Architectural heritage
Old houses keep their history in the walls
Building histories, restoration guidance, and careful notes on the craft of old houses, written for owners and for anyone who stops to look twice at a cornice.
Read the house historiesOne house, six lives
How an old house changes over two centuries
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I 1784
The frame is raised
Hand-hewn oak sills and posts, pegged mortise-and-tenon joints, and a massive center chimney that heats every room.
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II 1836
A Greek Revival face
A new front with flat pilasters, a wider entry with sidelights, and six-over-six sash windows in wavy cylinder glass.
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III 1879
Victorian additions
A bay window, a porch with turned posts and sawn brackets, and a slate roof replacing the original cedar shingles.
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IV 1921
Wires in old walls
Knob-and-tube wiring and the first indoor plumbing are threaded through plaster and lath, room by room.
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V 1968
The quiet decades
Siding over clapboards, dropped ceilings, an enclosed porch. Most of the original fabric survives, hidden rather than lost.
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VI Today
Reading and repair
Layers are documented before anything is removed. Windows are reglazed, plaster is reattached, and the frame is left to speak.
From the archive
Latest stories
No stories have been published yet. The first house histories are on their way.
Every old house is a document. Before you repair it, learn to read it, because the most valuable thing a restoration can keep is the evidence of how the house was made.
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