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Interiors: Kitchen & Bedrooms
In late 1970s-early '80s, the Clarke House was restored to its 1850-1860 decor, using historic documents, paint analysis and what was popular at that time with middle-class families. None of the Clarkes' furnishings or possessions survived. These photos below show the kitchen on the ground leel and the bedroom on the second floor.
KITCHEN
Having the kitchen in a cellar or basement, such as the one at Clarke House, was generally considered to have its advantages and disadvantages. The rest of the house stayed cleaner, since the soot from the cooking fires were isolated. Supplies and deliveries could be brought directly to the kitchen. It permitted an entire floor to be devoted to domestic activity, thereby keeping clutter and bustle out of the upstairs rooms, while also making it more efficient for women to accomplish different tasks at the same time. Nevertheless, the need to carry items up and down stairs would have tired the patience of owners and servants alike.
The Clarkes lived in the north wing of their house from 1836 to around 1851. The original kitchen of the Clarke House may have been located in the north wing of the ground floor, given the fact that the northwest chimney is the largest and would have permitted a big enough fireplace to serve and an open-hearth kitchen. This kitchen probably consisted of several connecting rooms on the north side, each with its own function (pantry, cold storage, dairy, cooking, etc.). There was no indoor plumbing so water was purchased or carried from the lake.
When the Clarke House became a museum in 1982, the kitchen was condensed into one room in the southeast corner of the ground floor and the probably original kitchen area became the orientation gallery.
BOY'S BEDROOM
By the mid-19th century, children were separated by gender and given their own beds, although sleeping with another child of the same gender was acceptable. Parents kept infants in their room or nearby.
Originally none of the eight rooms on the second floor were connected. However, around the time Mrs. Clarke finished the downstairs parlors, she added the door between this room and the master bedroom. This was determined by wallpaper dating from the 1850s that was found behind the door moldings. Prior to the 1850s, the rooms were not decorated.
MASTER BEDROOM
In the northeast corner of this room, a section of the wall has been cut out to expose the timber frame construction of the house.
Wallpaper. This room was wallpapered during the 1850s. A large sample of the original paper was found behind the door moldings. The 1980s restoration team reproduced the wallpaper. The wallpaper border dates from around 1850. It was removed from a home in Bloomington, Illinois and carefully remounted here.
Heating. The 1980s resoration team found evidence of a stove pipe in the west wall, probably installed in the 1850s. The stove and stove pipes are positioned away from the wall to reduce chances of the wall catching fire and to radiate more heat into this room and the adjoining boys’ bedroom.
Storage. When the Clarkes built the house in 1835, none of the upstairs rooms had closets. Those in the children’s bedrooms were added in the 1870s.
GIRL’S ROOM
Aside from serving as her sleeping quarters, the girl’s bedroom also provided a private space for bathing and personal hygiene. It also served as a place to play, study, read and write. This bedroom was finished in the 1830s. Closets were added to this room and the other three corner rooms around the time of the sale of the home in 1872.
Flooring. An attractive, Jacquard-woven, ingrain carpet covers the original pine floorboards. Jacquard looms used a system of punch cards to create the design of the carpet.
Wallpaper. This bedroom was wallpapered sometime after 1850. A wallpaper fragment, found under the molding of the closet door, dates to the 1850s and served as the basis for this reproduction.
Bed. The four-poster bed, like the bed in the boys’ bedroom, has ropes to hold up the mattress. Unlike the ropes on the boy’s bed, which have to be tightened with the bed wrench, the ropes on this bed are tightened and knotted by hand.
Click to enlarge image. Additional interior images of Clarke House Museum:
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