Genesee Country Museum   -  Campbell  House

Genesee Country Museum – Campbell House

Genesee Country Museum   -  Campbell  House

This is a front view of the Peter Campbell House – Built 1805 – It came to the Genesee Country Village & Museum from Caledonia, NY and is now located in the village’s Pioneer Settlement section. Now a little bit of history: One of the earliest houses in the area, it was built for Peter Campbell who was one of a group of settlers from Scotland. The main house had four rooms, two on each floor. The kitchen had a large central chimney that filled most of he hole in the floor above. Each of the upstairs rooms had fireplaces. The kitchen fireplace occupied most of the width of the chimney. Beyond the chimney would have been the parlor, its brick fireplace hearth is in place. The house’s timber frame is somewhat unusual for the western NY area. It is a series of 11 closely spaced "H" shaped frames with no lengthwise timbers between the sill and the plate at the top of the wall. The framing of the wing (at the far right end of he house) is post & beam, which is the more usual method in western, NY. Except for a few sections of the upright frames which were removed in the 20th-century, the framing is original. The floor boards above are all in their 1805 locations. The window frames on the back of the house, upstairs, are original as well, and served as patterns for the reconstructions. Some of the 1805 siding survivied in usable conditions and is in place on the back wall. In 1857 it was remodeled in the Greek Revival style (the house was considerably modified over the years). The central chimney was removed, the front door was moved to the left end, the roof of the wing was raised, new front stairs were installed and the floor plan was changed. Windows were removed or boarded over and the house was re-sided, the outside was painted for the first time. An ell was added extending to the right and the back of the original house for a new kitchen & woodshed. Later in the mid 20th-century, parts of several frame sections were sawed out for a fireplace and a couple of picture windows. Remarkably, with all the changes, much of the original structure remained. It was fortunate for the village that many parts were used as shims and nailers during the 1857 remodeling. The village was able to determine the original positions of some of these and restore them to their places. The house has been reconstructed to its 1805 state quite accurately. Although the house is completely finished on the exterior, the inside will not be finished, rather it will be an exhibit to the early 19th-century construction methods. The Genesee Country Village & Museum is located at 1410 Flint Hill Road (George Street) in Mumford, NY.

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