Virginia

Galt Cottage, Williamsburg, Virginia (37.266181, -76.701019)

Primary Building     Felling Dates: Winter 1809/10

Secondary Phase Building     Felling Dates: Winter 1811/12, Spring 1812, Winter 1830/31

Site Master 1653-1809 (white oak) GCVAx1 (t = 11.05 WNHBS3; 10.42 PIEDMONT; 10.23 rlhs3). Site Master 1722-1830 (white oak) GCVAx2 (t = 7.45 OTHS3; 6.73 HQFx2; 6.68 ldls3). Individual sample gcva17 (white oak) 1692-1811 (t = 6.77 RCBC3; 5.56 MDZ7; 5.54 MFVAx1).

Galt Cottage is a one-and-a-half-story frame structure that was originally located behind the public hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia. The house started out as a single-roomed hall house with a chimney heating the first and second floors, which was later extended on three sides to form the present building. It was moved twice in the twentieth century, first to Duke of Gloucester Street in 1929 and then to Tyler Street in the 1950s.

Dendrochronological analysis has shown that one of the timbers from the primary phase of the structure was felled in the winter of 1809/10 and that three of the timbers from the secondary phase were felled in the winter of 1811/12 and the spring of 1812. A single timber sampled as part of the secondary phase was found to have a felling date of the winter of 1830/31, suggesting that this timber was inserted as a later repair to the secondary phase basement ceiling.

Worthington, M J and Seiter, J I 2017 “The Tree-Ring Dating of Galt Cottage, Williamsburg, Virginia”, unpublished Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory archive report 2017/09

Photograph Credit Jeff Klee

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