the ever elusive house

[PogueMahone]

I've searched several different terms and had little luck finding an existing thread, but feel free to steer me to the proper thread if such exists.

Does anyone have a structure they haul to events to represent their house?

If so:

1) Photos?

2) advantages or disadvantages?

3) expenses associated other than construction?

4) materials used?

Reenacting soldiers think about building winter quarters cabins and I suppose reenacting civilians think about building little houses. ;)

I do both.

[UnicornForge]

Re: the ever elusive house

Many years ago I used to build theatre sets, and we used what were called "flats" because they were very light, durable, and easy to connect together.
Flats are 1 X 4 frames, that resemble large frames for paintings. The flats have a single cross member in the center, and plywood gussets at each joint. The 1x4s are joined flat. Either canvas, foam boards, or light weight real boards are attached to exterior of each flat.

I have used SketchUp7 to show what I mean. Flats are normally joined using loose-pin hinges for ease of assembly/disassembly. Put your tent over the top and you can have a pretty realistic house, and even one with windows and doors.

[Spinster]

Re: the ever elusive house

Joe,

Yep. And since names fly right out of my head, contact Kay Gnagy at Originals by Kay. She will be able to tell you the name and contact of the gentleman who presented at the Midwest Civilian Conference about 3 or 4 years ago.

His transportable house broke down into flats, and included a shingle roof. He and his wife did a lot of school programs, and pretty well had it down pat, with a 2 hour assembly time. Features inclued a wood stove with baking oven. Somewhere I've got the written plans.

Some features didn't make a whole lot of sense to me--like the rope bed being built into the side of the wall, and somehow lacing through there for stability, with only one post standing in the room. I imagine this was a weight saving feature. But since my 18th century rope bed is also my guest bed and has also been hauled to a number of events, I don't think its terribly cumbersome to haul.

Under the same concept is John Crabb's little store--a breakdown building that fit in one stall of the horse trailer. It had a striped canvas roof. A while back the building was for sale, because John wanted to make another one. I don't know the status of it now.

Now, you could follow my Daddy's idea a number of years back. He wanted to build me a house on a tow trailer, with beds, glass windows, stove and all---- primarily because he thought the Golden Granddaughter should not be sleeping in a tent, never mind on the cold wet ground. I should have let him do it, but I just could not get past those little rubber tires--though Daddy said I should just cover them up with hay bales.....

Skids, ramps, a bucket of axle grease, and a warren winch would solve that problem....

[MarkTK36thIL]

Re: the ever elusive house

Mrs. Lawson,
I believe the gent your referring to is Ken Gough from the 64th IL. http://www.64thill.org/logan_house.htm

[Marylander in Grey]

Re: the ever elusive house

Thanks to all for this post. My daughter and I have been contemplating a project like this for the events she attends. Tents are great but not really proper for the Civilian impression.
This will be her new " House " as soon as we get one built.

[Spinster]

Re: the ever elusive house

Mrs. Lawson,
I believe the gent your referring to is Ken Gough from the 64th IL. http://www.64thill.org/logan_house.htm

Yep--thats the name. Popped into my head over supper and I was coming back to post it.

[UnicornForge]

Re: the ever elusive house

I applaud your efforts to build a proper house. I look forward to seeing it at events in Maryland. Any chance it will be ready in time for the Civil War days at the Carroll County Farm Museum, in Westminster, Maryland on the weekend of May 2, 2009?

Thanks to all for this post. My daughter and I have been contemplating a project like this for the events she attends. Tents are great but not really proper for the Civilian impression.
This will be her new " House " as soon as we get one built.

[crabby]

Re: the ever elusive house

Joe,

Look on my web page, there are a couple of pictures of the interior of the building. It is made in 10 panels, which bolt together, with a canvas roof. It takes 2 to 3 men about 1 1/2 hours to erect. (we put it up in quicker time than a civilian group put up their wall tent!).

[Citizen_Soldier]

Re: the ever elusive house

Greetings,

What documentation is out there for canvas roofed civilian homes in the middle part of the nineteenth century?

For constructing miltiary winter quarters I would recommend cutting and notching a number of logs that can be transported to an event site and assembled into a crib. Chinking and daubing could be conducted interpretively and a tent mounted across the top. Tear down would be easy and the logs could be stored in a garage until the next event.

Darrek Orwig

[Marylander in Grey]

Re: the ever elusive house

Mr. Einhorn,
"Any chance it will be ready in time for the Civil War days at the Carroll County Farm Museum, in Westminster, Maryland on the weekend of May 2, 2009? "
Two answers, #1 I doubt if we will get to until this winter. #2 I dont attend the Carroll COunty Farm Museum event. Thanks for asking though.

[PogueMahone]

Re: the ever elusive house

Greetings,

What documentation is out there for canvas roofed civilian homes in the middle part of the nineteenth century?

For constructing miltiary winter quarters I would recommend cutting and notching a number of logs that can be transported to an event site and assembled into a crib. Chinking and daubing could be conducted interpretively and a tent mounted across the top. Tear down would be easy and the logs could be stored in a garage until the next event.

Darrek Orwig

Darrek,

If I'd been asking how to build winter quarters for a military impression, I'd have gone over that folder and asked the question. I was not. Offering a military solution for a civilian question does me no good.

Civilian reenacting has a major hurdle in that they generally cannot portray their homes or businesses with any reasonable expectation of accuracy. Some have attempted to gap that hurdle with these smaller, improvised structures. I'm interested. I never suggested they were documented, authentic or that I was going to carry one on my back to an event. I'm just interested.

[AZReenactor]

Historic Research and information needed.

One thing I think is important here is to make a conscious effort to avoid letting this drift too far into the realm of modern anachronisms and concentrate on authenticity related facts rather than acceptable farbisms.

In general we know that civilians were not prone to building houses (nor soldiers building Winter Quarters) that they put together and disassembled then moved around the country for weekend events. We also know though that civilians generally didn't sleep under canvas, yet not every venue has static building that can be used to house civilians. In looking for a solution without compromising authenticity I think a few questions probably ought to be addressed first.

How common were very small houses?
Just how small was reasonable?
How were such houses historically constructed?
How were they furnished?
What types of people would live in such houses? What regions and social classes would they be appropriate for?

Before looking at what creative anachronism we can come up with today, I think some discussion on what actually occurred in history is in order. Like, clothing, gear, etc. etc. only after careful examination of the historic models and information available to us should folks begin looking at how to create reproductions for reenacting use. Only after researching what they did, can we possibly come up with modern transportable authentic substitutes that be not far from authentic.

One other thought I'd like to suggest is that there were 2 pre-fab houses on the Arabia when she went down. While they are net yet publicly viewable, does the museum have any information on them that can be accessed? Are there any extant copies of such a frontier house known to exist? How widespread was their actual use? Seems to me this might be a venue worth exploring some.

More questions than anything, but a little research could go a long way to keeping this thread open and useful.

[Citizen_Soldier]

Re: the ever elusive house

Joe,

My post wasn't meant to be an attack, it was intended to provoke some more conversation about the appropriateness of such structures at living history events.

The paragraph I wrote on reproduction military winter quarters was to help guide any military historical interpreters who might have been influenced by this thread to build such a structure. My intentions were to provide an idea that would fall more within the realm of documented military type permenant structures.

Troy has hit the nail on the head with his post that asked the following questions:

How common were very small houses?
Just how small was reasonable?
How were such houses historically constructed?
How were they furnished?
What types of people would live in such houses? What regions and social classes would they be appropriate for?

These questions are very important, along with how such houses were situated in regards to thier landscape and what outdoor features would have been related to these structures on the habitation site?

I have done a great deal of professional research, architectural preservation plans, and archeological surveys of small transisitonal housing that dates to the middle part of the nineteenth century in the midwest. Generally these structures bear little resemblence to the "play house" looking structure posted earlier in this thread.

Some common characteristics of small frame houses in the central Iowa region for this time period include a 1.5 story height, a loft of some sort, indiginous stone foundation, glass windows, brick chimney, and outdoor features that frequently include a root cellar and outhouse.

I would like to post more but time restraints refrain me from writing much additional information at this time. With my experience on the subject, I think it would be nearly impossible to authentically reconstruct a transportable civilian house to bring to living history events. My thoughts would be to use event venues that feature some sort of historical residence site already on the premises. Open air museums, historical societies, and house museums could all be possible options.

Darrek Orwig

[Hank Trent]

Re: Historic Research and information needed.

One thing I think is important here is to make a conscious effort to avoid letting this drift too far into the realm of modern anachronisms and concentrate on authenticity related facts rather than acceptable farbisms.

I think that's a good point. What we're really talking about is a reproduction of a civilian home from the period. Like with any reproduction, we can study what the original looked like, but once we have a good grip on that knowledge, the next question is, how inaccurate of a reproduction is acceptable?

And just like for every other reproduction, the answer varies. Maybe it would be cool to have a campaign event where a 1920s steam train pulls 1930s wooden boxcars loaded with soldiers. Those would be very, very poor "reproductions" of 1860s engine and cars, but it's a unique experience almost impossible to recreate otherwise. However, I doubt that an event done with 1920s rifles and 1930s artillery would seem as cool, because better reproductions or originals are easily available.

With houses, it's hard to figure out what's more accurate, among the usual options. A village of reenactors' portable homes? A modern village with old homes that have been completely remodeled for modern use, where only porches and an occasional room can be used? A museum village with restored homes and funishings, but with ropes, signs, untouchable antiques, and "hidden" electricity and plumbing? Or an event where the lack of homes is gotten around by stretching the historic premise to include only homeless civilians or civilians in makeshift homes?

None of those is PEC for the period, but all are inaccurate in different ways.

One other thought I'd like to suggest is that there were 2 pre-fab houses on the Arabia when she went down. While they are net yet publicly viewable, does the museum have any information on them that can be accessed? Are there any extant copies of such a frontier house known to exist? How widespread was their actual use? Seems to me this might be a venue worth exploring some.

One site says the two houses were 16 x 20, but that's all I know. I suspect that what was shipped was the pre-cut frame of the building. While you can raise a frame in a day and it eliminates the need of a skilled joiner on site, once the siding, roofing, floors, interior walls, doors and windows are installed, taking down wouldn't be any easier than taking down any permanent home. I'd be curious about more information, though.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[PogueMahone]

Re: the ever elusive house

Well, again, I must state that at no point did I suggest this was authentic. To be honest, I don't really want the discussion to steer into that direction. I wanted to see photos of structures people might be using.

At Red River 2, Don Cope built a two room shack that I think was put together at the corners, but it has been 10 years, so I don't recall. At the same event was a photographer who had a walled structure that he used for a studio and it was huge. I've seen the Crabb's and a few others.