Chipman Potato House
Encyclopedia
The Chipman Potato House is located near Laurel, Delaware
, one of the last surviving examples of its building type. The southern part of Delaware
saw a sweet potato
boom from 1900 until blight struck in the 1940s. In order to store the crops, potato houses were built. The Chipman House was built in 1913 by Joseph and Ernest Chipman on their property with the assistance of Alva Hudson. The 2½ story balloon-framed house is furnished with sparse, shuttered windows and slatted floors, allowing adjustment of air circulation. Two stoves provided heat during the winter, one of which survives.
The Chipman potato house has been modified for tractor access. Windows were once glazed beneath the shutters, a very unusual feature in a potato house. The internal structure uses samson posts, a kind of capped column that is normally employed in mill construction to bear heavy loads, leading to speculation that the feature echos construction in the adjacent, now destroyed Chipman's Mill
. The Chipman house is also unusual in plan, divided into four quadrants with 2.5 foot (0.762 m) walkways between. Each quadrant was divided into at least three bins. The attic is divided in two with a center aisle, for a total of 50 bins, typically 9 feet (2.7 m) by 3 foot (0.9144 m).
The Chipman Potato House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1990.
Laurel, Delaware
As of the census of 2000, there were 3,668 people, 1,389 households, and 957 families residing in the town. The population density was 2,215.9 people per square mile . There were 1,561 housing units at an average density of 943.0 per square mile...
, one of the last surviving examples of its building type. The southern part of Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
saw a sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
boom from 1900 until blight struck in the 1940s. In order to store the crops, potato houses were built. The Chipman House was built in 1913 by Joseph and Ernest Chipman on their property with the assistance of Alva Hudson. The 2½ story balloon-framed house is furnished with sparse, shuttered windows and slatted floors, allowing adjustment of air circulation. Two stoves provided heat during the winter, one of which survives.
The Chipman potato house has been modified for tractor access. Windows were once glazed beneath the shutters, a very unusual feature in a potato house. The internal structure uses samson posts, a kind of capped column that is normally employed in mill construction to bear heavy loads, leading to speculation that the feature echos construction in the adjacent, now destroyed Chipman's Mill
Chipman's Mill
Chipman's Mill is located near Laurel, Delaware. Composed of two structures, the older is original to the site. The one story mill, built by Joseph Chipman in 1884, is situated over the millrace and contains turbines and millstones. The wooden superstructure featured mortise and tenon joinery...
. The Chipman house is also unusual in plan, divided into four quadrants with 2.5 foot (0.762 m) walkways between. Each quadrant was divided into at least three bins. The attic is divided in two with a center aisle, for a total of 50 bins, typically 9 feet (2.7 m) by 3 foot (0.9144 m).
The Chipman Potato House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1990.