Kitchen Dependency & Wash House

Kitchen Dependency and Wash House. . , The dependencies at Cliveden were designed to match the Georgian style of the Main House, but the interiors were outfitted for service functions and changed often with the needs of the estate and technological advances. The west dependency was a Kitchen Quarter, where meals were prepared for the household. The second floor was living quarters for service staff. The early staff of Cliveden included enslaved and indentured laborers and paid employees, including free Blacks and immigrants., The Kitchen and Wash House were first built 18' × 18', but in 1765, mason John Hesser was paid to build a 9' extension which accommodated a cooking hearth, bake oven and a well built into the northwest corner of the building. In 1776, Chew hired Hesser to build a covered walkway called a Colonnade, or piazza, to connect the Main House and Kitchen. By 1798, a one-story stone pantry was added to the north east corner of the Kitchen, at the end of the Colonnade., In 1867-88, the Kitchen underwent a major renovation that enclosed the Colonnade and installed a cast iron coal-fired Kitchener Range., The Wash House, completed in 1767, was originally a 18' × 18' building to match the Kitchen Dependency. Despite being called a Wash House, the hearth inside does not include a set kettle, a large stationary pot used for boiling laundry. It is likely the laundry was done outside in the work yard. By 1798, a wood frame smoke house for curing meat was added to the rear of the Wash House. The smoke house was formalized in 1814 as a masonary addition., During the late 18th and early 19th century the former Wash House was used as an Estate Office and residence for the estate manager. Estate manager James Petit, and later Henry Nickum, focused on agricultural production at Cliveden. The second floor of the structure was used for living space. In the latter half of the 19th century, the rear of the Wash House was converted to privies, or bathrooms, for the estate., In the mid-20th century, the Wash House became known as the "Cottage." Chew family members and later, community members, rented the building as a residence.