The Oliver Wight House, c. 1789, is a timber-framed 2 1/2 story dwelling of high style, late Georgian design. The structure retains much of its original appearance and stand on its original site west of Sturbridge Center (NR - 11/9/77). However, its setting has changed drastically during this century, and all of its outbuildings have been lost. It now stands amidst the commercial congestion of Route 20, and serves as the focal point of the neo-colonial style Old Sturbridge Village Motor Lodge. Despite these disruptive factors, the motel complex is attractively landscaped, and its units were sympathetically sited to minimize encroachment upon the original building. The Wight House is set well back from Route 20 with a broad expanse of trimmed lawn and Additionally, a row of mature maples lines one side of the drive leading from the highway.
The freestanding structure has a square, central hall plan with twin interior chimneys rising through an unusual, steep, gable on hip roof. It stands on its original foundation which is dry-laid field stone, fragmentarily parged with clay, and capped with dressed granite at grade level. Ihe cellar 1s excavated oniy beneath the rear (east) half of the house, with a crawl space beneath the tront. sheathed with clapboards which appear to be largely original, or early replacements, and are fastened with large-headed wrought nails. Trim consists of a wide, molded EEEZE water table, beaded cornerboards and a modillion cornice with a row of fine dentils Windows contain 12/12 double hung sash which may be original, and are set in simple frames; at the first story they have projecting caps, while at the second, they are set into the cornice.
Reproductions of period fixed lower shutters (based on surviving originals) were installed during the course of a Museum directed restoration in The facade (west) displays the customary 5 bay, 9 window configuration of the two story eighteenth century nouse. Iypically, it is focused on a handsome center entry which is reached by two, dressed granite doorsteps. The entry consists of two fluted pilasters with Doric capitals which support an unornamented frieze and a triangular pediment. Both flat and raking cornices of the pediment are embellished with modillion blocks similar in scale and profile to those of the cornice. This composition enframes a six pane transom and a large nine panel door which has its smallest panels at the middle.
This door is a reproduction of the original which, although in an advanced state of deterioration, survives in Museum storage;the spade-end, Suffolk type latch is original. On this elevation the roof is pierced by two shed roof dormers, positioned beneath the chimey stacks, which appear to be original. The north elevation is nearly identical to the facade and is differentiated mainly by the roof, which reveals the gable configuration of its upper slope. The only other variation is in the entry, which is slightly narrower than that of the facade and contains a five, rather than a six, pane transom. The south elevation follows the same format except that the entablature above the door is handled with a pulvinated frieze surmounted by a dentil course and capped by a flat modillion cornice. This entry is reached by two stone steps, while the northern one is provided only with a single step.
The rear (east) elevation is clearly the back of the house. Fenestration is not symmetrical, as it is on the other three sides, and the doorway lacks the classically derived embellish- ments exhibited elsewhere. There is a transom of five lights and a simple drip cap above it. Like the other doors, the back door is a nine panel door. Window arrangement In the NPS Form10-900-a (7-81) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form Continuation sheet Item number 7 OMB NO.1024-0018 EXP. 12/31/84 For NPS use only received date entered Page 2 east wall of the northeast chamber has been altered; a door intruded into a former window aperture provided access from the main house to a now missing nineteenth century ell.
Roof dormers repeat the pattern of the front (west) slope of the hipped roof and the chimneys are somewhat more prominent on this side because of their placement on the east side of the roof ridge. Interior: Inside, a broad hallway runs west to east to a point midway back on the building and just even with the end of the stair run. There, a wing wall juts out beneath the stairs and a doorway through it permits access to the rear hall. Both front and rear doors are in direct line with one another. The hallway is trimmed with a crown- moulded cornice, wainscot of raised, field paneling, and a moulded chair rail. The open string stair ascends in a straight run of nine risers along the north wall to a landing at which it turns a right angle and continues for an additional five risers to a second landing.
At this level, there is a single additional step, at the east and west sides of the landing, to gain the level of the second floor. The balustrade is comprised of square newells, with simply moulded and mitered caps, a somewhat massive but simply moulded handrail of nearly square section, and a pair of square balusters per each stair. Stair ends are embellished with simple s-curved cutouts and the stair soffit and enclosed cellar way beneath the stair run is finished with field panels. Stairs, flooring, wainscot, cornice and plaster walls are wholly original. It is the plaster walls, with their dramatic iandscape murals, that-are-the most visually compelling feature of the entrance hall.
Executed in distemper, and in a limited and nearly monochromatic palette, the motifs are characteristic of the work of the itinerant artist Rufus Porter (1792-1884) and may safely be attributed to him on the basis of style, design motifs, and coloration. The fanciful and stylized flora which figure prominently in the compositions are especially typical of Porter's repertoire. On the north wall the hypothetical landscape includes a side-wheel steamboat "Victory" plying a becalmed body of water, an island with two small houses, a two-masted sailing ship, and close by the stair run, a square, hipped roofed Federal style "mansion" with sidelights and fanlight transom. In the background are mountains, one of which is topped by an hexagonal tower and billowing clouds.
An effort is made by the artist to heighten the viewer's perception of depth by the placement of large scale stylized trees and plant material directly on the picture plane. On the opposite (south) wall of the hallway, the imaginary landscape includes a large square hipped-roofed structure in the Federal style with a lantern atop the roof and flanked by connected wings, which appears to be an institutional building (such as a hospital) of the period. At landscape center, a windmill crowns a hillock, and, at the left, is the most familiar a New England country landscape including an orchard, three farmhouses, anc some tielas under cultivation. Again, large scale plants dramatically dominatins the foreground contribute to a sense of receding planes within the composition.
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