The Boland House Architecture

The Boland House appears to have been built in the early 1840’s according to Michael Bedenbaugh, a noted South Carolina historic preservationist. Previously the house has been reported to have burned and then been rebuilt. Mike disagrees. His inspection of the house disclosed original water sawn rafters in the two story attic and no signs of charring on the chimneys. The water driven saws where replaced by steam engine driven circular saws after that early period. So, saw marks and configuration of the rafters date the original portion of the house.

The style of the old house is a plain plantation style now identified as an “I House with with Sheds”. This style was popular in the early American rural South and later spread to the Midwest during expansion of the country. As shown in the picture of one end of the house below, the central portion is two stories with a chimney on each end with fireplaces up and down. Shed roofs are front and back with a full porch on the front and shed rooms on each end with a small central porch between them.

I-House design

Characteristics of this style are overall symmetry, one room deep, two rooms wide with a central foyer between those rooms on both the first and second floor. As a result, the two-story portion has only six rooms. Windows, doors and fireplaces reflect the overall symmetry.

In the case of the Boland House, a two-room wing was added to the back of the house at a later date, indicated by structural clues discovered within the house. For instance, the original structure has hand hewn beams and log beams with mortise and tenon wood pegged joints. The added wing is framed with sawn wood and nails.

An interesting feature of the front porch is that it is a “rain porch” built under the front shed roof. From the picture below you can see that the front shed roof is supported on it’s own set of wood columns and brick foundations and the porch is built inside of it on separate brick piers. Porches were a very important living space in the hot weather in the days before air conditioning.

Rain Porch

This photo also shows the emphasis on symmetry with windows and doors. Note that each front room has its own entrance door.

The windows in the house still had a significant amount of original frames, sashes and glass. The original 9 over 6 double hung sashes are wooden pegged together with hand blown glass. An example is the upper foyer front window shown here.

Most of the windows needed a significant amount of careful repair and reglazing. We are fortunate that Chuck Inabinet, a friend of ours in the glass business, agreed to take on the skilled and detailed task of restoring the old windows. Due to Chuck’s expertise and commitment we will maintain a significant amount of historic sashes and glass in the old house. Thanks Chuck!

9 0ver 6 windows

Thank you Chuck!