discovery of a mid-19th century chicago wood framed cottage with pegged lap and mortise and tenon joints

from the moment i struck through a wall near the northeast corner of the house, i knew that my suspicions about its true identity were correct. after peeling back continuous layers i am convinced this house was likely moved from the central business district sometime during the 1850's (around the time masonry began replacing the wood-framed shanties). in fact, once i pulled back and deciphered the "insulation" resting on the sill plate between the joists, i had an approximate date of 1850-1854, based on the brittle scraps of newspapers, product brochures and business cards (see more of the initial findings prior to demolition here).

a few weeks later i received word that the house was going to be demolished the next day. when i arrived onsite, nothing initially "spoke" to me. there had been so many alterations - far more than i anticipated. the entire rafter system had been replaced from a previous fire, and traces of additional fire damage were discovered behind walls exposed by the claws of the excavator's backhoe. i was mainly interested in the front-most section of the house and the sill plate configuration. since the debris from the demolition covered over these sills and the front wasn't demolished, i would return the next day when the job reached completion.

early the following morning i received a call from the wrecker informing me that the sill plates were ready to be photographed. the day prior, i'd asked if he would be kind enough to contact me as soon as they were exposed "in situ" so i could carefully examine their surface characteristics, configuration and so on. when i arrived on site, i could not believe my eyes. my wrecker friend managed to clear all the debris away from and around the sill plates and heavily notched girt. it was a remarkable sight to behold. the heavy timbers rested on cedar posts that had been cut down. more likely than not, these posts once served as logs used to roll the house (with teams of oxen) from site to site.

having carefully examined and harvested sill plate fragments from well over 50 houses this year alone, i have only seen two other structures that contained wood-pegged joinery. however, unlike the others i've found, there were no "spikes" toenailed into any of the sill plates or girts here. these sill plates were interconnected by using a combination of lap and mortise and tenon joinery. i have only seen this once before-- when i was systematically deconstructing the  john kent russell house (1855).

interestingly, the russell house used large wrought iron spikes and tie rods, with only a single plate containing multi-faceted and tapered wood pegs. the current house was pegged throughout. this is of interest considering nails were widely available in chicago from the early 1830's on, when the first sawmill was fired up to cut dimensional lumber. the size of timbers used for both the sills and girt were also distinctive, representing the largest i've come across since the russell house.

the sill plates were sawn, with circular markings evident and mostly uniform from one section to another. the heavily notched girt exhibited evidence of hewn marks, and the joists were locked into place on both sides of the beam. the faceted and tapered pegs were comprised of oak (the other previously discovered pegs are white pine) and were nearly 12 inches in length.

clearly, the hybridization of "old world" post and beam with balloon construction methodologies make this wood-framed cottage a worthwhile "case study" to be examined beyond the scope of my ongoing deconstructing chicago project. at the very least, photographs and materials (i.e, sill plates, etc.) are available to any and all researchers who wish to pursue information about these under-studied early chicago cottages.