More Ways to See: Part III of III

Part III of III 

 

Richard (Moby) Marks, preservation contractor, continues his explanation of Drayton Hall construction in the mid-1700s:

 

What do visitors not see about the floorboards?

 

Visitors may not appreciate the flooring because all the pine boards on the first and second floors were dowelled together horizontally.

 

When you look at pattern and price books of the mid-18th century, dowelled floors were the most expensive. Why? Materials and hand labor.

 

They would literally lay the floorboards down, drill holes horizontally by hand into the sides, insert a handmade dowel, and drill another hole in the next board, and using the dowels, fit each board together, side by side, like a puzzle.

 

By keeping the floors level and secure, the dowels prevented the boards from moving up and down or twisting.

 

While not visible to visitors, the doweling still keeps the floorboards even and straight just as we see them today and as they’ve been for some 270 years.

 

Excerpt from my new book  “Drayton Hall: A Place and Its People,” due out this fall 2021.