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UD team documents vanishing historic houses

Research assistant Jeroen van den Hurk (center) plots the dimensions of an historic Chester County structure with help from art history grad students Jason Smith (left) and Jamie Ferguson.
4:15 p.m., March 23, 2004--Jeroen van den Hurk wonders why a Chester County, Pa., homeowner would remove the floor beams from his farmhouse and reset all the floorboards two feet lower than they were originally. He can’t ask the homeowner—the renovation was completed in the 18th century.

Van den Hurk, a research assistant in the University’s art history department, is leading a team of grad students who are measuring and photographing the historic homes of Chester County’s New Garden Township before the landmarks are lost to development.

The New Garden Historical Commission hired UD’s Center for Historic Architecture and Design to research 30 of the many houses in the township that are 150 years old or older.

The link between UD and New Garden was Michael J. Leja, chairperson of the Department of Art History, who lives in the township. Leja and Bernard L. Herman, the Edward F. and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of Art History, oversee the project.

Working under the tutelage of the professors, teams of three researchers draw floor plans and take digital pictures. In the one house slated for demolition, they saved plaster samples, door handles, bricks and architectural elements.

Van den Hurk and the researchers found many of the old homes were remodeled at approximately the same time. “I guess that people back in the 18th century weren’t much different than us now in that we all want to keep up with the Jones,’’ he said.

They have documented six buildings and plan to work on several more this spring. “It’s just amazing when you get the chance to see how these houses within one small area compare—how much they have in common and how much they’re different, ‘’ van den Hurk said. “We’ve seen houses where you sort of wonder why someone might have done that.’’

Van den Hurk said talking with the current residents adds perspective: “One man told me when he moved in about three cars a day would go by, and now they have three cars a minute, and they feel the vibrations,’’ he said. “You can look at a building and it’s sort of this puzzle about how people decided what was appropriate and how they changed their lifestyles by adding on to their buildings,’’ he said.

Van den Hurk, who grew up in a ‘30s rowhouse in the Netherlands, said he likes to put his hands on the old plaster walls and try to picture what life must have been like when it was new.

“It’s always going to be worthwhile preserving these buildings,’’ he said. “They have so much more character than any of these McMansions that are going up now. You can put your hand on a wall that someone built in 1770, or even earlier, and try to picture what life must have been like then.”

Photo by Duane Perry

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