18" century. A paneled wainscot covers the other three walls. At some later time, the existing door leading to the kitchen was added to the rear (east) wall, and the door leading to the stairs removed from the north wall. A closet was created under the stairs and a new door installed, (continued) ' Abbott Lowell Cummings, The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay, 1625-1725 (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1979, 25-26. 2 Michael Steinitz,"Rethinking Geographical Approaches to the Common House: The Evidence from Eighteenth-century Massachusetts." Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, III, Thomas Carter and Bernard L. Herman, eds. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press for the Vernacular Architecture Forum, 1989), 16-26. NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Wheeler Family Farmstead Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 Page 6 with a portion of the paneling inexplicably discarded (Fig.5). A piece of wainscot salvaged from the door space on the east wall was moved to the north wall in the process. The paneling in the north room appears always to have been painted white; the south room paneling and wainscot acquired a layer of wood graining in a later period, probably when it was reconfigured in the northeast corner. A room with board walls and ceiling was partitioned in the second story of the addition.
The rest of the upper-story space probably functioned as unfinished storage space (although this changed once Truman and Hulda Wheeler began having children). This half-story space contained the existing window in the south gable end. The front windows and plaster walls and ceiling in the south room date to renovations made when the height of the front façade was raised. There is evidence to suggest that the lower story of the ell could have been built in Stage II. The fact that only the front wall was raised to two stories in Stage IIl implies that an ell of some sort was already in place; otherwise, the rear wall could have been raised to two stories as well. Yet, the divided basements and absence of any corresponding mid 18"- century finishes in the ell are contradictions.
Based on the scant information available, the ell, in its existing plan dimensions, could have been constructed at just about any time during the first three stages. STAGE III The front wall of the house was raised to two stories as early as 1771, or at some later point after the end of the Revolutionary War. Raising the front wall provided the house with a more pretentious façade, reflecting Truman Wheeler's growing status in the town, and it created better second-story living space for his wife and family, with two sizeable chambers at either end and a third room in front of the chimney (Fig.6; IMAGE 1). All but the south room abutted the chimney and could have been easily heated by stoves. The end chambers each have two windows on the front, aligned with the first-story windows below, and the center room has a single window positioned over the entrance.
The first-floor rooms remained essentially unchanged, with the north room still functioning as a store and the south room serving as the parlor (Fig.5). Typical of New England architecture, the tops of the simple window surrounds hug the roof line, with only a very thin frieze separating them from the shallow soffit and cornice. The attenuated Classical trim decorating the roof edge is consistent with the taste of the period (IMAGE 1). If it had not been already enlarged prior to Stage IIl, the house was enlarged at this time with the addition of a large kitchen ell, measuring about 28 feet across the back of the house and about 30 feet deep (Fig.5) It was built over a full stone basement that was made to connect to the existing basement on the south end of the house.
Its north wall was in line with the north end of the front section of the house; the south wall was recessed back from that end of the house. Based on evidence visible on the back slope of the roof, captured within the attic of the current ell, as well as on the back wall of the front section of the building, it can be concluded that the ell was initially only one story in height. The plan contained two large rooms, both about 14 feet deep: one in the front that was a kitchen, and a second in the rear that contained a huge masonry block nine feet wide and six feet deep, in which two large fireplaces were located, one opening into the front kitchen, and the other in the rear room, probably a summer kitchen. (This masonry structure was removed in the 20t* century.) (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Wheeler Family Farmstead Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number ] Page 1 The kitchen itself was more than 18 feet wide, with a broad fireplace and bake oven occupying the east wall. The masonry has been removed, but the mantel shelf remains as evidence (IMAGE 9). A door and two windows were spaced along the south wall. Some form of porch sheltered the entrance; the existing porch is a Stage IV addition (IMAGE 2). An exterior entrance to the basement under the wing was created at the west end of the south wall, and the old entry in the south basement was closed up.
The floor of the current porch contains a hatch over this entrance; whether this was a feature of the earlier porch is not known. The west wall, which was also the rear wall of the Stage Il house, at first only contained the existing pass-through in the rear wall of the Stage I, or north, room of the house. Sometime in Stage IIl, perhaps not immediately when the ell was built, the staircase to the second story was altered so that it connected directly to the kitchen. This alteration voided the space behind the chimney connecting to the parlor, and it was divided into two closets: one opening into the kitchen, to the left of the new door leading to the stairs, and the other opening on the parlor. A new door was constructed to link the parlor to the kitchen, with the paneling in the best room altered to suit (Fig.5, IMAGE 8).
A narrow space, about eight feet wide, was partitioned on the north side of the kitchen; at that time it was probably used as pantry space. When the chimney was removed in a later stage, this partition was shifted about 2½ feet into the kitchen area to create a narrow dining room (Fig.5). The north exterior wall of the so-called pantry contained two windows, and it likely had a door in its east wall linking it to the back or summer kitchen. (The west wall of the pantry was shifted east in the renovation following the chimney's removal, so that the north room now contains an exterior doorway once contained in the back kitchen.) There also was a door linking the pantry with the front of the house - that is, Truman Wheeler's store. That being the case, it appears that this room functioned as a stockroom for store goods as well.
This doorway opens into the odd passageway at the rear of the north room or store. According to local accounts, a stone step or paver in the ground just outside the northeast corner of the room marks the location of the public entrance into Wheeler's store (IMAGE 1). While the wall has not been opened to verify this story, this door and passage also would have been an effective way to conduct goods into the pantry/stockroom without interfering with family spaces of the house. The original subdivisions within the back or summer kitchen have been removed, along with the masonry stack and fireplace once positioned on the west wall. The north side of the room was probably divided from the rest by a partition, much as in the main kitchen, although the precise function of the space is not known (IMAGE 10).
The exterior doorway, presently entering the dining room north of the kitchen, was located originally in the northeast room, and there is a single window on the north wall as well (Fig.5, IMAGE 3). This room also communicated with the pantry. The south wall of the back kitchen also contains a single window. A doorway on the south side of the chimney space connects the front and rear areas, and an enclosure in the southwest corner of the back room contains stairs to the basement. The stairs themselves have been altered in their course and replaced at least once, but they have always occupied this corner. However, the enclosure, which also contains stairs to the second story, is a later feature, and probably dates to Stage IV when the second story was added to the ell.
There would have been little headroom and little light in the attic level of the one-story kitchen wing; it is unlikely any domestic spaces were located there. The south end of the east wall of the summer kitchen contains a closely spaced door and window; the door leads to a wagon house abutting the rear wall of the ell. (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Wheeler Family Farmstead Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 Page 8 A timber-frame Wagon House is connected to the exterior rear (east) wall of the kitchen ell.
Its joinery methods and hardware identify it as a late 18*-century building, and four wide bays suggest that it was designed to accommodate wagons and other vehicles (IMAGE 2). This function is further indicated by a deep overhang spanning the south façade and protecting the open bays from the natural elements. This pent has a separate frame that is spiked to the beams and rafters of the building, so that the roofing extends out across it in the curving bell-cast arc (Fig.8). By one unsubstantiated oral account, this adjunct functioned in association with Truman Wheeler's commercial enterprise as the place where his delivery wagons were parked and store goods were stockpiled. That it was a wagon house, perhaps with a stable, is very likely, and as such it could have served both Wheeler's personal and business needs.
The building has been stripped of its walling and interiors as part of conservation measures, so there is little else to discern from it (IMAGE 2). It has been speculated that the bent framing and bell-cast overhang are lingering Dutch features, and while they have antecedents in New York, it is equally likely that they are features of more generalized farm building practice, which commonly used bent framing, and idiosyncratic solutions for novelties, such as a cantilevered overhang. By the late 18t century, particularly after the Revolutionary War, a direct Colonial Dutch influence is hard to distinguish with any clarity. Rather than a surviving artifact of a Colonial-Era building technology, the wagon house may have been a harbinger of the fashion of connected farm buildings that would soon after sweep through New England.
The Wagon House overlaps the clapboard siding on the rear wall of the kitchen ell indicating it was a pre- existing building moved to this location from another site, either on this farm or one nearby. It may have been disassembled, but if it was, the pent roof, which is spiked to the frame, shows no sign of having been tampered with. Alternatively, the frame could have been disassembled and re-erected, with the pent roof added at the new site. One theory has been that the structure originated as an ell attached to the rear of the front section of the house that is built in Stage I or II, and relocated once the kitchen ell was built in Stage III.
This has not been verified by measurement or the discovery of physical evidence, yet the wing in question has no indication of ever containing domestic space, other than a hired-man's room later where a doorway was cut in the house wall to link the upper stories of the two sections. Another stair was located in the east end of the building but has been removed. STAGE IV This stage represents "improvements" made to the house at the end of the 19" century, during the time Merritt I. Wheeler, Truman Wheeler's grandson, held title to the farm. Few discernable changes had been made to the house in the century since the family patriarch had established his store in the house and expanded the building with a second story and rear additions.
While his son Claudius seems to have had a significant impact on the development of the farm, little of the historic fabric in the house can be placed in the context of his tenure, 1815-1860. By 1875 (in fact, as early as 1815 when Truman Wheeler died), the old room containing the store had been returned to a domestic space and the passageway in the rear of the (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Wheeler Family Farmstead Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 . Page_9 room partially removed, with the rest made into an elongated closet.
The focus of the renovation was the kitchen, where the two fireplaces and chimney stack were removed down to the basement floor. A smaller brick chimney was constructed in its place, as cooking and heating was then done by wood- burning stoves (Fig.5). The pantry on the north side of the kitchen - made somewhat obsolete by the closing of the storewas enlarged by shifting the dividing partition two feet south, and was converted into a dining room. The doorway to the store passage was walled over, and a china closet recessed into the adjoining space. The room was lengthened as well, capturing the exterior door in the north wall, once a part of the back kitchen (Fig.5). Aside from its reduction in dimension and the removal of the fireplace, the kitchen was unchanged. The old mantel was preserved as a backdrop for the modern cook stove (IMAGE 9).
The back kitchen was significantly enlarged with the removal of the chimney stack; however, its configuration and use has been obscured by still later alterations, and it no longer reflects its original use, beyond being called a summer kitchen. A pair of windows at the north end of the back wall was added with the most recent kitchen renovation, which located the sink in that location. The stone chimney mass was removed, and the current chimney is concealed within a walled enclosure that also includes a broom closet (IMAGE 10). Constructing a second story to the kitchen ell added a significant amount of floor space to the house (Fig.6). Unlike the front section, which reused existing rafters, the framing of the walls and roof used new materials that help date the work to the late 19" century.
Rooms with closets were created in the corners, connecting to a large landing at the top of the stairs leading up from the back kitchen. A doorway was cut through the back wall of the front section of the house, from the front stair landing into the room in the southwest corner. Closets also were built along the back walls of the front bed chambers, where the roof was steepest. The passageway in the back of the north chamber's closet was cut through later. The deep porch covering the entire south side of the kitchen ell was built in this period, eradicating whatever had preceded it (IMAGE 2). It was decorated with scrolled braces at the top of the posts. Simple board rails, pictured in historic photographs as spanning the spaces between the posts in old photographs may have been added still later (Fig.4).
An open porch had been constructed over the center entrance on the front façade by 1915. LATER STAGES Merritt I. Wheeler's son, Frank J. Wheeler, took over a recently modernized house and successful farm when the senior Wheeler died in 1903. The one distinguishing change he made was to cover the house with unpainted wood shingles around 1920. As there are no other evident alterations to the fenestration, it is possible that it was applied after the existing clapboard siding was removed to repair the deteriorated wood sills and floor beams. Other motivations would have included the urge to bring the old house more into compliance with the summer cottage fashion that dominated the local architectural scene, or to avoid (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No.
1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Wheeler Family Farmstead Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 Page 10 painting the house again. Frank's heir to the farm, his son F. Truman Wheeler, introduced the modern convenience of indoor plumbing into the house. He likely brought in electricity and central heating as well. The old kitchen had been made into a sitting room, with kitchen appliances arranged in the back kitchen. A lavatory was constructed in the northwest corner of the room, and a full bathroom was installed on the second floor of the ell.
The final improvement to be made to the house was the application of vinyl siding to the exterior, but this material was recently removed, re-exposing the more historic wood shingles. FARM BUILDINGS 2. Workshop (late-18"" century) The small timber-frame building, measuring roughly 19 feet by 21 feet, is the oldest surviving structure in the farmyard. Its location close to the house suggests an early association, and its side-gabled form and scale resembles that of an English barn, which would have been common on farms in the region during the mid18"-century (IMAGE 11). However, it is constructed of re-used post and beams and more recent rafters, and contains work benches and a spring-pole lathe installed in the early 19" century. The building is sided with wide, weathered boards; the west (front) and north sides are stained red, and the east side has no finish. It has a tarpaper roof.
The interior of the building is divided into two sections, with swing doors on the north side opening into the workshop. An open bay on the south side of the building contains stairs leading to the loft, and a narrow storage area is enclosed on the extreme south end 3. Animal Shed (mid-19" century) The rectangular, gable-roof shed, measuring 25 feet by 16 feet is attached to the south end of the Workshop (2). The exterior is covered with wood novelty siding and weathered red stain, and an asphalt shingle roof (IMAGE 11). Its sawn framing system is consistent with mid 19'"-century sawmill technology and construction methods. The small size of the hanging track door at the north end of the west (front) side of the building suggests there were horse or mule stalls in the northern half of the building.
A makeshift door cut out of the siding at the south end of the wall was for farmer access into the southern half, which would have housed small animals. A larger opening on the south end of the building connects with the barnyard. A loft door is centered in the south gable. 4. Hay Barn (ca. 1895) The Hay Barn was constructed ca. 1895 as an addition to the east end of an existing barn erected ca. 1850; this earlier barn collapsed in the 1980s and has been removed (IMAGE 12). The surviving 40 feet by 30 feet building is a standard 19*-century type, constructed for hay storage and processing grains for animal feed. It has a sawn balloon frame and open rafter system with a mechanized hay track (IMAGE 13). The exterior is covered with red-stained novelty siding, except on the west end, which was sided with vertical planks after the older barn was removed; the roof has asphalt shingles.
A central (in this case off-center) threshing floor traverses the building from north to south; the original wood floor has been replaced with a concrete slab. A wide transom is located over the hanging track doors on the north side. A voluminous (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Wheeler Family Farmstead Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 . Page 11 mow occupies the larger section, west of the entrance. The east side is divided by a platform, under which animals were housed and above which hay was piled. Initially, a door on the south side of the building provided cross ventilation and drive-through capability for the central aisle.
This door now leads to the Cow House (5), constructed against the south wall of the barn ca. 1910. About the same time a Heifer House (6) and Silo (7) were constructed against the east end of the barn. 5. Cow House (ca. 1910) The long, low Cow House, measuring 57 feet long and 30 feet wide, was added to the east side of the Hay Barn (4) ca. 1910 (IMAGES 14 & 15). Its walls are sided with novelty siding and red-stained on the front (west), and the gable roof is covered with corrugated metal. The long east and west walls are punctuated with windows that greatly improved the levels of light and ventilation provided to the Wheelers' Guernsey dairy herd. Two hanging track doors on the west side provided access to the barnyard; a door to the feed loft is located on the east end. A smaller annex, containing three stalls for bulls, is attached to the east end of the building (IMAGE 15).
The interior has a concrete floor, and plastered walls and ceiling for the improved sanitary conditions required in the period (IMAGE 16). Metal stanchions line both sides of a center aisle, behind which are channels for conveying manure from the stalls and out through a door on the east end of the building. 6. Heifer House (ca. 1910) The Heifer House was added to the east end of the Hay Barn (4) in the same period in which the Cow House (5) was constructed (IMAGES 12 & 15). The square 35 feet by 35 feet building has wood novelty siding and is red-stained on the north side. Like the Cow House, the interior walls of the Heifer House are finished in plaster walls, and metal stanchions are embedded in a concrete floor. There is a board stall in one corner. 7. Silo (ca. 1910) A wood-stave silo is positioned between the Hay Barn (4) and Heifer House (6).
It is recessed within a notch on the north side of the Heifer House, with a grain room and passageway behind it in the southwest corner of the Heifer House (IMAGES 12 & 15). Access doors into the silo open on the passageway, allowing feed to be transported to the Cow and Heifer houses internally. The silo's metal roof has collapsed and fallen within the structure. 8. Carriage House & Stable (ca. 1820) The Carriage House and Stable is a 1½-story gable-roof building with a wood frame composed of hewn principal and sawn secondary members, typical of early 19*-century construction (IMAGES 4, 17 & 18). Its exterior walls have red-stained novelty siding that was added at a later date, and it is sited on a concrete foundation, suggesting that it may have been moved to its present location. The west gable end contains a hanging track wagon door and a mow door, cut from the siding.
A hanging track door on the south side of the building once led to the stable area. Stall and tack room partitions have been removed from the interior, although evidence of their locations remains. An open stair on the north wall leads to (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (Rev. 8/2002) OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service (Expires 5-31-2012) National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Wheeler Family Farmstead Name of Property Berkshire, MA County and State Name of multiple listing (if applicable) Section number 7 Page 12 Archaeological Description The presence of ancient Native American sites has been documented on the Wheeler Farmstead property, and potential exists that additional Native resources are also present. Twelve ancient sites are recorded in the general area (within one mile).
One site, the Truman Wheeler Farm Site (19-BK-112), is located on the Wheeler Farm, based on information contained in the Charles J. Taylor Collection and the Great Barrington Historical Commission Collection. The site is reported in the field area, east of the house and above the river. A pestle with an animal head effigy was given to Charles J. Taylor in 1874, by then- owner of the farm Merritt I. Wheeler. The pestle was reportedly found years before, when the farm was occupied by Claudius Wheeler. Two arrowheads found in 1887 opposite Merritt I. Wheeler's house were also reported from the site. No diagnostic artifacts are reported from the site. Environmental characteristics of the Wheeler Farm represent locational criteria (slope, soil drainage, proximity to wetlands) that are favorable for the presence of Native sites.
The farm is located on an excessively drained, level to moderately sloping glacial outwash plain/stream terrace in close proximity to wetlands. The Housatonic River is located less than 1,000 feet east of the house. Given the above information, the present size of the farmstead (approximately 1.5 acres), and related historic-period land use, the presence of ancient Native American resources is documented on the Wheeler Farm property and a moderate to high potential exists that additional Ancient resources will be found A high potential also exists for locating historic archaeological resources on the Wheeler Farm property. While the Wheeler House and Workshop both date to the 18* century, and the Carriage House and Stable to the early 19" century, most extant agricultural outbuildings date to the mid 19" century or later.
Construction features and structural evidence from the initial construction,and of later renovationsfor each of the buildings noted above may exist. Structural evidence may also survive from 18t and 19th- century barns and agricultural outbuildings that likely predate the existing structures on the farm today. Occupational-related features (trash pits, privies, wells) that accumulated there over time may survive around the Wheeler House and associated farmstead buildings. (end) WHEELER FAMILY FARMSTEAD Name of Property 8. Statement of Significance