The Kitchen

For many years the floor was bare. Each Saturday it was scrubbed with a scrubbing brush, home-made soap and lye. Water was continually running in and out of the barrel. Very few enjoyed the luxury of running water in their houses then. Over the years, thousands of meals were cooked in this room for hungry men of all walks of life.

There was a door cut in the center of the floor. Potatoes and vegetables were stored there to keep them from freezing. The two and one-half foot square door was lifted up and someone (usually a child) jumped down to get the potatoes while another held a lighted candle to give him light.

The little room on the west and north was a pantry and was used as a storeroom for dried fruits and vegetables, and for such large utensils as the churn, coffee grinder, and large kettles.

The small room south of the pantry was once used as a summer kitchen. It was in this small kitchen that the sumptuous hot wedding supper for one of the daughters, Caroline Carson Crandall, was cooked. It was served in the big kitchen and dining room. All wedding guests were served a big, hot meal.

Later this little room was used as "the men's washroom." It had a bench with several metal wash basins, soap in soap dishes, a bucket of cold water, and a big pitcher of hot water. There was a mirror, a comb case with a comb in it, and several clean towels hanging on nails driven in the walls. Today it is furnished to represent the bathroom of the early days. The large tub would hang on a nail in the room when not in use.

The Kitchen

The Kitchen

The Summer Kitchen / Men's Washroom

 

Three North Rooms

Dining Room