Plates: 28 Figures: 1
INTRODUCTION
In June 2002, Intrepid Historical Services was contracted by Ohio Valley Archaeological Consultants Limited to complete an architectural reconnaissance cultural resources survey for the proposed American Energy Corporation Mine in Wayne and Washington Townships, Belmont County, Ohio. The project area for the architectural reconnaissance survey was reduced from the study area to two properties: Property 24 (the Montana Danford Property), and Property 25 (the Carl Crum Cabin).
The purpose of the investigation was to determine whether those resources were eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). To accomplish this goal, a research strategy combining a literature review and field reconnaissance was employed.
The literature review was conducted by Stephen M. Biehl, who also conducted an architectural reconnaissance survey of the project area (Biehl and Pecora 2002) An architectural reconnaissance survey of the reduced project area was conducted on July 1 and 11, 2002, by Kevin B. Coleman, M.S., architectural historian. Albert Pecora III, M.A., R.P.A., served as project manager.
This report outlines the methods and results of the architectural reconnaissance survey.
ARCHITECTURAL RECONNAISSANCE FIELD METHODS
The objective of the architectural reconnaissance survey was to identify those buildings, structures, sites, and districts, if any, that warrant avoidance, or that warrant further investigation if they might be impacted, due to their potential eligibility for inclusion on the NRHP. The selection of architectural locations for further investigation was based on their outstanding characteristics which represent the area, state historic contexts, and NRHP criteria for integrity.
Before the reconnaissance survey, archival data was collected from historical maps which covered the project area. This data may provide individual information on the significance of an architectural location. Data uncovered during the initial research may provide a foundation for the recommendation of a structure for further work to determine its eligibility for the NRHP.
The in-depth physical examination of each architectural location included, but was not limited to, photographic documentation of each building, measurement of major buildings, visual inspection of the structure(s), and an on-site interview with the owner and/or resident, when possible. All information was recorded on an Ohio Historic Inventory form.
RESULTS OF ARCHITECTURAL RECONNAISSANCE SURVEY
Historical Trends
The project area is in the rural areas of Wayne township, Belmont County, Ohio. Several historical trends contributed to the character and shape of the geography and culture of the region in which the project area sits. This is in the Unglaciated Appalachian Plateau physiographic region of Ohio, characterized by dissected terrain (Noble and Korsok 1975: 30) which limits arable land and transportation and building sites. Thus, farming tends to be less profitable than in more level and richer physiographic regions.
It is in the Seven Ranges land district, surveyed in the typical one-mile survey grid, and which was sold to the general public and to land companies (Noble and Korsok 1975: 17-19) which encouraged private ownership by middle-class settlers from various origins. The population in 1850 was dominated by Mid-Atlantic migrants (from the middle Atlantic states from New York to Maryland), and had few immigrants from foreign countries (Wilhelm 1982: 46). This early established population dominated and shaped the geography and culture of the region, including settlement patterns, architecture and economics.
The agricultural region is the Northeast Dairy Region, close to the border of the Southeast Beef Cattle Region (Noble and Korsok 1975: 71). In both (as of 1975), cattle raising consisted of a third to a half of the agricultural economy, with secondary activities including corn and lumber. Significant industries in the region (as of 1975) were mineral industries, including clay and coal, and logging (Noble and Korsok 1975: 117-118). Coal is an extractive industry which can have major negative impacts on the geography, and tended to dominate local employment and economics.
The two properties are in the "Raven Rocks" community, a rural farming neighborhood amply described by resident Elsa Crooks Harper. Of the 843 acres eventually owned by Paul Warfield, and later Raven Rocks Inc., the population was at its maximum in the 1930s with about 40 residents, most of them children. Of the eight residences, only three were wood frame, the rest log. Population declined as the children matured, World War II drew them off a soldiers, and regional industrialization offered employment elsewhere. By the time Raven Rocks Inc. bought the neighborhood in 1970, there were three residents in two houses. Raven Rocks stabilized or repaired those two and a log house (including the two properties that are the subject of this report). The Raven Rocks Inc. property since then has been managed as a woodland preserve, pasture, and a Christmas tree farm (Harper 1986: 234-235).
General Observations
The area surveyed includes land in use as pasture, woodlots, residences, and roads. Two main trends in the current cultural landscape were observed during the survey.
First, development has apparently been agricultural, and slow and steady, since initial settlement, resulting in few houses and complexes. Second, although coal mining has been active and important in the area since the mid-nineteenth century, it has made little or no impact to the rural landscape in the project area.
Survey Results
An architectural reconnaissance survey of the project area was conducted on July 1 and 3, 2002, by Kevin B. Coleman, M.S., architectural historian. Albert Pecora III, M.A., R.P.A., served as project manager. Structures and buildings located within and close to the project area were documented. An OHI form was prepared for every standing building, structure (e.g., railroad, bridge), site (e.g., cemetery) or complex (e.g., farmstead or residential complex).
Description of Property 24 (BEL-1352-14), the Montana Danford Property
House
This vernacular two-story tee-plan wood frame house is in excellent condition with only reroofing and enclosed porch, retaining all other historical materials and form (Plate a). The ca. 1900 date is indicated by history, materials, construction, type, and map data. The house faces south, towards the road, with the main door on the south side.
The core is a 35 by 25 ft. tee-shaped two-story block with a front ell porch, rear two-story addition, side added porch, and attached one-story outbuilding. The foundation is tile block, and the siding is weatherboard with cornerboards. The one-over-one double-hung sash windows and doors have cornice caps. Wide and paired windows are on the front (Plate b). The door has its original screen door and an Eastlake-styled front door. The front porch has turned posts and a classical architrave. A simple frieze is atop the walls, along with a boxed soffit, and added gutters and downspouts. The roof has replacement asphalt shingle roofing.
The shed-roofed two-story addition in the rear elbow has the kitchen on the main floor, and was probably added soon after the house was built (Plate c). A porch added to the side of the addition is shuttered (Plate d). A well is in the southwest corner of the porch.
Environment and Outbuildings
The site is a rural homestead along a quiet gravel county road on a rolling hilltop surrounded by meadows and woods. The site includes 1) house, 2) rear outbuilding, 3) storage shed, 4) poultry house, 5) garage, and 6) barn. The buildings are in a roughly linear arrangement, with a cluster behind a corner of the house. They do not appear to have been moved in the last 50 years.
1) The house has mature shade trees to south, garden to east, and fruit trees to east and north.
2) The rear outbuilding is attached to the house by an added porch (Plate d, e, f). The two-room 10 by 20 ft. outbuilding was possibly originally the summer kitchen and is probably same age as house. It has a tile block foundation, roll asphalt siding over weatherboard, square windows, beadboard door, open soffits, and an added external stove chimney. The small loft has a small window in the rear gable.
3) An adjacent low storage shed dates to ca. 1920-1940, and has stone piers, beadboard siding, and a standing seam steel shed roof (Plate e).
4) The 24 by12 ft., ca. 1920-1940 poultry house has a sandstone pier foundation, scabby board & batten siding, and sheet steel shed roof (Plate g, h). It has two rooms. The west is for chickens, with triple hopper windows and a chicken walk door. The east is for storage, with double square windows and an entry door. No openings are on other sides. A small fenced yard is in front.
5) The garage was probably originally an older shed, same age as the house (Plate i, j). It is 10 by 16 ft., has board & batten siding, six-pane windows, open-soffits, standing seam gable roof, and sealed entry door on the rear. The beadboard garage door slides over on extended track. A concrete pad is in front.
6) The barn is a 40 by 32 ft. raised Yankee type barn, probably the same age as the house (ca. 1900) and is in excellent condition (Plate k). Some of the sandstone pier foundation remains, and some has been replaced with concrete. It has a circular-sawn pegged post & timber frame (Plate l), board & batten siding, added gutters and downspouting, and an asphalt shingle gable roof. Livestock doors open to the east from the lower level. A rear ca. 1980 added 37 by 15 ft. lean-to is for storage (Plate m). A ca. 1970 rebuilt ramp to a replacement threshing door is in front (Plate n). Grain bins are inside, and a hayfork track is in the ridge.
History
Map information indicates there was a building or buildings on this site before 1868: The 1868 atlas has a corresponding architectural location on the 110.5 Heirs of D.Titlaw property (Higgins & Higgins 1868). The 1888 atlas also has a corresponding architectural location on the 277.5 "Harvy" Danford property (Lathrop & Penny 1888). In both these maps the public road passed the house to the east, with a lane accessing the homestead. The 1905 (surveyed 1903) topo has a corresponding architectural location, with the road in its current location, running past the homestead (1905 USGS Woodsfield 15' topographic quadrangle).
Considering that Harvy Danford had amassed 277.5 acres by 1888, one of the largest tracts within a few miles, he would have needed a sizable farmstead, but that was probably farther down the road, later known as the Amberg Danford place (Figure Raven Rocks Map) (Harper 1986: inside cover). Oral history states that Montana Danford, daughter of Charles and Agatha Danford, built this house and barn ca. 1900 (personal communication, Don Hartley, Raven Rocks Inc. member, 7/1/02). That is a likely date for the house and barn, so the earlier architectural location is probably a previous homestead. The outbuilding and garage may be survivors of that.
Montana had the house built with electricity excluded, and never wanted it installed; however, it has been (personal communication, Don Hartley, member, 7/1/02). Montana Danford was born in the nearby Carl Crum log house (BEL-1353-14) which she later owned. She served as the local schoolteacher in the 1910s and 1920s. She maintained ownership after moving to Shadyside, and visited her homestead until 1962 or 1963 (Harper 1986: 81-84, 247, 235-236).
The property has been part of Raven Rocks Inc. since 1970, a non-profit group conserving the watershed around locally renown rock shelter caves. They repaired and updated the house and barn (personal communication, Don Hartley, member, 7/1/02).
Description of Property 25 (BEL-1353-14), the Carl Crum Cabin
House
This nonstyled 1-1/2 story single-pen log house is in good condition with removed additions, missing doors and windows, and a collapsed chimney; however, it retains all historical materials and form (Plate o). The ca. 1868-1880 date is indicated by its materials, construction, type, and map data. The house faces east, towards the road, with the main door on the east side.
The core is an 18 by 16 ft. single pen, with no evidence of interior dividing walls. The foundation is hewn pyramidal sandstone piers (Plate p), with hewn steps. The walls are steeple
notched adze-hewn logs up to the roof plate (Plate q). The roof is pole rafters with no ridge beam, battens spaced out for shingling, and standing-seam steel roofing. Almost all original lumber is circular sawn, with machine cut nails.
The front (east) wall has a center door with a window to the north with remnants of a 3/1 double-hung sash (Plate r). Coarse weatherboarding covers the logs, with a cornerboard, and nailing boards for a missing porch roof.
The south wall has an off-center doorway of wide millsawn boards projecting out into a removed addition (Plate s). A hewn sill beam on piers remains along the log wall. Several holes drilled into the log wall may have been tentatively made for a doorway (Plate t). A ca. 1970 photo of house (Harper 1986: 247) shows remnant siding that hints at a shallower, gabled wing on this side (Plate u). A small square window is in the clapboarded gable.
The west (rear) wall has a centered doorway and covered window to north, mirroring the front (Plate v). Thin vertical siding covers the wall under the removed rear lean-to. The north wall has a partially removed center fireplace and partial weatherboarding, and no other openings.
The floor joists are sawn lumber, and flooring is 11 in. to 13 in. boards. Walls are sheathed with rough-sawn vertical boards originally whitewashed, then painted grey with orange trim (Plate w, x). The original finished door and window trim and baseboards were nailed atop the wall sheathing. Tongue & groove ceiling boards are nailed to the hewn ceiling joists. The rear window was converted into a cupboard. A 7 ft. tall ca. 1880-1910 board door with cut nails is loose inside, probably from one of the additions. A quarter-turn winder stair is in the northwest corner between the rear window and the fireplace, with a small closet under. The loft has a finished floor, and a closet added to the northeast corner (Plate y).
The fireplace is partly missing, but still shows its original design and materials (Plate z). The fireplace is framed with hewn sandstone; there is no evidence of a mantel. Stone foundation blocks support two splayed side piers, which support the monolithic lintel (cracked in two) with a curved throat hewn into its back (Plate aa). The common-brick firebox and flue are collapsed and mostly removed. The brick hearth is collapsed with a groundhog gnawing on the edges of the floor.
Environment and Outbuildings
The site is a small rural homestead in the bend of roads on a rolling hilltop surrounded by regrowing woods and meadows. Access is by a privatized township road, a well-kept gravel lane running southwest from Crum Road that runs south past house with a side road running west. The site includes 1) the house, 2) an outbuilding foundation, and 3) a well pad.
1) Vegetation around the house is scrub woodland undergrowth and trees. The house is about 25 ft. from both roads.
2) About 20 ft. north of the house, with its west wall aligned with the house's east wall, is the simple rectangular foundation pit of an outbuilding at the top of the slope (Plate bb). No superstructure (presumably wood) or evidence of a ladder or stairway remains. The foundation is a 13 by 12 ft. basement with six courses of 1 ft. tall hewn sandstone blocks (Plate cc). A few inches of water have seeped in, and a few blocks have fallen in, along with a few boards. Sediment and sulphurous ground water covers the floor; no entrance or exit for water could be seen, though a 5 ft. deep dry ditch extends northward from the northeast corner out onto the hillside. This was probably a ground cellar, with the water seepage unintentional.
A patch of iris and a decorative boulder are to the east atop the bank along the road.
3) About 16 ft. south-southwest of the house, and not square to it, is a 5 ft. square concrete pad covering a well. The center is a rusted coffee can. This was probably built ca. 1970 when Raven Rocks Inc. acquired and stabilized the property.
History
Map information indicates a date between 1868 and 1888. The 1868 atlas has no corresponding architectural location on the 99 ac. L.C. Thornbury property (Higgins & Higgins 1868). The 1888 atlas has a corresponding architectural location on the 66.25 ac. James Creighton property (Lathrop & Penny 1888). The 1905 (surveyed 1903) topo has a corresponding architectural location (1905 USGS Woodsfield 15' topographic quadrangle). The township roads that ran past the site skirted the drainage to the east, unlike the current road that cuts across it on a diagonal.
This was the home of Joseph and "Campsadell" Crum, who had 13 children. Their son Carl Crum succeeded them, raising 8 children and was the longest resident of the house. Montana Danford was born in the house, and served as a local schoolteacher in the 1910s and 1920s. She had her house just north (BEL-1352-14) built ca. 1900 and owned this house. She maintained ownership, and visited the area until 1962 or 1963. (Harper 1986: 81-84, 247, 235-236)
The property has been part of Raven Rocks Inc. since 1970, a non-profit group conserving the watershed around locally renown rock shelter caves. They conserved the house, clearing away the collapsed additions and covering the well. (personal communication, Don Hartley, member, 7/1/02)
Recommendations Of Architectural Reconnaissance Survey
NRHP Eligibility Criteria
The buildings documented during this survey were examined to ascertain whether or not they require further documentation to recommend their potential eligibility for listing on the NRHP if they might be impacted by construction. The integrity of each documented building was also evaluated. The NRHP Criteria for Evaluation were developed to determine whether sites qualify for inclusion. These criteria are standards designed to evaluate the significance of sites. To be eligible, a property must be at least 50 years old, possess integrity, and:
PLATES
Plate a. Montana Danford Property, view north-northwest of west and south (front) elevation of house showing additions and facade.
Plate b. Montana Danford Property, view west-northwest of south (front) elevation of house showing porch and architectural details.
Plate c. Montana Danford Property, view southwest of west and north (rear) elevation of house showing rear elevation and additions.
Plate d. Montana Danford Property, view north-northwest of west elevation of house showing shed, porch, and additions.
Plate e. Montana Danford Property, view south-southeast of north (rear) elevation of house showing rear elevation and additions.
Plate f. Montana Danford Property, view west-southwest of west and north (rear) elevation of house showing rear elevation and additions.
Plate g. Montana Danford Property, view north-northeast of west and south (front) elevation of poultry house showing facade.
Plate h. Montana Danford Property, view south-southwest of east and north (rear) elevation of poultry house.
Plate i. Montana Danford Property, view north-northeast of west and south (front) elevation of garage.
Plate j. Montana Danford Property, view south-southwest of east and north (rear) elevation of garage.
Plate k. Montana Danford Property, view north-northeast of south (front) and east elevation of barn showing facade.
Plate l. Montana Danford Property, view southwest of interior of southwest corner, lower level of barn, showing materials and structure.
Plate m. Montana Danford Property, view east of west elevation of barn showing addition and elevation.
Plate n. Montana Danford Property, view northwest of south (front) elevation of barn showing replacement ramp.
Plate o. Carl Crum Property, view north-northwest of south and east (front) elevation of house showing facade.
Plate p. Carl Crum Property, view southwest of northeast corner of house showing corner pier, siding.
Plate q. Carl Crum Property, view northeast of southwest corner of house showing corner notching, chinking, siding and drill holes.
Plate r. Carl Crum Property, view west of east (front) elevation of house showing paired doors and windows.
Plate s. Carl Crum Property, view north of south elevation of house.
Plate tt. Carl Crum Property, view northwest of south elevation of house showing log treatment, corner notching, front siding, doorway, holes bored into logs.
Plate u. Carl Crum Property, view east-northeast of west (rear) and south elevation of house showing condition about 1970.
Plate v. Carl Crum Property, view south-southeast of north and west (rear) elevation of house showing missing chimney, firebox, siding.
Plate w. Carl Crum Property, view northwest of west and north interior walls of house showing door, modified window, stairs, fireplace, floor and ceiling.
Plate x. Carl Crum Property, view southeast of east and south interior walls of house showing doors, walls, floor and ceiling.
Plate y. Carl Crum Property, view north-northwest of west and north loft interior walls of house showing stair opening, closet, floor, gable walls, roof framing.
Plate z. Carl Crum Property, view north-northeast of north interior wall of house showing stairs and fireplace.
Plate aa. Carl Crum Property, view southwest of north elevation of house showing intact breastwork, missing firebox, siding and logs.
Plate bb. Carl Crum Property, view south-southeast of house and root cellar.
Plate cc. Carl Crum Property, view southeast of east and south interior walls of root cellar showing sandstone block walls, standing water, overgrowth.
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