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Dutton House (Shelburne, Vermont)

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 64.222.94.94 (talk) at 18:00, 7 April 2009 (Added a link to the Historic American Building Survey. Dutton House is a part of the survey and information can be found on it on the Library of Congress' website.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Dutton House is an exhibit building at Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont; it is also known as the Cavendish House.[1]

Dutton House constitutes the first dwelling brought to Museum property. [2] In order to relocate the structure to Museum grounds, builders dismantled the house and, in the process, discovered fragments of original stenciled wall ornaments. After resurrecting the building on the grounds, the Museum recreated the original stenciled decoration of Dutton House’s interior and added dentil molding, copied from a house in Alburg, Vermont, to the structure’s cornice. [3]

History

Salmon Dutton built Dutton House in Cavendish, Vermont in 1781. Having emigrated from Massachsetts, Dutton worked as a road surveyor (see Surveying), a justice of the peace, and the treasurer of the town of Cavendish. Like many homes of the period, Dutton used his house as both a residence and place of business. [4] Continuing his tradition, Dutton’s descendants, who occupied the house until 1900, operated Dutton House as a store, an inn, and a boarding house for local mill workers. [5] Although Dutton originally constructed Dutton House in the indigenous Saltbox style, as the building’s function changed over time, Dutton and his descendants expanded the structure. The many additions that extend from the Saltbox core reflect the tradition of “continuous” architecture common in New England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. [6]

In the late 1940s Redfield Proctor, Dutton’s great-great-grandson, donated the house to the Vermont Historical Society; however, in 1950 when the Vermont Highway Department’s planned road improvements threatened the structure, the Society offered it to Shelburne Museum. [7]

See also

References

  1. ^ Hill, Ralph Nading and Lilian Baker Carlisle. The Story of The Shelburne Museum. 1955.
  2. ^ http://www.shelburnemuseum.org/buildings_and_grounds/detail.php?id=8
  3. ^ Hill, Ralph Nading and Lilian Baker Carlisle. The Story of The Shelburne Museum. 1955.
  4. ^ Shelburne Museum. 1993. Shelburne Museum: A Guide to the Collections. Shelburne: Shelburne Museum, Inc.
  5. ^ http://www.shelburnemuseum.org/buildings_and_grounds/detail.php?id=8
  6. ^ Shelburne Museum. 1993. Shelburne Museum: A Guide to the Collections. Shelburne: Shelburne Museum, Inc.
  7. ^ http://vermonthistory.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
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