Historic Contexts Study and Phase II Inventory (Downtown Elk River) 2022

Home Browse Search

The cheapest and least skillful type of plank construction eliminated the need for fancy rabbets and grooves. Builders lapped the plank on the outside surface of the sill timber and the roof plate and nailed it in place. This was easy and quick, but the nails themselves ended up bearing the weight of the structure, since the planks did not actually sit on top of the sill timber. (See John Rempel, Building with Wood, and Other Aspects ofNineteenth-Century Building in Central Canada, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, first edition, 1967, revised edition 1980), 175-177 and 177 for illustration of a house similar to the Fox House; Stephen B. Jordan, "Houses Without Frames," Old House Journal, May -June 1993, 36-37.) The Fox House The Fox House uses the simplest and least expensive approach to plank house construction. It is a one and one-half story structure built with two-inch thick vertical oak planks attached with cut nails to the outside of the sill and roof plate. The planks run from the roofline down to the stone foundation and cover the sill. There are no rabbets or grooves in the sill or roof plate, and no shaping was done to the ends of the oak planks. The one and one-half inch thick oak planks vary in width from as narrow as about eight and one-half inches up to twelve and one-half inches. (This information is assembled from a variety of Fox House reports and close analysis of photographs. Plank width and thickness from Bill Morgan and Marilyn Salzl Brinkman, Light from the Hearth: Central Minnesota Pioneers and Early Architecture (St. Cloud: North Star Press, 1982), 60. See endnote 41, Dr. Morgan measured planks himself in April 1981.) (Note that quite a bit of the existing written materials on the Fox House is conflicting and incorrect. The text for the outdoor panel, which states "the 2-inch thick and 14-inch wide planks fit into an indentation in the sill..." is incorrect. Also note that the "Fox House Interpretive Manual" by Lois Gaetz, is confusing on this detail: The manual states, "These planks formed the support, there are no corner posts, the boards are butted with the ends reduced to tenons to fit into slots cut in the sills. Originally the boards were joined with wooden pegs called treenails (trunnels). Planks in the Fox house are joined with cut nails. The second floor planks are attached to another horizontal board, called a plate, in the same way as the first floor planks. The attic plate, requiring less load bearing strength was pegged to second floor planks."p. 3—There is no attic above the second floor. The National Register Nomination also misstates the width of the planks.) Plaster Vernon Bailey said that when his family came to Bailey Station between Elk River and Big Lake in 1870, "Father and Charles found plenty of work at plastering and brick and stone laying at what seemed enormous wages, three dollars a day, when ordinary labor brought about one dollar a day." (Vernon Bailey, "The Hiram Bailey Family, Pioneers of America and Early Settlers of the Middle West," typescript, SCHS, 16) When the builders completed installing the walls and roofing the Fox House, they were ready to start finishing the interior. They nailed one -inch furring strips to the vertical planks, then nailed lath to the furring strips. Now they were ready to plaster the walls. The Fox House interior was finished with historic three -coat wet plaster. Sherburne County Historical Society Heritage Center Interpretive Plan, April 21, 2005, page 98