Fort Vancouver Historic Structures Report

Recommendations

a. It is proposed that architects and curators planning both the building structure and the furnishings of the reconstructed Blacksmith's Shop carefully study the reports of the 1973-74 archeological excavations at the site when they are completed. The only hope of answering a number of questions about the structure, such as those concerning the locations and sizes of doors; locations of windows; and the number, sizes, and locations of the forges, anvils, workbenches, and bellows, lies in the findings of the archeologists.

b. It is suggested that the Blacksmith's Shop be in accordance with the structural data provided in the chapter. Special attention is called to the following reconstructed body of this recommendations:

(1) The walls, of the usual post-on-sill type, should be formed of hewn timbers and should be little more than eight feet high. The sills should be at ground level, and the tie beams, or ceiling beams, should be morticed into the plates. The roof rafters should rest on the plates. There should be no visible diagonal bracing.

(2) The ends of the gables above the plates should be closed with vertical board siding, preferably without battens. There should be no framing under these boards except the end cross-tie beams. Evidently there were no windows in the gables.

(3) The roof should be covered with vertical boards, grooved at the edges.

c. The exterior was not weatherboarded, and it should be un painted, except for the doors and the door and window trim, which should be painted Spanish brown. The window sash should be white. The interior should not be painted.

d. The interior should be unlined; there should be no ceiling. There should be no interior posts or partitions.

e. Before the final design is made there should be a special technical study, based upon the archeological findings, upon the historical evidence, and upon nineteenth-century smithy design and practice, to determine the locations and design of such features as forges, chimneys, workbenches, anvil bases, and other shop equipment.

f. It is suggested that the Blacksmith's Shop be re-equipped, refurnished, and exhibited as a house museum.