By CINDY MAHAN

By CINDY MAHAN

Rappahannock New* Staff Writer

Dwight Matthews and Christopher Owens spoke about identification of old buildings at the Rappahannock Historical Society meeting last Sunday.

The appreciative audience, who filled all the seats in the Washington Town Hall, listened with rapt attention as the two men gave their history lesson in construction of buildings in Virginia since the 17th century.

Mr. Matthews, who is an architect who lives in Flint Hill, said that there are three ways to date a house: documentary evidence, comparison to known styles, and examination of physical evidence (surface and subsurface investigations). He said that what is written on the subject deals mainly with more populated areas than Rappahannock County. Mr. Matthews has been doing research on his own home in Flint Hill, Althea Terrace, to find out more of the history of the home.

He has documented photographically renovations which have been done on the interior of his house, and discovered that one of the mantels was signed in pencil by the carpenter who built it in 1847. In houses in Pennsylvania, said Mr. Matthews, he has seen the date of the house written in the chinking above the mantel. He is also learning a lot about old building from a log home which is presently in Woodstock but will be moved to Rappahannock County.

Many things can give clues to a building’s age, said Mr. Matthews: mantel styles, doorways, nails, trims, interior and exterior surfaces, windows and doors. He cautioned, though, that structures may have undergone a number of steps to be the way they look now.

Christopher Owens, a preservation craftsman and contractor from Madison who has recently been working on Ash Lawn, the home of James Monroe, said, “If you really want to date a building the ideal way is to get