RE post-initial construction basements. I've not seen anything as
elaborate as you describe, but I'm familiar with the practice from
two very different regions. First, I saw several standing 18th
century houses in Rehoboth MA with evidence of either
post-construction basements or at least expansion of basements after
original construction with a small (1 room or smaller) basement.
Usually they would then just infill between the brick or stone piers.
The infilling is part of the evidence for the basement construction
or expansion. Second, in St. Genevieve MO I was fortunate to be on a
Pioneer America Society conference tour of French period houses. One
had a post-construction but old basement When the basement was dug
out they left a "cushion" along the exterior wall lines that clearly
showed the post-in-ground wall construction.
RE the Taylor House. The situation is mildly ambiguous because the
entire house was rolled back from the Bayou about 1880 (again
dendro-dating in this case the replacement sills). Piers and two
chimney stacks were rebuilt with factory made bricks shipped in by
RR. The original 1.8m deep basement, exposed only in a 2x3m unit so
don't know full size), had brick walls 3 or 4 (can't recall off hand)
wythes thick, and a floor made of mortar and whitewash over a layer
of brick bats. All locally made brick (thousands of them), and the
clay could easily have come from digging the hole for the basement or
the cistern. The basement was filled with brick rubble, and then the
house was rolled right over it so the back wall of the
basement ended up under the front porch of the house. The cistern
ended up 20m in front of the house. I'm quite confident the original
piers and chimneys were all originally locally made bricks.
At 06:52 PM 8/6/2012, you wrote:
>While we're talking about working around structures, especially those that
>sit on piers (brick, bois arc, stone or whatever), I'd like to ask if
>anyone knows of an example of a house on brick piers that had a "basement"
>added years after the original construction. I am looking for a report
>that documents this type of remodeling in the early 19th century.
>
>I think I'm working on a structure like this. It appears to have originally
>stood on brick piers, about 3 feet tall, then, it appears that the owner dug
>down beneath the building, leaving the brick piers and the soil immediately
>beneath them in place, in order to create a first floor low enough to allow
>head room to walk around under the original wood floor. Once the
>"basement" was dug deep enough, they put in a herring bone brick floor, and
>extended brick walls up the excavated "basement" until they got to ground
>level, then they cantilevered the brick outward to create a brick infill
>wall between the original brick piers.
>
>This brick infill wall between the original brick piers, had pocket windows
>built right into it, so the windows when open slid into voids in the brick
>walls.
>
>I've been trying to use Harris matrix thinking to sort out this peculiar
>brick foundation but would love to find some other examples of this type of
>remodeling.
>
>Thanks in advance for any help.
>
>P.S. to Skip, I would NEVER, EVER call Arkansas clays inferior, so please
>tell me, at that Hollywood Plantation, does the brick walled basement and
>the brick piers date to the same building phase?
>
>
>Linda Derry
>Site Director
>Old Cahawba
>719 Tremont St.
>Selma, AL 36701
>ph. 334/875-2529
>fax. 334/877-4253
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