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| The Job Lane
House is a wonderfully clear illustration of a New England farm house that
has grown and adapted to changing times and tastes. The house shows two
major phases, and each phase is clearly distinguishable in terms of structural
practice and decorative style. There is only a small overlap of stylistic
treatment (e.g. a Federal mantel in a Georgian room) and a few secondary
phases of development represented by late Victorian and twentieth century
windows, and the westernmost shed of late nineteenth century origin (the
Garden Club shed).
Minuteman Room The room originally had vertical feather edge paneling and a large mantel-less fireplace. The room shows a sample of its earliest appearance in the area of vertical feather edge paneling to the right of the fireplace, which was concealed behind plaster until recently, and in its beams exposed below the plaster. You can see the original extent of the fireplace by observing the fill-in panel to the right of the fireplace. The chimney was rebuilt and the fireplace "Rumford-ized" at the time that the West side of the house was built. The Federal mantel was also added at that time. |
Count Rumford, whose ideas are demonstrated in the fireplace, was a brilliant physicist born in Woburn, Massachusetts in 1753 who began the modern theories of heat. He was a loyalist during the Revolution and went to England, where he was knighted. He later went to Bavaria where he was made a count. Prior to his studies, fireplaces were grossly inefficient. Most of the heat went up the chimney. Shallow fireplaces with sides at a 45 degree angle reflect far more of the heat into the room.
A John Lane was given this house as a wedding gift from his father Zeba Lane on January 5, 1778 (Registry of Deeds Book 104, p. 236). Minor architectural changes are mentioned. This would be consistent with the period of the Georgian paneling, and the cupboard in the Southeast corner of the room. The main aspect of the room is late Georgian from the remodeling. The rebuilt fireplace and mantel date from the time of the nineteenth century addition to the house. The windows have been replaced and altered several times.
The doors are low (6 feet 3 inches)
and show typical 18th century hardware. There are hand wrought Suffolk
latches and strap hinges fastened by wrought nails to the doors. The cupboard
doors have "H" hinges, and the little cupboard to the right of the fireplace
has "butterfly" hinges. All but the front girt are cased and have corner
beads. The beading of the corners of the casings of the structural members
in the early Georgian period is a practice directly descended from the
more elaborate (but essentially medieval) practice of chamfering the corners
of posts, summers, and girts in first-period frame buildings.
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The Kitchen was far more extensively
remodeled at the time the western portion of the house was built than was
the great hall. (People are always remodeling and improving their kitchens).
The small "borning room" to the east is essentially unchanged, but the
main area of the kitchen has been greatly changed. Running from either
side of the fireplace to the back wall are the two chimney girts which
are important elements of the structure of the original house. In the attic,
it is evident from the rafters, which are continuous from the roof ridge
to the back wall of the house, that the lean-to kitchen is an integral
part of the original house, rather than an addition (as was common). The
western of the two girts shows evidence of once having a partition wall
along it. The two windows on the north wall are recent. The framing for
the single earlier window may be seen below the eaves in the lean-to above.
The doors to the cupboard, the cellar, and the back stairs are Federal.
The fireplace is "Rumfordized" and has a Federal mantel. The original fireplace
would have been much deeper. The West end of the kitchen is something of
a mystery. An interior wall separated it from the kitchen. The lath of
its north wall (visible in the old shed) is riven lath. The lath in the
rest of the west side of the house is a later type of sawn lath. In a will
(probate #13572) dated October 25, 1762, Deacon Job Lane gave the house
to his son John Lane. The "old back kitchen" was given to his neighbor.
This room is of the Federal period and retains many of these features unaltered. The doors, the hardware, and the woodwork are nearly all original. The West window has been replaced in its entirety, although the original sill and sashes are still in existence in the attic. The two south windows have had their sash replaced, but the original moulding was retained and put onto the new framing when the Dutton family replaced the sashes.
The Rufus Porter murals in this
room are its outstanding feature. Unfortunately, they are greatly damaged
by having had wallpaper applied and removed twice. The earlier wallpaper
was put on with animal glue. It was removed in the middle of this century
by Mrs. Lillian Dutton and then later covered again by the gray wallpaper
that you can see on the south wall of the room behind the door. That area
shows the mural as it appeared when the paper was removed. Samples of wallpaper
on display in the room show how much of the detail was lost when he second
paper was removed. Probably, even more was lost when he glued wallpaper
was removed. Restoration consisted of washing the background with
washes in various shades of gray to color the bare plaster and help blend
it in with the background color. This has resulted in an overall darkening
of the panels. Where remnants of stenciled lines could be discerned, these
lines were filled in, restoring the outlines of the houses, a fence, and
a sail boat that had nearly disappeared. Undoubtedly, many other important
details, which would have given great charm ot the paintings, have totally
disappeared. Porter painted in the background and large trees freehand
to fit the space available. Foliage was made with sponges or specially
carved corks. Houses, fencing, sailboats, etc. were done with stencils.
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This area is an amalgam of the two
periods of the house. The feather edge panels are of the first period of
the house. The stair newels and handrail are of the second period. Upstairs,
both the wood and the plastered area were wallpapered after the addition
was built and the hall and stairway remodeled. A sample of the first, early
19th century paper is retained on one of the boards. Although this wallpaper
was gone from the plastered area at the time of the restoration, the strong
light from the south window had photographed the pattern into the plaster
behind it. A sample of the rather crude "marbleizing" that was found on
the treads, the risers, and the floor may be seen on the riser of the second
step down from the top. The background color is a grayish green. Subsequent
paint layers were gray. Marbleized floors as well as floors painted to
resemble rugs were highly popular in the early 19th century.
Except for the windows, this room
retains the earliest look of the house. The feather edge paneling and other
woodwork was originally unpainted. The fireplace would have been deeper
before it was Rumfordized. The raised field paneling is also a later addition.
Still later, a hole for a stove pipe was cut through it. Note the gunstock
corner posts and the beaded edge of the summer beam. This is the important
room in which Deacon Job Lane and his wife Martha Ruggles would have entertained
the minister when he came to call. Dining rooms did not exist. The master
bedchamber was used instead. In the winter, a space-saving Queen Anne style
of drop leaf table would have been drawn up in front of this fireplace
for an important guest. If you look at the eaves outside, you will see
the heads of five old second
story windows. Their position were
altered when the sash was replaced.
The door to the hall is "board and batten" and is very rare, not more than 50 exist.
The fleur-de-lys latch on the little
door into the lean-to dates from about 1837 (Orville Carroll), indicating
that this door was cut through later. It was covered with early wallpaper.
It is interesting to speculate as to how access to the storage areas was
made before the house was enlarged. Ladders???
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The parlor chamber is virtually
as it was when built. (The window sash replaced, of course.) If you look
at the windows from the outside, you will see their heads just below the
eaves. The original windows were higher and narrower than their replacements.
A penciled line indicated that a wallpaper with a border was used. It is
a nice example of a Federal-Greek Revival period bedchamber.
The doors are Federal. The lath
is sawn, consistent with the parlor, and parlor chamber, but not with the
north wall of the room below. There was substantial water damage to the
plaster in this room which was most skillfully repaired as an Eagle Scout
project.
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Credits:
Much of this information has been taken directly from two reports of the Preservation Partnership (Maximilian L. Ferro, AIA, RIBA) to the Bedford Historical Commission dated October 24, 1977 and November 14, 1977.
Other information was obtained May 16, 1982 from an examination of the house by Orville Carroll, Architectural Historian, National Park Service.
Prepared by Mary S. Hafer