Page News & Courier

Heritage and Heraldry

The 'fort homes' and historical interpretation

Article of February 24, 2000

After making a recent tour, there appears to be some controversy over the true definition of a "fort" house. Undoubtedly, the structures made of huge logs and/or limestone were much more defensible than the common homes throughout the Shenandoah Valley during the 18th century. The arched cellars would have made an excellent refuge for citizens who did not have as substantial a homestead as that of a "fort". However, can all of these homes with arched cellars really be considered "forts"?

Of these "fort" structures or arched cellars, historical architecture specialist Edward Chappell states:

"The most dramatic accommodation . . .is a variable cellar form drawn from Rhineland and Pennsylvania precedents. As an integral part of their houses, the Massanutten builders constructed single-and two-room cellars employing techniques that protected large quantities of perishable food from changes in temperature. The cellars housed functions that were relegated to detached spring-houses in the nineteenth century, and two Massanutten cellars, as well as a number of Pennsylvania examples contain springs. The primary insulation method involved construction of a rubble stone barrel vault rising from low walls. These vaulted rooms, or die Gewolbkeller, were provided with small vaulted and trabeated [wedge-shaped] window openings that were tapered toward the exterior [believed in most local lore as "rifle slots"]. Iron and wooden hooks embedded in the vaults carried wooden poles for suspension of foods such as meat and cheese."

As to the extra structures found in the cellars of a few of the homes, Chappell comments that "a fireplace in the outer room at the Abraham Spitler House and an underground access to a well from the lower of two vertically stacked cellars at Fort Philip Long suggest that those rooms were also the scenes of productive activities. Full-size windows in the cellars at Philip Long and in the outer rooms at the Spitler House and Fort Stover further evidence them as work rooms."

As to the positioning of the homes – Chappell: "This method of hillside siting, with relatively direct entrance into two floors, is a distinguishing feature of the Rhenish house in America. Multilevel dwellings and farm buildings that take advantage of sloping ground exist in Britain, but the form is seldom found in English-settled areas of Tidewater and Piedmont Virginia. The occasional appearance of the siting choice in nineteenth-century Shenandoah Valley houses can be attributed to the persistence of a Germanic minority trait."

A comparison can be made between the "forts" surveyed and the home of Adam Miller – "Green Meadows." Miller's home is still standing and is believed to have been one of the earliest homes in the area (ca. 1728). This structure has never been given the title of "fort" and does not represent the more typical "sturdy" homes that bear the name. Another structure, Fort Harrison, near Dayton in Rockingham County, is neither Swiss-German immigrant-built or typical of the "forts" built by Swiss-German settlers in the Massanutten settlement.

Perhaps Chappell sums it up best when he states:

"In both Pennsylvania and the Shenandoah Valley, early houses have sometimes acquired the term fort, and present use of the prefix may have been encouraged by conjecture about the defensive functions of the vaulted cellars. Despite the improbability of this function, it is of interest that White House was referred to as a "Fort house" as early as 1827 (Shenandoah County Land Tax Book 1827).".

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