That's what I am looking for. There are lots of affinities betwen your part
of Jersey and this part of Delaware. Every house in our area appears to have
such benches, and scars like you mention are found on every brick house in
Camden, every one. How common are they in Salem and Cumberland counties?
I'm looking for evidence of a tradition.
>Ned there is a house in Penns Grove, NJ (Helms Cove Tavern) which has
>angled scars on both sides of the front door where benches were once
>attached.
>
>Bill Liebeknecht
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Edward F. Heite <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2000 12:30 PM
>Subject: household activity areas
>
>
>> Here in central Delaware, at least from the eighteenth through early
>> twentieth centuries, vernacular houses featured paired attached benches
>> flanking the doorways. These benches generally defined the stoop. In town,
>> and on smaller houses, they were attached to the fronts. On very elegant
>> houses, they were located against the back door.
>>
>> These benches were considered an essential element of any house. Brick
>> houses generally had sockets for the benches built into the brickwork,
>> indicating that the benches were integral to the house. The earliest dated
>> Delaware example is 1728, and the benches on my own front stoop are 1925
>> more or less. Generally they projected about four to six feet from the
>front
>> wall of the house, which means that four people could sit comfortably on
>the
>> stoop. The benches must have been important, because they were maintained
>> and replaced. My neighbor just rebuilt his front porch (and installed new
>> benches), finding evidence for two earlier sets of benches let into the
>> front wall.
>>
>> So benches by the front doorway were important in Delaware folk
>> architecture, but there is no folklore, of which I am aware, relating to
>> them. They just were.
>>
>> In Iceland, on the other hand, benches by the front doors of houses were
>> major household activity areas. Whenever the weather was hospitable,
>> Icelanders would sit on their benches and do handwork. Nineteenth-century
>> travel accounts and engravings illustrate the benches by doorways
>frequently
>> as activity areas.
>>
>> So my question is in three parts:
>>
>> 1. What other areas of the world, besides Delaware and Iceland, have a
>> tradition of benches by the doorways?
>>
>> 2. Has anyone archaeologically identified any activity areas associated
>with
>> front doors that might suggest household activities moved outdoors in fine
>> weather?
>>
>> 3. Is there any literature on the subject?
>>
>> ____
>> __(____)_ Heite Consulting
>> /Baby the|_ Archaeologists and
>> _===__/1969 Land|| Historians
>> |___ Rover ___ || [log in to unmask]
>> O|| . \______/ . \_| 302-697-1789
>> ____\_/________\_/___ fax 302-697-7758
>> Ned Heite RPA, Camden, DE
>>
April is Maryland Archaeology Month!
____
__(____)_ Heite Consulting
/Baby the|_ Archaeologists and
_===__/1969 Land|| Historians
|___ Rover ___ || [log in to unmask]
O|| . \______/ . \_| 302-697-1789
____\_/________\_/___ fax 302-697-7758
Ned Heite RPA, Camden, DE
|
