Breezeway,Smokehouse/Servant's Quarters & Kitchen

Breezeway,Smokehouse/Servant's Quarters and Kitchen. Hardman Farm Historic Site. Around 1910, Emma Hardman requested that a breezeway by constructed to connect the rear of the house to the detached kitchen. She wanted their servants to remain dry while caring food from the kitchen to the house during inclement weather., The detached kitchen was built by James Nichols when the house was constructed, circa 1870. While houses in the North often had internal kitchens, Southern homes just as often had detached kitchens. This helped the house to stay cool on hot summer days since a kitchen fire was lit before daybreak and stoked until well after dark. It asl reduced the danger of fire to the main house., James Nichols employed several servants including a cook. His wealth made life easier for him, his daughter Anna Ruby, and his mother-in-law Augusta Latimer. Augusta most likely ran the household as Kate Nichols was mentally ill., Directly behind the kitchen was the combination servants' quarters and smokehouse, built circa 1870. It is likely that not all of the servants lived in this small house. In 1880, the U.S. Census listed the following servants (and their offsprings) for the household:, Ary Jones - black female servant, age 25 , Augusta Jones, black servant's daughter, age 1 , Janette Rithy, black female servant, age 18 , Willis Jones - black servant's son, age 8 , James Andy, mulatto laborer, age 18, What is a Smokehouse?, A smokehouse is a structure where meat or fish is cured with smoke. Before the invention of refrigerator, fresh meat would not last very long unless it was "smoked." In the early winter, farmers butchered animals to use for food during the winter. In colder climates, the excess meat was frozen, but in the south, was more often smoked., In the smokehouse, roast and other cuts were hung form the rafters and a fire pit was kept burning so the smoke rose and "cured" the meat. Freshly cut wood, especially hickory and oak burned slowly, smoked heavily, and added a good flavor to the meat. Smoking usually took a week. Then the cuts were wrapped in cloth and left hanging until needed., Convenience of Late 19th/Early 20th Century Kitchen, By 1870 when Nichols built this kitchen the staff would have cooked on a cast iron cooking stove. Cast iron stoves made cooking easier as they used wood or could be fired with coal. Also. the cook did not have to bend over a hot fireplace. Stoves could be used to prepare many types of food at one time by using the cook top or the stove's oven., By the time, Dr. Hardman purchased this property in 1903, cook stoves had evolved in style and features. This 1903 version had porcelain lined reservoir for holding hot water and Rococo molding on its cast iron exterior. It weighted over 400 lbs and cost $14.95!, Iceboxes arrived in upscale homes in the 1840s. In large cities, the ice man delivered natural ice along a route. It wasn't until the 1870s that man-made ice was created in plants. Here in the South, and especially in the rural Nacoochee Valley, refrigeration was more of a problem. Ice possibly arrived by train from Atlanta to cool the iceboxes used in nearby homes and hotels., Wood iceboxes often served as decorative pieces of furniture. Their hollow walls lined with tin or zinc, were packed with various insulation materials such cork, straw, sawdust, and even seaweed. The top of the box had a compartment that held a large block of ice. Cold air circulated downward around the food held in the lower sections. Some models had spigots for draining off the ice water into a holding tank. Others used a drip pan that needed to be emptied at least once a day. , It is likely that first Nichols, Hunnicutt and then Hardman all relied on the use of an icebox. Not until the early 1930s was the electric ice box invented when freon gas was discovered and uses as a safe refrigerant.