roger.pape Site Admin
Joined: 17 Mar 2009 Posts: 414 Location: Liverpool, NY
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:38 pm Post subject: Old Pape Home in Meinstedt, Germany |
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In the Jacob Pape Family Reunion posting on this forum, I included a section that talked about my search for the home in which my grandfather Jacob Pape was born. The photo of that house is repeated below. Unfortunately, the house is no longer standing. It was demolished in 1972 to make room for a new home on the Pape farm. But I was fortunate to receive an early photo of the old house from Christina Pape in Meinstedt.
There is an excellent Wikipedia article about Low German houses. It describes the various types of construction common in that area up through the 19th century. The Pape homestead was a typical Fachhallenhaus style of housebarn with the large arched gateway on the end to accommodate animals and wagons. It included not only living quarters but also livestock stalls and hay & grain storage. Based on its size, it appears to be a Vierständerhaus (four-post farmhouse) with the typical timber-framed, brick-filled walls. It had the usual thatched roof. The roof design was of a style most commonly found in the Hanover area. Note that the gable end facing the road had a steep pitched section of hip roof, referred to as a Krüppelwalm (cripple hip).
The house was relatively large, even for a family of 12. However, most of my Pape ancestors were carpenters in addition to having a farm. So they could probably afford to build a sizeable structure for themselves.
It is difficult to determine whether or not the adjoining buildings in the farmyard were attached. One can only speculate as to what the interior layout of the house was like. The barn portion was on the left (front) side of the house and the living quarters on the right (rear), with a large central fireplace. Because of the angle of the photo, one cannot determine whether there were any decorations or inscriptions (such as the family name) on the lintel over the gateway.
The second picture below show the general construction of the four-post farmhouse and a typical layout of the first floor. Note that the floor plan is for a smaller home. Based on the door and windows on the side, the Pape home appears to have more living quarters behind the side door. There may have been other special rooms. Linen was an important product in the area until cotton imports eventually made it unprofitable. Many of the homes had a special area for weaving linen.
If you are interested in the old farmhouses of Northern Germany, more details (including pictures of the interiors of some old homes) can be found in the first external link of the Wikipedia article cited above, namely Farmhouses in Lower Saxony. It's in German, but you can use Google Translate to change it to English.
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Old Pape homestead in Meinstedt, Germany. (Photo from about 1952 or 1953.) Located on Klaus Pape farm until it was demolished in 1972. |
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Typical construction and first floor plan for Low German housebarn. (Floor plan for small home, but most homes had same general layout.) |
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