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House Styles
House Styles Intro
In 1916 the mill commissioned more housing from a local builder named Brawley. The new cottages would have three different floorplans. This house has an L-shaped, four-room floorplan. The front porch has a shed roof which, unlike the 1907 houses above, does not span over the front windows. A back porch ran the entire length of the back ell (2 rooms, 36 feet). The last eight feet at the far back end of the porch were enclosed to create a water closet. The kitchen was located in the back room of the ell and cooking was done on a wood stove in a back corner of the room.
The construction techniques and materials of the 1917 houses are very similar to those of the 1902-7 houses: wood lap siding exterior, interior pine single bead board, 2 1/2" pine tongue-in-groove flooring. A double-sided fireplace on one side warmed a front and middle room, while the back kitchen and other front room were warmed by wood or coal stoves whose flues went through the ceiling.
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n this floorplan, the front door opened to a 6' wide foyer with doors to the left, right, and straight ahead. To attain the back two rooms of the ell, you had to exit the foyer onto the back porch, then enter the remaining rooms from the porch. The design made the houses flexible to subletting rooms. The houses have a , with only two small closets on each side of the double-sided fireplace that separates one front room from the back ell.
Mrs. Ada Freeman says that she and her husband sub-let a front room of one of these houses from the main tenant when she first got married. At that time, the houses still belonged to the mill. When asked about notable lack of storage and where she stored her clothing, she replied that she hung her extra dress "on a nail."
This house style is most prevalent in the streets one street away from the perimeter of the mill. Freeman (formerly College), Harris, East Lowrance, East Gray, and East Pressley Streets all feature the original four room house.