America’s early hinterland houses built of native stone are more than well constructed abodes. They reveal the desire of the frontier inhabitants to be part of the architectural fashion of the day. Even the simplest l8th century field-stone dwelling, having no obvious Georgian architectural style for that period, may very well contain large “quoins” (pronounced coins) or cornerstones that architecturally give the home symmetry and frame the random laid walls.
It is understandable that in the centers of the Colonial culture of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, Colonists were architecturally keen and attempted to outdo each other with fashionable estates. But the degree in which this expertise was carried out on the frontier is truly remarkable, as best exhibited all around our local area. In the Oley Valley of Pennsylvania, if one examines the Colonial structures surviving, in what was a wilderness three hundred years ago (only 50 miles away from Philadelphia), one should be astonished to see the respect our ancestors had for architectural beauty.
The most common way of constructing a fieldstone home was to lay the stone walls in a random fashion. That is, laying the stones in no particular pattern, but just as they came out of the field. However, if one wishes to be fashionable, one can “dress” the stones (cut them square) and lay them in straight courses (rows). The dressed stone method was high fashion in the early 1700s, and obviously took considerable time for masons to cut each stone. When one thinks of a facade, the architectural front of a building, one is prone to think of churches and government institutions with their embellished fronts.
However, even simple stone homes also have facades. Several early Colonial homes in the Oley Valley have facades of dressed stone, which is in direct contrast to random laid stone, and was obviously an attempt to keep up with the fashionable architecture style of Colonial Philadelphia. Unless one really studies a stone structure, the facade may not be apparent at all. It is, however, easy to detect as the front of the dwelling which consists of squared stone, while the sides and real walls actually have random laid stone (ex. White Horse Tavern, 1765).
The dressing of stone was accomplished by the stone mason with a variety of stone hammers made for that purpose. But cutting ironstone, a different animal, was next to impossible. For this reason, one will find few dressed ironstone facades in the upper Oley Valley along the Oley Hills. In this territory, random laid stone is the rule (mostly limestone, some brownstone homes Douglassville way), and architectural fashion is incorporated in the wood trim of the dwelling, or with brick.
For a good example of random laid ironstone, visit the beautiful Keim Homestead property in Lobachsville, notably the Keim Stone Cabin (circa 1740) or just view the cover of Oley Valley History Volume I.
Richard L.T. Orth is assistant director of the American Folklife Institute in Kutztown
