The kitchen with its Dutch oven in the great brick chimney; the large
fireplace where the old crane still hangs sturdily enough to support
Mrs. Brown's best dinner, are in an excellent state of preservation. One
is intrigued by some very ancient and peculiar waterworks that formed a
part of the sanitary equipment in the culinary department and which
function to this day. There is a heavy hand-hewn stone sink and a copper
caldron with its own firebox and ashpit. Formerly a large oaken bathtub
stood in the back room off the kitchen and the water heated in the
copper caldron was available to both rooms. An old brass spigot that
served the bathtub remains.
At Dr. Brown's death the house passed to his widow. She left it in trust
for her daughter, Sarah Maynadier, and the Maynadier grandchildren at
her death in 1813. The house remained in the Maynadier family until
April 26, 1842, when the property was purchased by James Green for
seventeen hundred dollars. In 1940, the present owners, the Honorable
and Mrs. H.R. Tolley, acquired the property.
Dr. Brown's home has fallen into sympathetic hands. Today Queen Anne
chairs and piecrust tables grace the parlor. From the hall comes the
vibrating tick-tock of a fine old clock. Logs blaze cheerfully in open
fireplaces, the flames reflected in old and polished silver. The hall
window frames Catherine Brown's garden, which is divided into three
sections, one shut off from the other by wall or fence, making private
living areas of each. Old trees, brick walks, ivy and flowering shrubs
add their attractions. A tall brick smokehouse stands sentinel, all that
remains of a number of outbuildings which clustered, village fashion,
about the dwelling.
[Illustration: Dr. William Brown. From a miniature.
(_Courtesy Mrs. Bessie Wilmarth Gahn_)]
[Illustration]
Chapter 9
The Peruke Shop
[405 Prince Street. Owners: The Moore Family.]
This house is completely surprising. Many years ago the owners put on a
new pressed-brick front and changed the sash from the usual small lights
to two single lights of large dimensions. The transition from this 1890
front to an eighteenth century interior in a perfect state of
preservation, produces upon one crossing the threshold the sensation of
walking straight through the looking glass. And whither does the looking
glass lead? Right into the parlors of Mr. William Sewell!
The stairway rises on the far side of a fine arch in the entrance hall.
Halfway up, it becomes obscured from view, leaving one gazing at a
paneled ceiling, as it makes an abrupt about-face. The rooms on the
second floor are quaint. Low-pitched, sloping ceilings, off-center
mantels with odd panels and chimney closets and six-paneled doors with
H&L hinges, are amusing as well as charming.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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