Benjamin Franklin Gates House
Encyclopedia
The Benjamin Franklin Gates House is a historic home and farm complex located on Lee Road (New York State Route 31A
) in Barre
, New York, United States. It is centered around a Greek Revival
house built in the 1830s using the unusual stacked-plank structural system
. The accompanying barn and privy
are also included in the listing.
Gates, the original owner, was a pioneer in the settlement of Barre who established the first tannery
in the town and later became one of its most prominent early citizens. The property has remained virtually unchanged since his ownership. After new owners restored
it, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 2009. It is the second property listed in Barre after the Skinner-Tinkham House
in the hamlet of Barre Center, and the second stacked-plank house listed in Orleans County
after the Servoss House
.
s, mark the property lines, along with some mature black walnut
s and sugar maple
s.
Terrain is mostly level. The surrounding area is rural, with farmland predominating. Some woodlot
s and cellular phone towers are visible in the distance. Nearby buildings along the road are other farmsteads, most of their buildings also dating to the 19th century. The nearest large settlements are the villages of Albion to the east-northeast and Medina
to the west-northwest, both about 4 miles (6.4 km) distant.
foundation
has cobblestone
facing, protruding mortar V-joints and sandstone
quoinss. Atop it rest stacks of one-inch–thick (2.5-cm) vertical wooden planks nailed together creating load-bearing walls. Plaster was applied to the interior surface; the exterior is faced in clapboard
. The two-story, three-bay
main block is topped with a gable
d roof, shingled in cedar, from which a brick chimney protrudes at the south (front) end.
On the east is a side-gabled one-story wing with full-width porch. The north wing projects from the rear of the east wing and the house's east rear. It, too, is side-gabled with a full-width porch facing east. It has the house's other chimney as well.
The south facade
of the main block has two original six-over-six double-hung sash window
s in the two western bays. The main entrance is located in the east bay. Greek Revival
elements present include the wide corner pilaster
s and plain frieze
topped by cornice
at the roofline, creating a pediment
with heavy entablature
at the gable field. The porches are supported by square wooden columns, echoed by pilasters along the facades. All entrances can be reached by two wooden steps.
A simple wooden surround frames the main entrance, topped by a transom. It opens into a side hall that leads to parlors on the west and (in the wing) on the east. Behind the parlor is the library. Both parlors have Greek Revival interior decorations—atticurge architrave
s on the east and corner blocks on the west, where the baseboard
forms a plinth
block at the floor. A set of stairs near the back leads to the bedrooms upstairs.
In the north wing are the kitchen and dining room. Below it is crawl space with a dirt floor. The rest of the house has a full basement. Some interior walls are stacked-plank as well. The non–load-bearing walls are of vertical plank surfaced with split lath and plaster
.
. It is sided in board with ogee
-shaped batten
s. Sliding doors at either end lead to an interior with an earthen ramp to the second level and a loft at the west end on the third level.
The smaller carriage barn on the east is similar to the barn. It is a sawn post-and-beam building on a fieldstone foundation with tongue-and-groove vertical siding and sliding doors at each gabled end. Inside a stairway leads to the second floor. The smaller privy between the house and barns is more like the former, clapboard-sided with a beaded plank door on an original hand-wrought Suffolk latch. Its walls are sided with plaster on accordion lath.
to Ontario County
, in turn moved to Barre around 1830. His initial purchase of 10 acres (4 ha) was enlarged with 19 acres (7.7 ha) the following year, creating the present lot. The house was built around that time. Its stacked-plank structural system may have been employed due to the surplus of wood from land being cleared at the time and the dearth of skilled carpenters in the area.
In addition to farming the small parcel, he went into the tanning
business. From a single vat hollowed out of a log, by 1852 he had several employees and had built a facility for the work. He sold the house for $3,200 ($ in contemporary dollars) to William Harrison Gates in 1853. After another sale in 1865, the tannery burned down sometime before 1874; an account from 1879 says that only a fragment of a foundation wall remained at that time.
Alterations to the house have been generally minimal and incremental. The kitchen floor was raised 7 inches (17.8 cm) in the 1840s to bring it level with the dining room. A century later, the original chimney was removed.
After the kitchen was remodeled in 1986, the current owners made some major renovations in the early 2000s. Two bathrooms were added, and on the exterior the north wing's porch was added. The original chimney and louver
ed shutters
were replicated. All were done with care to not disrupt the house's overall appearance.
New York State Route 31A
New York State Route 31A is an east–west state highway located in the western part of New York in the United States. It serves as a southerly alternate route of NY 31 from the western part of Orleans County to the far western part of Monroe County...
) in Barre
Barre, New York
Barre is a town in Orleans County, New York, United States. The population was 2,124 at the 2000 census. The town is named after Barre, Massachusetts.The Town of Barre is on the south border of the county.- History :...
, New York, United States. It is centered around a Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
house built in the 1830s using the unusual stacked-plank structural system
Structural system
The term structural system or structural frame in structural engineering refers to load-resisting sub-system of a structure. The structural system transfers loads through interconnected structural components or members.-High-rise buildings:...
. The accompanying barn and privy
Privy
Privy may refer to:* Privy council* Privy purse* A garderobe* An outhouse, a small structure for defecation and urination* Privity...
are also included in the listing.
Gates, the original owner, was a pioneer in the settlement of Barre who established the first tannery
Tannery
Tannery may refer to:* Tannery , a facility where the tanning process is applied to hide to produce leather* Paul Tannery , a French mathematician and historian of mathematics...
in the town and later became one of its most prominent early citizens. The property has remained virtually unchanged since his ownership. After new owners restored
Building restoration
Building restoration describes a particular treatment approach and philosophy within the field of architectural conservation. According the U.S...
it, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 2009. It is the second property listed in Barre after the Skinner-Tinkham House
Skinner-Tinkham House
The Skinner-Tinkham House, commonly known as the Barre Center Tavern, is located at Maple Street and Oak Orchard Road in Barre Center, New York, United States. It is a brick house in the Federal style built around 1830...
in the hamlet of Barre Center, and the second stacked-plank house listed in Orleans County
Orleans County, New York
As of the census of 2000, there were 44,171 people, 15,363 households, and 10,846 families residing in the county. The population density was 113 people per square mile . There were 17,347 housing units at an average density of 44 per square mile...
after the Servoss House
Servoss House
The Servoss House is a located on Fruit Avenue in the town of Ridgeway, New York, United States, near Medina. It is a Greek Revival style home built between 1830 and 1833 alongside the Erie Canal....
.
Buildings and grounds
The farm is located on the north side of the road, just east of where Mix Road intersects from the south. The house and other structures are located near the front of the 29 acres (11.7 ha) property; seven acres (7 acres (2.8 ha)) in the rear are currently under cultivation. Trees planted in the last two decades, including 15 disease-resistant American elmAmerican Elm
Ulmus americana, generally known as the American Elm or, less commonly, as the White Elm or Water Elm, is a species native to eastern North America, occurring from Nova Scotia west to Alberta and Montana, and south to Florida and central Texas. The American elm is an extremely hardy tree that can...
s, mark the property lines, along with some mature black walnut
Black Walnut
Juglans nigra, the Eastern Black walnut, is a species of flowering tree in the hickory family, Juglandaceae, that is native to eastern North America. It grows mostly in riparian zones, from southern Ontario, west to southeast South Dakota, south to Georgia, northern Florida and southwest to central...
s and sugar maple
Sugar Maple
Acer saccharum is a species of maple native to the hardwood forests of northeastern North America, from Nova Scotia west to southern Ontario, and south to Georgia and Texas...
s.
Terrain is mostly level. The surrounding area is rural, with farmland predominating. Some woodlot
Woodlot
A woodlot is a term used in North America to refer to a segment of a woodland or forest capable of small-scale production of forest products such as wood fuel, sap for maple syrup, sawlogs, as well as recreational uses like bird watching, bushwalking, and wildflower appreciation...
s and cellular phone towers are visible in the distance. Nearby buildings along the road are other farmsteads, most of their buildings also dating to the 19th century. The nearest large settlements are the villages of Albion to the east-northeast and Medina
Medina, New York
Medina is a village in the towns of Shelby and Ridgeway in Orleans County, New York, United States. The population was 6,415 at the 2000 census, making it the second most populous municipality in the county after Albion, the county seat. The village was named by its surveyor...
to the west-northwest, both about 4 miles (6.4 km) distant.
House
The house itself has a main section with wings to the north and east. A fieldstoneFieldstone
Fieldstone is a building construction material. Strictly speaking, it is stone collected from the surface of fields where it occurs naturally...
foundation
Foundation (architecture)
A foundation is the lowest and supporting layer of a structure. Foundations are generally divided into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations.-Shallow foundations:...
has cobblestone
Cobblestone architecture
Cobblestone architecture refers to the use of cobblestones embedded in mortar as method for erecting walls on houses and commercial buildings.-History:Evidence of the use of cobblestones in building has been found in the ruins of Hierakonpolis...
facing, protruding mortar V-joints and sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
quoinss. Atop it rest stacks of one-inch–thick (2.5-cm) vertical wooden planks nailed together creating load-bearing walls. Plaster was applied to the interior surface; the exterior is faced in clapboard
Clapboard (architecture)
Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...
. The two-story, three-bay
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
main block is topped with a gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d roof, shingled in cedar, from which a brick chimney protrudes at the south (front) end.
On the east is a side-gabled one-story wing with full-width porch. The north wing projects from the rear of the east wing and the house's east rear. It, too, is side-gabled with a full-width porch facing east. It has the house's other chimney as well.
The south facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
of the main block has two original six-over-six double-hung sash window
Sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels or "sashes" that form a frame to hold panes of glass, which are often separated from other panes by narrow muntins...
s in the two western bays. The main entrance is located in the east bay. Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
elements present include the wide corner pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s and plain frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
topped by cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
at the roofline, creating a pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
with heavy entablature
Entablature
An entablature refers to the superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and are commonly divided into the architrave , the frieze ,...
at the gable field. The porches are supported by square wooden columns, echoed by pilasters along the facades. All entrances can be reached by two wooden steps.
A simple wooden surround frames the main entrance, topped by a transom. It opens into a side hall that leads to parlors on the west and (in the wing) on the east. Behind the parlor is the library. Both parlors have Greek Revival interior decorations—atticurge architrave
Architrave
An architrave is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of the columns. It is an architectural element in Classical architecture.-Classical architecture:...
s on the east and corner blocks on the west, where the baseboard
Baseboard
In architecture, a baseboard is a board covering the lowest part of an interior wall...
forms a plinth
Plinth
In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests. Gottfried Semper's The Four Elements of Architecture posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, and the wall make up all of architectural theory. The plinth usually rests...
block at the floor. A set of stairs near the back leads to the bedrooms upstairs.
In the north wing are the kitchen and dining room. Below it is crawl space with a dirt floor. The rest of the house has a full basement. Some interior walls are stacked-plank as well. The non–load-bearing walls are of vertical plank surfaced with split lath and plaster
Lath and plaster
Lath and plaster is a building process used mainly for interior walls in Canada and the United States until the late 1950s. After the 1950s, drywall began to replace the lath and plaster process in the United States. In the United Kingdom, lath and plaster was used for some interior partition...
.
Outbuildings
Just to the northeast are the outbuildings. The largest is a gabled barn of hand-hewn post-and-beam on a fieldstone foundation with lime mortarLime mortar
Lime mortar is a type of mortar composed of lime and an aggregate such as sand, mixed with water. It is one of the oldest known types of mortar, dating back to the 4th century BC and widely used in Ancient Rome and Greece, when it largely replaced the clay and gypsum mortars common to Ancient...
. It is sided in board with ogee
Ogee
An ogee is a curve , shaped somewhat like an S, consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite senses, so that the ends are parallel....
-shaped batten
Batten
A batten is a thin strip of solid material, typically made from wood, plastic or metal. Battens are used in building construction and various other fields as both structural and purely cosmetic elements...
s. Sliding doors at either end lead to an interior with an earthen ramp to the second level and a loft at the west end on the third level.
The smaller carriage barn on the east is similar to the barn. It is a sawn post-and-beam building on a fieldstone foundation with tongue-and-groove vertical siding and sliding doors at each gabled end. Inside a stairway leads to the second floor. The smaller privy between the house and barns is more like the former, clapboard-sided with a beaded plank door on an original hand-wrought Suffolk latch. Its walls are sided with plaster on accordion lath.
History
Gates, the descendant of English colonists who had moved from MassachusettsMassachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
to Ontario County
Ontario County, New York
As of the census of 2000, there were 100,224 people, 38,370 households, and 26,360 families residing in the county. The population density was 156 people per square mile . There were 42,647 housing units at an average density of 66 per square mile...
, in turn moved to Barre around 1830. His initial purchase of 10 acres (4 ha) was enlarged with 19 acres (7.7 ha) the following year, creating the present lot. The house was built around that time. Its stacked-plank structural system may have been employed due to the surplus of wood from land being cleared at the time and the dearth of skilled carpenters in the area.
In addition to farming the small parcel, he went into the tanning
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
business. From a single vat hollowed out of a log, by 1852 he had several employees and had built a facility for the work. He sold the house for $3,200 ($ in contemporary dollars) to William Harrison Gates in 1853. After another sale in 1865, the tannery burned down sometime before 1874; an account from 1879 says that only a fragment of a foundation wall remained at that time.
Alterations to the house have been generally minimal and incremental. The kitchen floor was raised 7 inches (17.8 cm) in the 1840s to bring it level with the dining room. A century later, the original chimney was removed.
After the kitchen was remodeled in 1986, the current owners made some major renovations in the early 2000s. Two bathrooms were added, and on the exterior the north wing's porch was added. The original chimney and louver
Louver
A louver or louvre , from the French l'ouvert; "the open one") is a window, blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain, direct sunshine, and noise...
ed shutters
Window shutter
A window shutter is a solid and stable window covering usually consisting of a frame of vertical stiles and horizontal rails...
were replicated. All were done with care to not disrupt the house's overall appearance.