Tag Archives: Documenting in Historic Homes

This Old House…

By Savannah Lore

MajorsHouse

Part of the charm of historic homes is the creak and groans of the place as you walk around. They add to the story you are trying to tell and take the person back to that time period. They can hear the history in the walls and in the floors. When I am not giving tours, I am documenting the well loved and well used spots of the Majors House. This is mostly so we know what is going on in the home. Where are the holes? Which cracks need to be filled? Did that one get larger? This is just part of the job when you work in a building with floors that are 159 years old.

I will say that we do not need or want every flaw to be repaired. A great example of this is a little mark in the floor of the children’s room of the house.

Closeofironburn

This mark is a burn from a hot iron that fell on the floor in the children’s room. I use this mark  in tours to discuss not only who would be in this room but what they would do in here when Alexander Majors lived here in 1856. (The enslaved women ironing the children’s clothes.) Also, I can give context to how dangerous simple things domestic task could be in this period. That iron was hot enough to burn a deep indent in solid wood floors and it happened in the children’s room. You can imagine how much that would have hurt if it fell on the enslaved women who was ironing or a child in the room. Stories can come from the most unusually places and I have learned that what can seem like flaws can be great tools to share history.