Back to Basics

Much of my recent professional life has been focused on the repair and restoration of significant and high-style buildings. As such, most of my projects have been blessed with an abundance of documentation. However, I have taken a new job, returning to my roots in architectural history, historic preservation consulting, and cultural resources management.

With that return, I have made a conscious effort to refocus my reading around more vernacular buildings and general history. The firm that I am working with now has a strong team of archeologists, so for my first book of 2011, I chose a classic: James Deetz's In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life.

This book is a wonderful reminder of how, in order to more fully understand a historic building, we must put aside our current view of the world. Rather we must look at historic buildings as the people who built and used them would have. Deetz illustrates this concept with a number of examples.

Perhaps one of the most striking transformations is related to man's view of himself in the world. Prior to the Renaissance, nature was seen as a controlling force, and the yeomen of England who moved to the colonies brought this traditional attitude with them. With the advent of the Age of Reason, scientific thought arose, and man's belief in his ability to impose his will on and bring order to nature became prevalent. Deetz sees this transformation of thought expressed materially in building form: a movement from the asymmetrical, accretive, organic, and plan-driven nature of building (early 17th century) to the rigidly symmetrical (Georgian) design of houses.

Fairbanks House, Dedham, Massachusetts, 1641

Nathaniel Ely House, Longmeadow, Massachusetts, 1780

Deetz also illustrates the complementary nature of information provided by the various forms of material culture. Historical records were left by a small segment of the population, often with a specific agenda. It therefore becomes critical to interpret the unintentional artifacts of life to realize a more complete view of a society.

A great deal of knowledge can be gained about how people lived and how they used their buildings through archeological investigations. For example, earthfast houses, which featured only wood posts as foundations, were common throughout the Chesapeake in the 17th century. This was because most farmers' resources in this region at the time were devoted to tobacco farming, not dwellings, resulting in less permanent domestic structures. Earthfast houses leave behind no visible record above ground - no stone foundation or collapsed chimney. Instead the remnants are evident only through stains in the soil denoting the locations post holes, and these remains are revealed only through archeological investigation.

There were many fascinating insights in this book: practices that reflect the societal move from the community to the individual, information about changing relationships between races over time, examples of how relations between England and the colonies affected cultural activities, and ideas about how cultural perceptions of personal space are reflected in architecture. In addition, there are lots of interesting facts to be found along the way - why there are differences between how Americans and Europeans hold their forks, the origin of porches, and the evolution of gravestone decoration, to name a few. All of these pieces play a role in developing a fuller understanding of our past and make our interpretation of these historic resources richer.

I found this book to be both an easy read and thought-provoking.