Dutton House (Shelburne, Vermont) facts for kids
The Dutton House is a special building you can visit at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. It's also known as the Salmon Dutton House. This house was the very first building moved to the museum's property. To move it, workers carefully took the house apart. They took many photos before and during the process. They even saved small pieces of the painted walls to help recreate the designs inside. A cool sunburst design painted above a fireplace was also kept and put back in the house.
History of the Dutton House
Salmon Dutton built the Dutton House in Cavendish, Vermont, in 1781. He moved from Massachusetts and worked as a road surveyor, a justice of the peace, and the town's treasurer. Like many people back then, Dutton used his house as both his home and his workplace. His family lived in the house until 1900. They continued to use it as a store, an inn, and a boarding house for local mill workers.
The house was first built in a classic style called "saltbox." Over time, as the house's uses changed, Dutton and his family added more parts to it. These many additions show a common building tradition in New England from the 1700s and 1800s. People would keep adding to their homes as needed.
In the late 1940s, Salmon Dutton's great-great-grandson, Redfield Proctor Jr., offered the house to a group called Historic New England (it had a different name back then). An architect named Frank Chouteau Brown carefully measured and drew the house in 1946. Later, Proctor gave the house to the Vermont Historical Society. But in 1950, when the house was in the way of a new road, the society offered it to the Shelburne Museum.
Cool Wall Designs from the Past
In the 1800s, American homeowners had many ways to decorate the inside of their houses. Fancy paint colors and wallpaper were available as early as 1725. By 1830, thousands of painters offered services like wallpapering, mural painting, and stenciling. Shelburne Museum has examples of all these types of wall decorations.
Wealthy families often bought French and English wallpaper for important rooms like parlors and dining rooms. These wallpapers often showed beautiful landscapes. They had bright colors and bold patterns that looked good even in dim candlelight.
Mural painting was another way to decorate. It was less expensive than imported wallpaper. Artists like Jonathan Poor and his partner, Paine, traveled around Maine. They offered to paint murals in rooms for about $10. The museum has a painted design from above a fireplace that Poor and Paine created around 1830. These paintings show busy harbors, farms, and forests. They are great examples of a type of art that is often lost when old buildings are torn down.
In the early 1800s, traveling artists would stencil walls in exchange for a place to stay and food. These artists cut patterns from thin wood or heavy paper. They used these patterns to decorate walls and furniture. The Stencil House at the museum shows many stenciled patterns. These include grape leaves, vases of flowers, and patriotic eagles.
The Dutton House has stencil paintings in its front four rooms. Most of these designs are along the edges of the plaster walls and date back to about 1800. A sunburst design is painted above a fireplace on the second floor. This is the only part of the plaster that was replaced after the house moved from Cavendish. Small pieces of the original stenciled borders were saved. These pieces helped guide the recreation of the designs when the house was put back together at Shelburne. Similar stencil designs found in the Dutton House have also been seen in other old houses in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
See also
- Electra Havemeyer Webb
- Redfield Proctor
- List of the oldest buildings in Vermont
