Existing comment:
The Fancy Parlor:
Since the common tavern barroom was an exclusively male retreat, taverns often contained a separate and more richly furnished room for the use of ladies, gentlemen, and children. This area served as a relaxing parlor and a private dining room away from the noise and confusion of the more common areas. The parlor was provided with every comfort, including window coverings, wallpaper, and carpeting. The 1842 inventory of Own McDonald's tavern in nearby Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, lists the comparatively luxurious and costly furnishings found in its Fancy Parlor.
1842 Parlor Inventory:
sideboard .. 20.00
piano ... 50.00
sofa ... 12.00
2 "extra" tables .. 15.00
marble table ... 15.00
12 mahogany chairs ... 18.00
2 looking glasses ... 3.50
arm chair ... 2.00
4 window blinds ... 4.00
45 yards carpeting .. 11.25
2 rugs .. 3.00
2 small stools ... 1.00
fender ... .75
astral lamp ... 3.00
2 lamps at .25 ... .50
backgammon board ... .25
3 table covers at .25 ... .75
4 picture frames at 12-1/2 ... 50
Archeological Excavations and Paint Analysis:
Archaeology at the Lemon House began in 1978. This work helped date the construction of the building to the early 1830s and produced a broad range of mid-century household objects. The most common were ceramic and glass shards of the style common to taverns and middle class homes of the period. Also uncovered were coins of the 1820s and 1830s, an iron fireplace tong, clay pipes, buttons, pieces of spoons and table knives, and fragments of shoes. The large number of animal bones found indicates that the patrons of the Lemon House dined on beef and pork.
To restore the interior of the Lemon House to the historic period, it was necessary to determine whether the walls were papered or painted, and what colors were used. New techniques were used to analyze over 100 paint samples. From these it was possible to determine the exact colors for the hallroom and barroom walls and woodwork. The chrome yellow in the barroom walls of another nineteenth-century tavern. Fibers on the walls of the Fancy Parlor indicate that it was always papered. The paper used today copies an original, popular pattern produced in Philadelphia in the 1820s and 1830s. |