The little white cottage on Foster Hill Road where Peter, Annie and Spencer Backman live (Spencer being the seventh generation of Foster descendants to live there) is a classic example of an architectural style known as "connected buildings."
I learned from a book Priscilla (Backman) had that this style is thought to have originated on French country estates. However, it is such a practical arrangement for cold and snowy climates (where getting lost and freezing between house and barn is a real hazard) that I can't believe normal human ingenuity would not have developed it in a number of places. I saw this style in Denmark when I was there last summer, and have seen it elsewhere in northern Europe, throughout New England, and elsewhere in the northern United States as well.
There used to be a descriptive ditty among New England children that always helps me visualize this style. The ditty goes, "Big house, little house, back house, barn!" BIG HOUSE usually consisted of two rooms down and two rooms up, with a stairway (which could be quite steep and narrow) in between. Living areas were downstairs, sleeping areas above. Upstairs rooms could have quite low ceilings, dormers, or both.
LITTLE HOUSE was next. It was often set back, and was more low and narrow. This was the women's area, where food preparation, child care, weaving, sewing, etc. took place. It could also have sleeping rooms above, accessed through the big house's bedrooms.
BACK HOUSE contained the wood pile, farm wagons, carriage, sleigh, and farm equipment. The privy was often against the far wall, as far away from the rest of the house as possible.
THE BARN, housing farm animals, was on the other side of this far wall.
This configuration can be easily seen in the white cottage on Foster Hill Road, because the buildings are in a line along the road. (Other arrangements were not uncommon, such as "L" or "T" shapes.)
In the Foster Hill Road house, Peter, Annie, and Spencer live in big house and little house. Peter has his shop in back house, and he has made a beautiful apartment for his mother, Priscilla, in what used to be the horse barn. He has preserved much of the old wood and beams, and has added wonderful windows and a deck, all of which look out over the pond and woods. All of the buildings that comprise the original white cottage are now connected by a series of decks Peter has added, so that there is privacy, but easy access during bad weather.
Peter and Annie's thriving business, ANNIE'S NATURALS, is headquartered in the big brick house across the road from the original white cottage.
The brick house was built in the 1850s, when the white house was moved across the road to its present location. The brick house was built as a home for George's two oldest sons, Sidney and Alonzo, to house their families. (Sidney and Alonzo married sisters, Louisa and Elsie Dudley.) The two families had six children between them, and lived and ran the farm together until Alonzo bought a farm near Cabot. (Many of Alonzo's descendants have settled in the Cabot area. Near Alonzo's original Cabot-area house, Richard (Dick) Spaulding has bought property, on which he has relocated a number of family buildings, including the one-room schoolhouse attended by his mother, Merna Walbridge.)
But back to the brick house on Foster Hill Road. It is a modified connected building, in an L shape. I believe the barn was moved to its present location after the original barn burned. In any case, Sidney eventually bought out brother Alonzo, and Sidney's descendants have maintained ownership to this day.
I think all of George and Polly's descendants need to be grateful to Sidney's descendants for "hanging in there" and preserving the homestead for future generations. It hasn't been easy. It can be hard to make a living in northern Vermont, and old buildings need constant care. The present generation is doing an especially fine job of preserving our heritage.
Most families don't have a place they can go back to, and point to with pride, as still belonging to family members.
