We Walk on Them, But Do We Look at Them?

gmcdaniel4444@gmail.com

3 years ago

What do you see?

Floorboards?

Maybe old ones at that?

And what’s that rectangular piece joining two of them, you may ask? They are long floorboards, installed at Drayton Hall c. 1750. For my forthcoming book, “Drayton Hall Stories,” I ask preservation contractor, Richard (Moby) Marks, who’s disassembled Drayton Hall’s original floors and knows them well: ”What might visitors not see about the floorboards?”

He replies: “Visitors may not appreciate the flooring because all the boards on the first and second floors were doweled together horizontally. When you look at pattern and price books of the day, dowelled floors were the most expensive. Why? Materials and hand labor. They would literally lay the floorboards down, drill holes horizontally by hand, insert a dowel, and drill another hole in the next board, and using the dowels, fit each board together like a puzzle. By keeping the floors level and secure, the dowels prevented the boards from moving up and down or twisting. While not readily visible to visitors, the doweling has kept the floorboards even and straight just as we see them today — about 270 years later.”

Though we may miss them, details count, don’t they?

Main image, above: These pine floors were not joined by the tongue and groove method but by dowels or splines, as you can see here, which, spaced about a foot apart, kept the long boards from twisting, bucking, or warping and pulling apart. Though there are no records of Drayton Hall’s construction, this work was probably done by enslaved carpenters.

Excerpted from my new book

Drayton Hall Stories: A Place and Its People

to be published in the spring of 2022

by Evening Post Books.

Click to learn more about it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

George W. McDaniel, Ph.D., is President of McDaniel Consulting, LLC, a strategy firm that helps organizations use history to build bridges within itself and to its broader constituents. The company’s tag line, “Building Bridges through History,” is grounded in McDaniel’s personal beliefs and his experience in site management, preservation, education, board development, fundraising, and community outreach. Rather than using history to divide us, he strives to help organizations use history, especially local history, to enhance cross-cultural understanding and to support local museums, preservation, and education. Dr. McDaniel led volunteer efforts with Emanuel AME Church and historical organizations in Charleston to use historic preservation to enhance racial reconciliation and healing. McDaniel is also the Executive Director Emeritus of Drayton Hall, a historic site in Charleston, SC, owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He retired from Drayton Hall in 2015 after 25 years of distinguished service.

A frequent writer, speaker, and facilitator about such issues, he can be reached at gmcdaniel4444@gmail.com or through his website at www.mcdanielconsulting.net.

All images courtesy of the author unless otherwise noted.