Wow! Very cool!

This looks really good. You have a winner there!

Bravo!!

Pete

in Michigan

What Pete said, BRAVO!!

Remember, as they say in New England,

STAY WICKED FAH APAHT

Bob (The displaced New Englander)

Pete

anothah transplant

in Michigan

Very nice, James. You've replicated the look of a historic structure with a high degree of fidelity.

Mike

Belated thanks, Pete, Bob & Mike.

Apropos of Bror's comment from 15-Mar-20 ("Again because of the renovations over the years, if the kitchen were in the 'ell' it would have had its own chimney."): I recently looked closely at this photo from the Rt. 1 Bypass construction:



Indeed there was a chimney on the track end of the 'El' in 1934. And a second front door facing Washington St., plus a stovepipe coming out of the not-yet-extended main chimney. The small size of the El chimney makes me think it was added when iron cookstoves replaced fireplace cooking, probably by 1830. Gas or electric cooking would have removed the incentive to maintain it.

The stovepipe is harder to fathom. Maybe necessary to keep a coal-fired convection circulation hot air heat system burning properly? Likely removed when the main chimney was extended.

As 1950 is my earliest target, I'm not going to redo anything. Next update here will be when I either start on the interior, or landscape the lot and whinge at the city till they build sidewalks.

James,

As you probably know, New England is noted for the massive central chimneys. Without knowing the arrangement of rooms I’d guess it served at least four fireplaces. Maybe more. The el would have needed at least one fireplace on the first floor. That might have been it, hence it’s much smaller. The el in our 1859 house has a chimney but no fireplace on the second floor, which was not a full-height floor but had its own stairs and plastered so was inhabited.

Mike