Today was the 50th Anniversary Opening Day Ceremonies for East Chatham Baseball League. The photo with all the people are some of the original board members that started the ECBL in 1973 and others are descendants of the original board members.
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14 hours ago
Photos from Chatham Historical Museum's post
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15 hours ago
Watch! Dedication of historic smokehouse at AgFest 2023 - 3.25.23
The Chatham County Historical Association recovered, restored, owns and maintains the early 19th century smokehouse located on the property of the Chatham County Agriculture and Conference Center in Pittsboro.
The largely-intact smokehouse on the property measured 10.5 feet square at its base and approximately 25 feet at its roof apex. The sills were made of hewn logs, with mortised and tenoned corner supports. Vertical wall studs were spaced approximately two feet apart.
The foundation was approximately one foot in height and made of local fieldstones. The exterior was sheathed with lap-board siding—some boards missing—and had flush vertical board corners. The roof was gabled with an apex on a north-south axis. The roof was also cantilevered about one foot on all four sides. The smokehouse appeared to date to the early 19th century in style and construction (based on original square cut nails and its eight-inch wide hewn log sills). The roof likely had been replaced more recently (metal sheeting instead of wooden shingles). Subsequent inspection indicated that the original roof had been a hip roof.
One vertical board entry door was located on the south elevation of the building. This door was approximately three feet wide and five feet tall. The exterior of the entry door was decorated with three rows of brads in diamond-shaped motif. The decorative nail pattern on the entry door is an excellent example of 19th century folk art which has survived.
The interior of the smokehouse had a “dropped” ceiling made of tongue-and-groove boards, equipped with several rows of iron hooks (presumably for hanging meat) and one centrally-placed chain (possibly for a cauldron). Above the dropped ceiling, the original ceiling of the smokehouse was intact at the top, complete with riven sticks or pegs (once used to hold meat) set directly into the upper rafters or building frame. While the square shape of this smokehouse is common (best design for uniform heat and smoke transfer) and tightly sided with few openings (a single door for security and access), the unusually tall design of the smokehouse with its cantilevered roof, made it a unique vernacular structure.
youtu.be/ZwKHX3oHW44
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15 hours ago
