George Wright Young House

Infobox_nrhp
name = George Wright Young House
nrhp_type =


caption =
nearest_city= Oxford, Mississippi
lat_degrees = 34
lat_minutes = 23
lat_seconds = 22
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 89
long_minutes = 23
long_seconds = 39
long_direction = W
locmapin = Mississippi
area =
built = 1850
architect=
architecture= Other
added = November 14, 2007
governing_body = Private
refnum=07001182cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=2008-06-23] The George Wright Young House is a historic house located in Oxford, Mississippi. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Background and history

The George Wright Young House is located east of Oxford, Mississippi. The house is a two story, side-gabled, center-hall planter’s cottage with a rear ell.

Originally a one room 1850 structure, the house was built in at least three phases and is believed to have taken its present form about 1900. The main façade facing north is three bays wide (Room 1, foyer hall and Room 2) featuring double four-paneled door entrance in the central bay, flanked by a pair of six-over-nine, double-hung windows in the outer bays. An undercut gallery with plain square wood posts spans four-fifths of the façade and features a wooden deck and boxed columns.

The west façade is also three bays wide (Room 2, Room 3 and Room 4) featuring a brick shouldered chimney in Room 2 flanked by a pair of four-over-four windows on the main floor and a pair of two-over-three windows in the second floor attic, a pair of six-over-six windows in Room3 and an exit door in room 4.

The rear of the house facing south is three bays wide (Room 4, center hall and Room 1). There are no windows at the end of ell but there is a six-over-nine window on the rear of Room 1. The rear has a single exterior door from the hall.

The east façade is also three bays wide (Room 4 and Room 3 in the ell, and Room 1) featuring a small two-over-two window in room 4, a single exterior door from Room 3 and a sandstone shouldered chimney on Room 1 flanked by a pair of two-over-three windows in the second floor attic.

The house rests on stone piers and the roof is clad in corrugated metal. The walls of the main façade are clad in weatherboard siding. Constructed about 1850 (Phase 1), Room 1, was a single 20’ x 20’ room with a massive fireplace on the east wall.

The room was constructed using large hand hewn heart of pine timbers. The rectangular timbers, typically in excess of seventeen inches high and six-inches deep, were stacked horizontally from just above the ground to the roof. The timbers, some 18 feet long, were joined at the corners with square notching. The lower timbers are supported at the corners with piers made of stacked local rocks.

The fireplace on the exterior of the east wall is constructed from large blocks of local sandstone that extend to the original height of Room1.

The timber spaces were chinked in the winter for protection from the cold and un-chinked in the summer to allow cooling air circulation.

The house was augmented with Phase 2 in about 1875 with the center hall, and the second room (Room 2, the right front façade bay), a small front gallery, and a second story attic accessible by stairs in the hall.

In Phase 3 a third room, Room 3, built about 1900 directly behind the Room 2, was constructed on a beam base using 2” x 4” wall studs spaced irregularly. Room 3 measures 15’ 4” x 14’ 0”. The interior wall of Room 3 facing Room 2 has the exterior weatherboard of Room 2. Room 3 was built abutted to but not structurally integrated into the main house except with the roofing.

The 9’ 6” x 13’ 6” room, Room 4, was built behind Room 3 at the same time, and is also built on a beam base using 2” x 4” studs spaced irregularly. Room 4, used as a kitchen, has an insulated chimney sleeve for a stove pipe.

The original kitchen was built probably during Phase 2 and detached from the house to isolate accidental fires. The vertical pine timber materials used in Room 4 are similar to those used in Room 2. The interior wall board materials in Room 4 are believed to be the wood that was used for the original detached kitchen when it was built during Phase 2. The interior boards have square nail holes, indicating that they had been used prior to Phase 3. In Phase 3 the kitchen was attached to the house.

Since the completion of Phase 3 in 1900, no significant alterations have been made to the house. The house was occupied by the owner’s grand-father and his family until about 1942. After he vacated the house the home was then rented until about 1951. It subsequently was closed and has remained unoccupied for 56 years. [Boyd, C: "NRHP Application", 2007.]

References