Working Hard at Home

Working Hard at Home. Fort Harrison Story Walk. , The Summer Kitchen, a reconstruction completed by Fort Harrison, Inc. in 1998, is the only remaining 19th-century outbuilding. The original structure was likely built in the 1860s or 1870s during the ownership of Solomon Burtner. The extended porch roof and curved chimney cap are typical features seen on outbuildings in the Shenandoah Valley., As part of a working farm, the building provided work space for cooking in the hot summer months and other household chores such as candle and soap making. The two floors above provide space for a loom and other equipment used in spinning yarn and weaving cloth, both essential skills on any farm., (Captions):, Spinning and weaving were often done by family members on the upper floors of a summer kitchen building. Spinning yarn and weaving cloth were much needed functions on a large farmstead. Fort Harrison's four-harness loom was constructed around 1850-1860 and was originally in the loom house of the Spader-Sandy farm in nearby Mount Crawford., (Top) Daniel Harrison's home and summer kitchen in the mid-1930s. (Above) The oldest known photograph of the summer kitchen, ca. early 1900s., Dismantled in the 1960s, Fort Harrison, Inc. rebuilt the structure in 1998, keeping the remaining field stone foundation and four rows of original handmade bricks., (Below) Hearth cooking was actively carried on in the lowest level of the building through the doorway in front of you. Herbs may have been dried in the attic, and flour and vegetables kept in the cool cellar., This interpretive sign is made possible through a gift from the Margaret Grattan Weaver Center, Bridgewater College.