| Lesson 13: Deerfield Visit:
Reading a House/Place:
Ebenezer Hinsdale Williams House
1 class period (85 minutes)
top of
page
| Key Content Ideas Taught in this Lesson and
Background Essay |
To indicate their status and refinement, respectable
citizenry selected or built fine homes and material goods. These
markers of gentility assured them a higher place on the social ladder
and the power that accompanied it. This lesson examines the Ebenezer
Hinsdale Williams house, built circa 1750 and remodeled beginning
in 1816. The house originally resembled the Sheldon-Hawks house
across the street, which has remained largely unimproved from its
construction, circa 1740.
Teacher Background Essay: The
Home of Ebenezer Williams
top of page
| Intended Learning Outcomes |
Understandings
Students will understand:
- Architectural styles indicated the
adherence to current taste practiced by those who were upwardly
mobile.
- Markers of refinement changed over time.
Skills
Students will be able to:
- Make the connections between the changing
ideals of "decencies" of life, new modes of behavior,
and consumption, which together resulted in what is known as the
middle class.
- Use information gained from this and other
periods to develop a continuum showing the growth of the Deerfield
community.
- "Read" a building and understand architectural
terminology.
- Make a family chart for their Deerfield family.
top of page
| In Preparation for Teaching |
1. Read Teacher Background Essay: The
Home of Ebenezer Williams
Further Background Reading
McGowan, Susan and Amelia Miller. Family and Landscape.
Deerfield, Massachusetts: Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association,
1996.
top of
page
Primary and Secondary Sources:
Unless otherwise noted, all can be found
on the American Centuries website.
- Williams House
- Sheldon-Hawks House
- Drawing paper (not on website)
top of page
| Activity |
Materials in Context |
- Using the website, ask students
to focus and draw the floor plan, doorways, paint color,
and roofline of the Williams House.
- Compare the exterior of the Williams House and the
Sheldon-Hawks House to note how the remodeling of the Williams House changed its appearance
from an earlier style.
- Identify those aspects of the home that, in 1816,
indicated refinement. Go to the web and locate additional houses of that period for comparison.
Assignment:
Place the character in your family in a house that reflects
refinement during the 1770- 1830 period. Using the American
Centuries website, review examples of a house design for this
period. Then design a house using the computer paint program,
filling the interior with period pieces that you print out
from the web, draw, or find pictures in periodicals. Don't
forget the textiles. Write a brief narrative to give sufficient
background on each selection as you take us on a tour through
the house. We will gather these houses together to form a
village at the end of the unit.
|
Williams House
Sheldon-Hawks House
|
top of page
none
top of page
|
