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Description (2.2.1)

Domestic Outbuildings (2.2.1.1)

Domestic outbuildings were especially prevalent before 1900 because the eighteenth and nineteenth century household could not have operated easily without the functions these structures fulfilled. As modem utilities--water, sewerage, and electricity--were introduced during the early twentieth century, domestic outbuildings became outmoded and most of those shown on early Sanborn maps were demolished.

Important examples of domestic outbuildings survive from each period of the city's historic development. The ca. 1800 kitchen (or office) at 404 East Church Street is a one-story gable-roof building displaying late Georgian style woodwork. It has been attached to the house as an ell, as is a ca. 1840 kitchen of similar form but vernacular finish behind the Pool-Lumsden House (204 South Road Street, 1840). The only free-standing antebellum kitchen is the one-story frame building behind the Shannon-Derrickson House (112 East Main Street, ca. 1849). This one-bay-by-one-bay structure has flush gable ends and possibly predates the house. Located on the same properly is another small two-room antebellum outbuilding. On the rear and sides are louvers to provide ventilation, suggesting that it was perhaps a privy. A pair of remarkable brick outbuildings are situated behind the imposing Greek Revival style Charles-Hussey House (1010 West Colonial Avenue, 1849). Each of the nearly identical square buildings-a dairy and what may be a winery--is in five-to-one common bond and covered by a pyramidal roof crowned by a pointed finial. Corbeled brick cornices, heavy wrought iron strap hinges, and brick jack arches complete each building; the dairy has large lattice panels for ventilation.

Improved means of food storage and household management rendered domestic outbuildings less important--and eventually obsolete--during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As documented by Sanborn maps, most houses erected during the late nineteenth century had kitchens located in ells, and those that originally were detached eventually were added to the house ells. Surviving detached kitchens are rare and include a large one-room weatherboarded building (ca. 1891) behind the Queen Anne style Preyor-Cropsey-Outlaw House at 1109 Riverside Avenue.

Most domestic outbuildings from this period are storage buildings. These include structures such as the windowless, shed-roof building (ca. 1914) sided with asphalt at 401 West Fearing Street and a smaller shed-roof building (1930s) at 302 North Speed Street. More substantial gable-roofed storage buildings include a weatherboarded one-room shed (ca. 1934) along the alley behind 609 Agawam Street and a two-room building (ca. 1920) with two doors behind 801 Raleigh Street.

There is a small number of ancillary buildings whose purpose was primarily to provide pleasure or be decorative. Many of these are garden structures, such as the vine-covered pergola (1917) supported by six slender-concrete piers behind the Walter L. Cohoon House (801 West Church Street, 1916-1917), and two handsome buildings, each covered by a slate hexagonal roof, that complement the Tudor Revival style of the Harold Foreman House (1116 Riverside Avenue, 1935). The garden house is a small hexagonal weatherboarded structure with hexagonal windows and the garden shelter is semi-hexagonal with three open sides. A playhouse of comfortable size, erected between I902 and 1908, remains behind the Shannon-Derrickson House (112 East Main Street) with gable roof, three-bay façade, and small gable-front porch.