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Double-pen
As settlers' needs for
space increased, a single-pen house was often enlarged by adding another
similar or identical pen to one of the house's gable ends. In many such
cases the gable end wall, now the shared interior wall of the two pens, was
left intact. The pens were not connected by a passage through the interior
wall, so an exterior door for each pen was needed. This resulted in the
double-pen house.
As a folk house, the double-pen spread
across both time and space by traditional builders who constructed it in
both frame and brick. In this case, both pens were built at the same time,
often with a passage in the shared interior wall. Although two front doors
were no longer needed, builders retained the tradition. Numerous folk tales
have been ascribed to the pair of front doors in an attempt to explain the
apparent redundancy. While these explanations are often colorful, the two
doors found on double-pen houses are a direct link to the folk traditions of
log construction techniques which developed in the frontier of the Upland
South.
Some folklorists and
historians
identify a subtype of the double-pen house. The saddlebag house has a
single chimney in the center interior wall instead of paired end chimneys.
The double-pen or saddlebag was a common
folk house in Morgan County, so much so, in fact, that a variety of
examples remain. As with most folk and vernacular building forms, they display a
variety of high style influences, including
Greek Revival
cornice
returns and door
surrounds,
Italianate
brackets under the
eaves, and
Queen Anne
gingerbread and other
millwork.
Double-pen/saddlebag:
House (c.1895), 1090 East Morgan Street, Martinsville
Double-pen: House (c.1850), 160 South Marion Street
Double-pen: House (c.1860), 440 North Sycamore Street
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