What’s even more interesting is the back of the cottage. This questionable area was better able to reveal itself when the shingles and tar paper were removed on the sidewalls. As you can see in the image, the sheathing is separated – it has an almost perfect cut down it. Where that cut exists, there is a corner post! That means this last sheathing portion is a later add-on or “wart’ as we commonly call them on island. This is also apparent inside the back kitchen ell where the floor drastically slopes towards the bathroom and pantry. So, while the kitchen ell may have been added after 1830, the even further back portion of the kitchen ell was added at a later date – likely to provide the cottage with a bathroom once running water was introduced. This is also why kitchen ells are so important – this was always where water was first introduced to a house – the kitchen where it was needed for cooking and cleaning and because of this fact, the kitchen ell was always where the one and only bathroom was introduced – unless the house had a full basement and the toilet often went there right under the kitchen. Many years ago, before the MMA put on the back addition to Hinchman House there was an old summer kitchen. And in the basement, the toilet. It used to be enclosed by a very rickety shed-like structure to make it a bathroom. I remember being terrified of it!

And that’s how we learned a little bit more about the Astronomer’s Cottage during this exterior work which has been funded in part by a Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund matching grant. A special thank you to Eric Nordby and his Yankee Construction crew for doing the work!