McGuffey House Architecture: Kitchen

The kitchen was used primarily for cooking, food preparation, and quite possibly for domestic laundry chores. We do know the south wall behind the hutch conceals a brick fireplace [Figure 1] that has since been sealed awaiting future restoration. This fireplace would have served several purposes - providing heat in the winter, a chimney flue for cooking, and a place to boil water for laundry, bathing, and general house cleaning needs.

Figure 1: Partially Exposed Fireplace
McGuffey Museum October 2001

Initial open fireplaces used cordwood as the primary heating and cooking fuel, but by the 1840s small cast iron stoves [Figure 4] manufactured in Cincinnati and Hamilton were widely used for heat and cooking. By 1859, when the Junction Railroad connected Hamilton and Oxford, coal would have begun displacing wood as the primary domestic fuel source. Soft coal was being mined in eastern Ohio as early as the 1830s and shipped down the Ohio River by barge to Cincinnati. You will note the cast iron mantel and decorative fireplace cover in the History Room were specifically made for coal-burning fireplaces.

Figure 4: Cookstove
Williams Cincinnati Directory 1860

Behind the plexiglas you will notice the ghost profile of the set of stairs [Figure 5] that once descended it into the kitchen away from the door. A late 19th century butler's pantry was removed and the original stairwell configuration was restored during the renovation. We have preserved this ghost remnant as a way visually indicating the profile of the lower stair when rehabilitation of the house began. We believe the boxed staircase now follows the same profile when the McGuffeys were in residence. The simple paneled woodwork is typical of the Federal vernacular style.

The cut lumber would have been brought by wagon to the house where carpenters using hand planes would have made the molding profiles. Behind this wood surface are 18" vertical boards. This wood was cut from virgin timber that began life as seedlings ca. 1700! Also notice the footstep wear on the risers toward the upper section of the staircase. These are the same stairs William Holmes McGuffey would have descended when he taught lessons to his pupils on the side porch.

Some of you may wonder why the staircase is so steep and narrow. The stairwell is extremely confining, so small, the stair treads are only 29 inches wide and 9 inches deep. Part of this can be explained by the fact that interior space was at a premium, so builders were reluctant to "waste" valuable floor space on large stairways. This staircase was also intended exclusively for domestic use; guest and special visitors would have used the more formal front staircase. Today's architects tell us no building code in America would permit such a staircase to be constructed.

Figure 5: Kitchen Stairs
(Federal Vernacular Style Staircase)

The original kitchen retains much of its Federal style woodwork and trim. Note the narrow moldings that frame the doorways and compare these to the more robust moldings in the rest of the house. These moldings are most likely original to the house and would have been milled locally or even on site. Along the east wall of the kitchen is a section of wood molding that is called a chair rail [Figure 6]. The chairrail helped protect the plaster wall surfaces from encroaching chairbacks and also adds a measure of visual interest to the room. The portion where the chairrail has been cutout is where a partition wall was formerly located.

Figure 6: Chair rail

Throughout the house there are small windows above the doors. These are called transoms [Figure 7]. Transoms served both a functional and aesthetic purpose. When opened, transom windows allowed for better air circulation during Oxford's hot summer months and also allowed more light into the house's interior.

You will also note the door leading into the Library is considerably larger than the other doors. The door facing present-day Oak Street originally had an uninterrupted view to the street and was most likely the side door to the house, while the present-day door to the north facing Spring Street would have in all likelihood been the formal entrance to the house. This makes sense, since the north elevation faced Miami's campus and Spring Street, the primary street bordering the south side of the original campus.

Figure 7: Transoms