Chrisholm Summer Kitchen

Chrisholm Summer Kitchen. . , The summer kitchen played a significant role in the history of the Chrisholm Farmstead. In addition to being used as a kitchen it also served as a butchering center, bakery, storage space, carriage house, and eventually a garage. The Augspurgers may have used it as a temporary home while they constructed the original house in 1830, and again in 1874 after a fire gutted that structure. It was used as a temporary residence again in the 1920s when the Ehresman family renovated and electrified the 1875 house., The summer kitchen, a structure apart from the house, was used to prepare meals during the extreme temperatures of the summer months. This made life in the house more comfortable for the family and minimized the risk of house fires. It is likely the Augspurgers used their summer kitchen year round to accommodate their many food preparation and preservation activities., The summer kitchen sat approximately 40 feet southwest and parallel to the back of the house, leaving the space in between the two structures for use as a multi-purpose work area with easy access to the cellar. The brick portion of the summer kitchen may have been built in the 1830s with the frame section added sometime later., The structure remained standing until the 1990s when it was demolished, along with several other to its outbuildings on the property, due deteriorating condition., Captions , An 1875 depiction of the summer kitchen situated behind the house. Lithograph from the Combination Atlas Map of Butler County, Ohio, 1875, The brick portion of the summer kitchen may have been built in the 1830s with the frame section added sometime later. Photo credit: Anne Jantzen, 1994, The summer kitchen sat approximately 40 feet west and parallel to the back of the house, leaving the space in between the two structures for use as a multi-purpose work area with easy access to the cellar. Photo credit. Wesley C. Page: 1983