Learning from Structures
Description by Joanna Stephens, BOFT Curator
In Middle Tennessee there continues to be an enormous boom in construction. It seems that everywhere you turn, there are homes and buildings going up or being renovated. Construction workers and building supplies blanket the area. The lightning pace by which construction is occurring throughout the area is in great contrast to the construction processes of the 19th century.
This Broad Ax was used to build the Carter House. Craftsmen used it to hew logs. Hewing a log means to shape it into a beam or board. Each individual beam and wall stud in the Carter House had to be chopped down and then cut or hewn by hand.
Often when someone renovates old homes, they find things inside the walls. These bullets were found in the walls of the Carter House in 1952 when the State of Tennessee first began efforts to the home into a museum.
Envelope which held the two bullets taken from the Carter House walls.
This wall stud is hand-hewn, meaning a broad ax was used to shape it to the correct width and depth. We still have wall studs in our houses today – they are what we hang our drywall on!
Skilled craftsman and enslaved laborers often worked alongside property owners as homes were built slowly and steadily. By the time the Carter House was constructed in 1830, pieces of trim (decorative, styled wood) could be carved by hand, or just as easily be ordered through stores or catalogs. Carter House includes many hand carved elements, but also some components that were likely ordered or purchased from a store.
Questions:
How can we tell that the wall stud is hand-hewn?
Transcribing is when someone tries to figure out what an old letter or document says. Can you try to read and transcribe the envelope?
What does your transcription of the envelope tell you?
Every family and person who lives in a house leaves its mark. The Carter’s left many of the bullets in their house and outbuildings, possibly as reminders of the Battle of Franklin. When Moscow Carter inherited the home from his father Fountain Branch Carter he added rooms and moved buildings. Others that lived in the house afterward added a bathroom and changed the style. How do you think you and your family have changed your house?
The Carter House was built about 1830. At that time you could buy decorative wood pieces for your house, such as the railing of a staircase or a door. Why do you think some people made these items themselves and other people bought them?
Answers:
We can tell by looking at the markings. A piece of wood that is cut at a saw mill is smooth or has more regular patterns. If you look closely at the wall stud you can see that it is uneven from the use of the broad ax.
This transcription is hard. Especially at the end. Sometimes it is difficult to figure out someone’s name. It reads:
Franklin, Tennessee
These shells dug out of the Carter House walls – during restoration in 1952.
The transcription tells us when and where the bullets were found. They were found 88 years after the Battle of Franklin in 1952.
I have changed my house in many ways. I have done simple things like repaint, but I have also changed the floors, taken out doors, etc. Not every mark we leave on a house is good. Has anyone in your family crashed into a wall in the garage and left a dent or have your broken something that hasn’t been fixed yet?
There are many different reasons someone might choose to make their own wood decorations rather than buy them. One reason is that the builder of the house, or one of his enslaved laborers, was a skilled carpenter. Someone who purchases a piece already made might not have had the skills to make it. Also, there is the cost. Items bought from a store would be more expensive than if it was made by the builder. Lastly there is time. It would take more time to make the items. If a builder was short on time, they might purchase the items for convience.