Hello, all! Here's a post I've been wanting to make for some time-- as a thank-you for helping out during Park Day, the rangers at Antietam National Park allowed volunteers to tour the Sherrick House, a place not typically open to the public. I took photographs of the interior, and will share them below.
Here's the exterior of the house/farm from a stereoview taken by Alexander Gardner:
And here's the exterior of the house today (side view-- I couldn't get a picture from the front because of the road) :
And now, for the interior! Here's a floor plan for the Sherrick House, which I'll be referencing.
(Credit to ErnieMac from the The Houses and Farms of Antietam/Sharpsburg thread for the image!)
Here is the main hallway in the house (we entered from the side):
The floor is covered by a protective tarp detailed in the fake marble pattern the Park Service believes would have been present in the house. The fake marbling is original on the stairs.
Here is another perspective of the hallway, showing the stairwell:
This room is labelled as a first floor bedroom, and the tour guide said that it would've been Mr. Sherrick's office.
Does anybody know what the use for all the pegs on the wall would be?
The following picture is of the parlor. Again, the fake marble detailing is original.
Next up is the dining room!
The doors downstairs have a pattern painted on them to make them appear as though they are made of wood more valuable than they really are:
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the room adjoining the dining room. It has a staircase leading both to the nursery and to the winter kitchen below the house. Here's the root cellar off of the winter kitchen, in which you can see the foundation of the house:
And here's the pantry leading off of the winter kitchen:
A quick jaunt outside will take you to the summer kitchen, which has a room upstairs that was roped off:
The exterior of the house also has a separate entrance into a spring house, which actually lies below the house itself. From what I gathered from the tour guide, the Sherrick House is one of the few in the area that boasts this unusual feature. It helps keep the house cool in summer, but has made some preservation more difficult because of the resulting moisture in the air.
The house's exterior also contains the faded remains of stenciling on the brickwork, intended to make the bricks appear more even:
Back inside, we've now reached the second floor of the house. This is the first bedroom immediately on the right after ascending the stairs:
(Continued below)
Here's the exterior of the house/farm from a stereoview taken by Alexander Gardner:
And here's the exterior of the house today (side view-- I couldn't get a picture from the front because of the road) :
And now, for the interior! Here's a floor plan for the Sherrick House, which I'll be referencing.
(Credit to ErnieMac from the The Houses and Farms of Antietam/Sharpsburg thread for the image!)
Here is the main hallway in the house (we entered from the side):
The floor is covered by a protective tarp detailed in the fake marble pattern the Park Service believes would have been present in the house. The fake marbling is original on the stairs.
Here is another perspective of the hallway, showing the stairwell:
This room is labelled as a first floor bedroom, and the tour guide said that it would've been Mr. Sherrick's office.
Does anybody know what the use for all the pegs on the wall would be?
The following picture is of the parlor. Again, the fake marble detailing is original.
Next up is the dining room!
The doors downstairs have a pattern painted on them to make them appear as though they are made of wood more valuable than they really are:
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the room adjoining the dining room. It has a staircase leading both to the nursery and to the winter kitchen below the house. Here's the root cellar off of the winter kitchen, in which you can see the foundation of the house:
And here's the pantry leading off of the winter kitchen:
A quick jaunt outside will take you to the summer kitchen, which has a room upstairs that was roped off:
The exterior of the house also has a separate entrance into a spring house, which actually lies below the house itself. From what I gathered from the tour guide, the Sherrick House is one of the few in the area that boasts this unusual feature. It helps keep the house cool in summer, but has made some preservation more difficult because of the resulting moisture in the air.
The house's exterior also contains the faded remains of stenciling on the brickwork, intended to make the bricks appear more even:
Back inside, we've now reached the second floor of the house. This is the first bedroom immediately on the right after ascending the stairs:
(Continued below)
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