House History of 6888 Route 18 Lower Waterford, VT Lise G. Moran December 10, 2019 1 Table of Contents: 2 1. Elevations of 6888 Route 18/Introduction 2. Interior of the Cutler House 3. Greek Revival Style and Cultural Traditions of early Settlers of Waterford 4. Dewey and Cutler Families and Early Proprietorships in Waterford 5. Kinne Family 6. Sheep History 7. Transportation, Technology, and Auto-Related Tourism 8. Modern day Owners of Cutler House and Changes to the Footprint Due to the Fire 9. Visibility and the Charm of the Connecticut River 10. Water Rights 11. Comparables and Conclusion Appendix A and Bibliography 1. Elevations 3 The Cutler House is located near Route 18 in Lower Waterford. The common name from the 1980 survey was termed “The Whittemore Place” but the historic name will be termed in this paper as the Cutler House and referred to as such. Originally the house and grounds contained 310 acres ascertained from the early deeds found (1808 Cheney deed from Carpenter). There was once a progression of attached farm buildings to the east looking out to the Connecticut River Valley. The Northern elevation (front façade) has 5 bays and is 1- ¾ stories. The house is square with dimensions of 36 x 42 feet. It is consistent with the shape of its neighboring historic houses. The exterior cladding is wood clapboard. The front door has eight panels. The design consists two rows of small square panels at the very top, then a set of rectangular panels, and lastly at the bottom, two sets of square panels. Above the door is a casing with a center tablet. The door surrounds have bullseye corner blocks on the casing, ¾ sidelights and a transom above the door. The windows on either side of the front door have double bead caps on the lintel and a decorative molding on the bottom of the sill. There is a frieze (a horizontal board) under the projecting cornice which is typical feature in New England at this time. 4 Attached to the house, was once an auxiliary building possibly a summer kitchen. This one story gabled- roof wing, served as a garage, and storage area. Close by, but not attached to the summer kitchen, were two barns, a silo, and a near-by dairy shed. The farthest structure was the bank barn with a ramp. The barn buildings and the circular silo were connected to each other in an “L formation” in New England Continuous Architecture style, as it was commonly known. An earlier article in the Caledonia Record noted that a corn barn and shed were demolished due to a tornado that hit the county on June 14, 1888 but the exact location of these two outbuildings is not known. A modern-day two car garage is on part of the footprint of the summer kitchen wing. In the 1932 USGS (Littleton - Quadrangle map), the Connecticut River side shows the black square of the Cutler house. The uphill side across the street shows a dotted line (dirt road) with another black square, which could have been an outbuilding used to assist in the farming operations on that side of the road or possibly the spring house for water. Typically early settlers in this area built a simple log house when they first arrived. In time they may have erected a simple Cape with an ell or wing attached to the earliest part of the house in the Federal or Greek Revival style. After an extensive study of deeds and property maps, there may have been an early house on this property, but it not evident where an earlier edifice was located. The house has a medium to steeply-pitched roof with asphalt shingles. The attic level depicts a vernacular, Greek Revival three- part window in both gables. The two 6/6 windows have a casing with a tablet which is mirrored on the front doorway casing as well. 5 The foundation is supported by mortared blocks of cut granite. Loose rocks were stacked up below the ground level forming a 45-degree angle to help support the foundation. Layers of brick at the ground level surround the perimeter of the cellar. This modestly- designed house is a classic cottage style with Greek Revival style embellishments. The classic cottage design is defined as having a moderately steep roof with a wide eave overhang, termed a raking cornice, knee wall construction, and a steep gable. This construction was deemed later in style from ca. 1825 forward (DeLaitrre, Margaret N., Additional Notes on Vermont Vernacular Architecture). The Cutler House conveys an exterior frieze under the roof with box cornices with cornice returns on the side gable ends. Simple corner boards flank the sides of the building. The wall structure is post and beam with plank frame construction. The Eastern elevation underwent the most amount of change after the fire crept very close to the nook area of the house in 1964. Currently, there is a double window 1/1 and a small set of windows flanking the new doorway in the exact place where the fire damaged this part of the house. The doorway and stoop underneath was moved after the fire a few yards away toward the front of the house. The remains of the older cement stoop are still evident. The Western elevation facing the Village of Lower Waterford has undergone the least amount of alteration. When the house was used as a tourist home, the guests parked by this side of the house and used the front entrance. The symmetric arrangement of the windows matched the Eastern elevation 6 until the fire. The same Greek revival style tri-partite window on the attic level displays a casing above the window. This window is a departure from the typical three part window. Both of the Eastern and Western elevations have fancier attic level window that are visible from the street. They are double- hung for the large central window and the two thinner flanking side windows are stationary. The second story level below has three windows, and the bottom floor has five windows. All windows are 2/1 except the two main parlor windows closest to the front door are 6/6 and two windows closest to the front elevation in the parlor. On all elevations, attractive shrubs have been planted near the foundation sill. 7 The Southern elevation (rear elevation) looks onto the rear of the property toward the meandering Connecticut River and has had the most alterations. The back porch was enlarged, then enclosed and modernized with floor to ceiling windows. A doorway was added from the nook to allow access to the porch. The two upstairs bedroom windows were enlarged in the shed dormer and in the bathroom during the Whittemore tenure. Four rectangular skylights were added when the Brodzinskis’ owned this house. One was placed on the front roof slope to help illuminate the front hallway and three other skylights were placed on the rear elevation to help to lighten up the attic level area. The closet led into the summer kitchen wing from the unenclosed rear porch. It was eliminated after the fire and became the nook in the kitchen. A large picture window was placed in the nook area. In general, during the Greek Revival period, chimneys were placed at the back of the roof slope so that the front gable would be emphasized. The chimney size was scaled down, smaller than the larger chimneys which had dominated the rooflines previously in earlier Federal style houses. Therefore, the two brick chimneys are placed on the back roof slope as was the custom to lead the eye away from the front and focus on the pediment. Both brick chimneys have caps on the very top that serve to protect them from damage in adverse weather. The smaller square chimney on the kitchen side was used for the large cast iron stove that was there in the Whittemore days. This square brick chimney shoot is still in place between the wall of the dressing room of the Mitchells and the master bedroom on the eastern side of the house. The other larger brick chimney on the Lower Waterford side of the house extends up through the guest bedroom at the back of the house. This three-sided brick chimney is visible in the upstairs guest bedroom. Originally there was a wood stove below the guestroom during the Brodzinski tenure of this house. 8 2. Interior of Cutler House Important clues can be gleaned from the interior design elements of the house in establishing when this house was built. The plan, the shape, the stairway, the casings, the door surrounds, the width of the floor planks, the muntins (light bars horizontal or vertical in a sash), the door hardware, and lastly, the nail evolution all provide clues in establishing an approximate date for the construction of this house between 1835 and 1845. The Cutler House is square, measuring 4,374 square feet, in the central hall, “Classic Cottage” plan. This plan of the first floor shows a double room on either side of the central hall. A variation of this plan is outlined in Additional Notes on Vermont Vernacular Architecture by Margaret N. DeLaittre. In her plan there is a small room shown off of the upper left-hand side - a birthing or borning room (as it is also called) in the rear of both plans shown in the diagrams of the Cape Cod and the “Classic Cottage.” The stairway is a single, one- run flight with square balusters.