Early Homes

JOLLY OLD FELLOW (1) Primitive folk art carver Joy Hall hand carves figures such as the Jolly Tree Santa in basswood, then finishes them with oil and acrylic paints. The distressed Santa is 8" high x 2" deep. From Joy Hall Folk Art, the figure is $265. (757) 694-1256, joyhallfolkart.com; THE SEASON’S COLORS (2) Designed and sewn by Kathie Ratcliffe of Nine Patch Studio, “Feathered Star” was inspired by a crib quilt made ca. 1850– 1860. In red and white with a snowflake pattern, the 8" x 8" miniature is a holidayready accent or gift. It sells for $425. (540) 882-3348, ninepatchstudio.com; ROSE PAINTING (3) Norwegian rosemaling—or rose painting on wood—was at its height between 1700 and 1850. The 10" x 10" square scalloped plate from Folk Art By Cathy…

Homeowner Tom Johnson saw this house for the first time in 1974, when he happened to be dating the owners’ daughter. “I walked in and said, ‘I want your house,’” he recalls. “It was love at first sight.” | The house he fell for was built in 1972 by a pair of passionate historic preservationists who set out to reproduce the John Sedgley House of York, Maine. Probably dating to 1715, the Sedgley homestead is thought to be the oldest house in Maine still on its original site. “They collected hardware, old timbers, paneling, and other old-house parts for 20 years while they planned to build,” Johnson says of the replica builders. The result was an utterly convincing two-and-a-half-storey, 2,000-squarefoot saltbox Cape built on a rise in Cumberland, a coastal…

This center-chimney Colonial house—two rooms down and two rooms up off a tiny hall, with a saltbox rear elevation—was built by Englishman Jonathan Sedgley in 1715, and is probably the oldest house in Maine still on its original site. It is also well preserved; recent owners have included a pair of antiques dealers specializing in 18thcentury country furniture. The Sedgley Homestead in York is privately owned and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Besides the original house, it includes a ca. 1720 farmhouse, a 19th-century carriage house later converted to a dwelling, a few outbuildings, and a Sedgley family cemetery. Several 200-year-old fruit trees have survived.…

The first colonial-era emigrants from Sweden and Finland arrived in North America in 1638, just 18 years after the Pilgrims landed on the Mayflower. Swedes and Finns began arriving in greater numbers between 1820 and 1850, many settling in farming communities in the upper Midwest, especially in Minnesota. One of them, an immigrant of humble origins named Swan J. Turnblad, made a fortune as the publisher of a leading Swedish-language newspaper as that population in America swelled from a few thousand to nearly a million in the second half of the 19th century. Like many selfmade men at the turn of the century, he built an imposing residence. But the house known as the Turnblad Mansion was intended from the first to be a gathering place for the Swedish community.…

A FEW SUMMERS AGO I was, out of curiosity, Googling “antique post & beam structures” when I happened upon a listing for an 18th-century room with summer beam for sale by Olde New England Building & Salvage. It was a nice size. I showed the pictures to my wife, JoAnn, and she said, “Oh, we could put a room off our Tavern Room!” I’d just retired, however, and figured the last thing we needed was another project and another room. Several glasses of wine later, we had a plan for how we might connect an addition to the Tavern Room with a mudroom to create the L-plan house we’ve always liked. We made several trips to Connecticut to see the materials, measuring and measuring again. The salvage owner had the…

FIREBOARDS, also known as chimney boards, were tightfitting wooden panels that fully covered the open firebox. Usually constructed of boards and battens, the best were imaginatively painted in a wide range of styles, from primitives and folk art to more elaborate landscapes and eyedeceiving trompe l’oeil. Custom built to provide the best fit, fireboards stood on a sturdy base or were fastened to the firebox opening with turnbuckles. Those fitted to a base sometimes had notches cut to slip over andirons. Since kitchen hearths were in use yearround, fireboards most often were found in parlors, where a trompe l’oeil still-life of a prettily arranged flower vase was perhaps the most popular early image. This mimicked the carryover British tradition of placing a cheerful pot of greenery inside the dismal summer…