ANALYSIS
Initial analysis attempted to separate existing documentary evidence and other field measurement conclusions from the brick analysis in order to remain objective. Few conclusions came out of this method, except to note some interesting adjacencies when sorting the list of brick samples by Standard Deviation, Average, and Mode. Estimated dates were then included to see whether brick dimensions confirmed building campaigns, or shed light on patches with a more vague date range.
Several adjacencies in Table 02 are interesting: the Flemish chimney base from the Main House and the Law Office cellar bricks possibly further indicate that they are contemporary. The brick sizes themselves are not the same, so perhaps they are constructed from separate batches but with similar technology. The Law Office cellar pier that supports a beam with circular saw marks has bricks with a similar standard deviation and dimension as those from the Main House that have an estimated construction date of 1843. This possibly suggests that the cellar pier was added in much later to support changes in the Law Office floor construction. The portion of the Main House rear elevation left [North] of the door is also listed between much newer constructions on site — approximately 1876–1929 — possibly indicating that the rear elevation was completed at a later date than previously estimated.
Average dimensions involve a level of precision — up to four decimal places — that was not possible in field measurements. This level of precision would not be appropriate anyway to the analysis of bricks that are crafted by hand and are subject to a number of physical variables. Rounded Average dimensions bring the Average dimension back to the 1/4” tolerance that was used during field measurements. Doing so, similar “average” bricks can be grouped together and analyzed as though they are from contemporary batches of brick production.
Brick dimensions examined concurrently with bonding patterns are especially meaningful for determining contemporary building campaigns. For example, the two Flemish-bonded patches along the rear elevation have the same Rounded Average dimensions and were previously estimated to be built at the same time. The brick patches that constitute the Kitchen are also split among several groups of brick dimension; the bonding patterns are varied among these patches, possibly indicating that the Kitchen was constructed over several campaigns. The Law Office cellar bricks, from both the retaining wall and the pier, are not in the same groups of Rounded Average brick dimensions as the East wall and the chimney; along with the beam with circular saw marks, this evidence might indicate that the inner structures of the cellar were constructed at a later date than the exterior foundation and above-ground walls.
Average (and Rounded Average) dimensions “invent” brick sizes, in a sense, by mathematically generating dimensions and by combining average brick lengths with average brick heights in ways that do not exist in the field. By examining the Mode among the dataset, really occurring brick dimensions can be compared to each other for a more accurate analysis.
The Kitchen brick patches are slightly better grouped in this iteration of analysis, though their separation still appears to suggest that the Kitchen was constructed over various building campaigns. Particularly, the chimney and the exterior wall behind it have noticeably different brick sizes (8-1/4” x 2-1/2” compared to 7-1/2” x 2-1/4”). As no patches on the other side of the Kitchen chimney were measured, it is possible that the Kitchen had a smaller footprint and was later expanded toward the East. The portions of the Main House with Flemish bonding and the Law Office patches have the same brick dimension Modes, adding evidence to the estimation that these parts of the site are from contemporary constructions. The group of patches with Mode dimensions measuring 8” x 2-1/2” x 3-3/4” may assist in dating the path beneath the Short Range, as previously the only clue was that it predated the Short Range’s construction in 1848–1849. The Law Office cellar pier bricks are once again grouped with patches dating to the 1840s and later, possibly proving that the beam with circular saw marks is not the only new construction in the cellar.