By Don Linebaugh and Melissa Butler
When the wash house on the Bostwick property was converted into an apartment living space in the very late nineteenth or early twentieth century, the floor plan was adapted to include a bathroom and kitchen area on the first floor (Figure 1). Once the builders completed this transformation, they left behind several unintentional clues to the building’s former flooring type and floor level. On either side of the bathroom door are small ledges, actually the remains of a former floor joint covered with tongue and groove flooring; the other clues are the extensions on the bottom of the doors to the bathroom and main entrance (Figure 2). It appears that when the understair closet was being converted into a bathroom, the flooring and joists were removed in order to install the drain pipes for the toilet and sink. With the installation of the new lines complete, the builders poured a concrete floor and covered it with tile. Because the closet was already enclosed and the wall connected into the flooring system, the workers simply cut the floor several inches from the closet wall, leaving behind the supporting floor joist and flooring; this extended the wall to the new lower floor level (see Figure 2). These remnants were then encased with baseboard trim to finish them off. The same issue arose with the winder stair to the attic. An extra step was added at the bottom to lengthen the stair and it is the same height as the ledge outside the bathroom (Figure 3); this bottom step is about half the height as the other steps.
The floorboard remnants are tongue and groove with blind nails (Figure 4). The narrowness of the floorboards in the wash house suggest a post 1885 date. In her history of the wood flooring industry, Kim Dahlgern notes that the side-matcher was developed in 1885, “creating flooring with a grove on one side and a tongue on the other…the flooring was 7/8 inch thick, 2 1/2 or 3 1/4 inches wide.” The floor boards in the wash house are very similar in size, measuring 1 inch thick and 2 1/2 inches wide, and clearly standardized, milled lumber.
More evidence of the change in floor height is found on the main entrance door to the wash house door. Like the bathroom door, the bottom of the main door was also lengthened to accommodate the new lower concrete floor. (Figure 5).
The floorboard remnants are tongue and groove with blind nails (Figure 4). The narrowness of the floorboards in the wash house suggest a post 1885 date. In her history of the wood flooring industry, Kim Dahlgern notes that the side-matcher was developed in 1885, “creating flooring with a grove on one side and a tongue on the other…the flooring was 7/8 inch thick, 2 1/2 or 3 1/4 inches wide.” The floor boards in the wash house are very similar in size, measuring 1 inch thick and 2 1/2 inches wide, and clearly standardized, milled lumber.
More evidence of the change in floor height is found on the main entrance door to the wash house door. Like the bathroom door, the bottom of the main door was also lengthened to accommodate the new lower concrete floor. (Figure 5).