CHRISTOPHER HUNTINGTON HOUSE GUTTER

NORWICHTOWN, CONNECTICUT

 

It’s not that this house is remarkable; in fact, for ancient Norwichtown, it’s rather austere. None of the classical Connecticut pediments I’ll feature in the next few posts; even the doorway seems to shrink back from itself. No scrollwork or multi-tiered cornices, the front doorway is straight, flat, and only different in that it has two narrow sidelites framing the door. More Federal-looking than Colonial. But it was built around 1720, so pay attention.

What caught my eye was the gutter.

Made from a couple of one-by-sixes (actually a misnomer; they are not one anything by six anythings at all) attached at a ninety-degree angle with triangular end caps, this is a gutter that reflects the past. It is quite authentic in its design.

New England was and still is rich in trees, so anything that could be made of wood, well, was. Metal gutters would have been accompanied by a tax, because smelting metal in the New World was illegal. So you bought it as sheet metal from a England and the supplier that paid enormous taxes on it, passed on the cost to you, and the Crown got the dough.

We had a little war because of this. Tea in Boston Harbor and all that. No taxation without representation. Power to the people. Off the pigs.

Sorry, I digressed.

But enterprising craftsmen (of which there were positively scads in Connecticut) put together water drainage systems like this one, though it is not original. Duh. Lined with a simple sheet of lead, it would easily keep the gathered water from the roof from disintegrating the side of your house, which was also built from wood.

This particular gutter is likely lined with galvanized steel or sheet copper, has one hell of a fall, and it does a fine job of keeping the siding and windows intact. As well as keeping the rain off your head. And it can be repaired as opposed to replaced. Keep the craftsmen employed and your home cared for by an individual that cares.

More on that in the next few posts.