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?
>
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>