Charting A New Course

They Did What To The Floors?

Since we began our large-scale refurnishing effort, we’ve heard a wide range of opinions and thoughts from visitors to the home. Some miss the old furnishings, but the vast majority of visitors are excited to watch the progress and see the historic home take shape.

Not surprisingly, the wide-plank hardwood floors that span nearly every space in the gracious mansion impress many visitors. What surprises many visitors is the fact that these beautiful floors will eventually be covered by a reproduction, 19th century carpet.
Bushman
Ingrain-carpeting in the 19th century was highly popular and seen as a mark of distinction for homes both common and grand. The rise in popularity of the carpeting can be seen as a component of the “refinement of America” which is well covered in Richard Bushman’s The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities.

In homes of Long Branch’s stature, large, stately rooms like our dining room and parlor would have seem bare and uncompleted without a covering of fine carpeting.

Beyond circumstantial evidence, we also know from a probate inventory completed in 1866 that most of the home’s floors were covered in some form of carpet or floorcloth. Specifically, we know that our parlor and dining room each had approximately 40 yards of ingrain carpeting – meaning each room was covered wall-to-wall. The entry (or lower) hall was also covered in a wall-to-wall floorcloth (documented in the same 1866 inventory), which will also eventually be reproduced, but that’s a topic for another blog post.

An example of ingrain carpet
An example of ingrain carpet

The fact that 19th century Americans not only covered hardwoods, but also covered them wall-to-wall is a real shock for many visitors. It’s almost as shocking as seeing Mount Vernon’s neon green dining room – but Washington’s dining room and our covered floors are similar in that they challenge common misconceptions about the past and provoke visitors to reflect on how style has changed.

Today, bare floors are in vogue – a real change from the 1860s. Today, in subdivisions and track homes across America, muted “eggshell” white is a paint that pleases most palettes, yet in 1790s Virginia, vibrant greens and blues were just as popular and spoke to the owner’s ability to afford such a fine finish. These were status items. Perhaps not to our liking, but status items of that era.

Mount Vernon Dining Room (Courtesy Mount Vernon)
Mount Vernon Dining Room (Courtesy Mount Vernon)

So, what are we doing to our floors? With history as our guide, we are transforming several of our rooms to their mid-19th century appearance which means the installation of custom-loomed ingrain carpets, amongst many other new objects and furnishings.

To learn more about ingrains, and check out the site of a great American manufacturer of these historic carpets, check out: www.familyheirloomweavers.com

To keep up with the latest on our refurnishing efforts, stay tuned to this blog over the coming months.

Leave a Reply