New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Historic Preservation Office
BUILDING ATTACHMENT
Page 3
Historic Sites #:
gable end. Floor boards run north-south in six sections following the alterations for floor hatch and the front extension (therefore the Build I floor is extant). Boards widths range from 11½ to 20½ inches in the oldest floor, 7½ to 16½ inches in the extension, and 6 inches at the hatch. There is no sign of any hoisting equipment over the hatch. West aisle: The structure has no interior finishes and the floor is earthen. On the east side is the board-and-batten wall of the wagon bay (described above), on the rear (north) wall the exterior vertical boards are exposed, along with two horizontal nailing girts, the rafter, and the sill. On the west wall of the drive bay is the crib wall, with its horizontally-laid ⅞ by 2½-inch crib slats from floor to rafters, with chicken wire laid over the lower 9 courses and the upper 8 courses of slats. It is underpinned with a brick foundation, as is the west wall of the main wagon house. There are separate sets of rafters over the drive bay and the corn crib, both topped with 1x2½ roof lath, 7 inches on centers, indicating the presence of a wood roof. Over the Build II drive bay, the rafters are hewn, and likely reused from an older building. Over the crib, the rafters are circular sawn. In the crib (Build IV), the exterior wall is studded with sash-sawn pieces of irregular sizes which empty mortises and the diagonal ghosts of siding, and appear to be recycled end rafters. At the north wall of the crib the exterior is sided with spaced horizontal siding consistent with that on the west elevation (see above). Laid on the interior studs of the north wall and the interior crib wall is chicken wire and rectangular wire mesh. The floor of the crib is four boards laid north-south. East aisle: The aisle walls have no finishes. The north wall is a recently built stud wall clad with plywood on the exterior. The east wall has its original circa 1900 studs, and the back of the exterior clapboard is exposed. On a board nailed the studs is the name “David Campbell,” whose parents John S. and Roberta Campbell owned this property from 1952 to 1986. Four sash-sawn tie beams measuring 3x6¾ inches span from a ledger secured with cut nails at the granary east wall and rest on the east aisle wall plate. Knob-and-tube wiring ran through the granary east wall to feed a missing light fixture on a tie beam. The portion of granary wall at the loft level of the front extension is without siding. In the floor space was found an old shoe, which may be a ritual concealment meant to bestow protection on the building. The granary east wall is described above, but most of it is covered by a pegboard holding shop tools. Possible Sequence of Construction: First Build (Circa 1840): The wagon house began as a one-story, board-and-batten-clad, gable-roofed granary that measured approximately 10’-4” x 9’-2” in plan and stood 2 feet off the ground on piers. Its north-south wall plates indicate that the rafters formed a parallel ridge and the building was gable-fronted, as it is now. The existence of batten pockets in both surviving original front posts suggest that there were two passage doors in the front wall at the corners. If so, the doors may have marked the existence of a passageway at rows of bins. Alterations have erased evidence of ground floor bins, but as there were two grain bins filling the west side in the loft, 2 rows of 2 bins would have fit comfortably between the doors on the first floor (see the drawing for a conjectural floor plan). The sash-sawn timber frame and use of cut nails would set this period as pre-Civil War. Second build (Circa 1860): They raised the roof a half story, also with sash-sawn joined timber, and built three grain bins in the loft. They inserted a central floor hatch to access the loft. At this time, they added the west aisle, but set the roof below the main roof eave on a ledger. They used hewn rafters salvaged from a colonial-period building. On both sides of the granary, they added a new course of board-and-batten siding above the original. They took more care on the east side to match board widths and carefully join boards and battens with mitered ends. The more weathered appearance on the east side suggests that no shed was built at this time, and it was exposed. The higher level of workmanship suggests that exterior appearance and/or weather-tightness was important to the farmer. Third build (Circa 1900): They converted the building to the traditional wagon house form that is locally so common. They extended the front wall south approximately 5’-6” with balloon framing, circular-sawn lumber, and wire nails. The builder duplicated the carved rafter tails, suggesting that the west shed roof stayed in place until later. It appears also that they did not extend the shed south along with the granary. They added the east aisle with 2x6 sash-sawn non-tapering rafters set on the upper wall plate adjacent to the main roof rafters (there is no sign of a roof ledger below the main eave as on the west side). A ledger at the main wall supporting tie beams is secured with cut nails, but where the battens were cut for the ledger, wire nails secure the batten ends. Thus this was a transitional time period for nail types, when both cut and wire nails were in use. They cut a door into the
Survey Name: Surveyor:
SALEM COUNTY FARMS RECORDING PROJECT JANET L. SHERIDAN
Organization:
Date:
May 20, 2017
DOWN JERSEY HERITAGE RESEARCH, LLC