Food for Thought

[mike86002000]

It's always interesting to hear about details of other houses in the area, from the mid 1800's, such as the pocket doors in "Gwynn Park House". I found a couple of pictures of a Dr. Mudd, not Dr. Sam Mudd, house near Clinton. It's remarkably similar to Sam's house. Instead of the odd outside door that opens directly into the dining room, there is a window. A doorway, and small porch are at the end of the house, at what would have been an entrance hall, extending from front to back, and containing the stairs to the second floor.. At Sam's house, that end of the hall was partitioned off, to make Dr. Mudd's downstairs bed room. I saw the bare bones of that partition, after plaster and base board had been removed. Wall studs dangled from rafters. One had dove tailed wedges driven into it to salvage a warped piece of lumber, long ago. Generally, the workmanship didn't match the rest of the house. The doorway into the bedroom, from the dining room, is oddly narrow. I remember no evidence of a doorway to the outside. in the wall of Sam's bedroom. Plaster and lathes removed from the walls were mostly original, including the walls of the bedroom. I don't remember extra tack holes, there, but I worked mostly upstairs. The picture of the other Dr. Mudd house is definitely not Sam's. It may have been built more closely to the original basic design, Sam's house seems to be a variation.
Mike