Virginia

Mount Fair, Crozet, Albemarle Co (38.164563, -78.677733)

(a) Main House Felling dates: Summer 1847, Winter 1847/8, and Winter 1848/8

The principal building to be studied was the main house, with all of the samples being taken in the attics. All of the timbers within this house was of pine, probably southern yellow. Twenty timbers were sampled, twelve from the north-south aligned wing, and the other eight from the east-west wing. Sixteen out of the 20 timbers dated, however little of the timbers retained any sapwood, all being cut very square. Nevertheless, four of the timbers did retain bark edge, and one very near bark edge. Two rafters from the north-south roof had precise felling dates of winter 1847/8, and a third rafter dating from circa 1847-8, with a last measured ring, but not quite complete sapwood, of 1846. One floorboard from this part of the roof also dated, one year later, to winter 1848/9. From the east-west wing, one rafter also produced a precise felling date of summer/autumn 1847, which might even extend to the winter of 1847/8 if the ring was nearly complete, making the whole structure coeval, as one would expect. Given these felling dates, it is likely that the house was reconstructed after a devastating fire during 1848-9, and finished during 1849 with the flooring of the attics. All of the remaining dated timbers from this house had last measured ring dates ranging from 1764 to 1835, and all are consistent with the 1848-9 period of felling, with each having lost some of the outer section of the tree during conversion

Miles, D W H and Worthington, M J, 2008 ‘The Tree-Ring Dating of Headquarters Farm Smokehouse, Brightberry Farmhouse, Walnut Level, and Mount Fair House and outbuildings, all in Browns Cove, Crozet, Albemarle County, Virginia’ unpubl ODL archive report 2008/39

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