Ramsdell House
A Restoration Project of the Museums of Old York to preserve a significant vestige of York's Colonial past. This project is supported in part by generous assistance from the Paterson Historical Fund, the Fisher Foundation, the Libra Foundation, the Davis Family Foundation, the 1772 Foundation and donations from individuals in the York community.
Named for the mid-nineteenth farm laborer's family and descendants who lived there from the early 1850s until 2002, the Ramsdell House is the newest addition to Old York's historic house museums, having been acquired in 2002. Over the last few years, the house and grounds have been the subject of intensive study and ongoing careful restoration. It offers vivid perspectives on early life in one of New England's oldest towns.
Dendrochronology (the study of tree rings) at Oxford University in England has established the date that the white oak timbers were cut for the frame of the building between 1747 and 1749, although the structure is framed in the traditions common more than a century earlier. The 2003 recipients of Old York's Elizabeth Bishop Perkins Fellowship in Museum Practice collaboratively researched the various facets of the house, determining that it was probably built as an early industrial building for a nearby tannery or cooperage and moved to its present site, where it was converted to a house, circa 1814. It occupies glebe land once farmed by Captain Daniel Bragdon, brother-in-law of patriot John Hancock, who was part owner of the wharf now known by his name and is one of Old York's riverfront museums.
A two-room structure, it was purchased in 1851 by Theodore Ramsdell, a farm laborer. Unlike the more affluent and larger homes that lined Lindsay Road, the Ramsdell House was modest from its beginnings and survived in near unaltered shape because of poverty and later financial conservatism of the family. From 1851 into the 1880s the two room home housed Ramsdell, his wife, three children, and his mother-in-law. About 1885 another building of eighteenth century origin, its roof-tree incorporating fairly rare king's-post trusses, was moved in from elsewhere and became a one-room rear ell. There were no interior bathroom facilities or modern kitchen until 1946, when World War II veteran "Razor" Ramsdell returned home and added a modest lean-to to the south wall of the ell.
The importance of the house's significance lies as much in its scale as its age. Originally two rooms around a central chimney, it is typical of the cramped quarters most families lived in during much of the town's early period. It is in stark contrast to the large, well-furnished homes of the wealthy that most often survive as historic house museums. These vernacular houses were often turned into sheds or razed, or lie hidden under later additions.
The most distinctive architectural feature of the house, a sophisticated Georgian-style enclosed entrance porch, was probably originally a part of a home like the 1712 Nicholas Sewall House (now a private residence) just up Lindsay Road. Although it is not certain that this particular feature came from the Nicholas Sewall House, structural and written evidence indicates that it was attached to the Ramsdell House in 1902.
Restoration of the house is ongoing, and can be experienced by museum visitors on regularly scheduled tours. In 2006 the museum replaced the large central chimney and restored the historically appropriate window sash. Once the restoration is complete, the museum will create an interpretation for the Ramsdell House. One interpretive possibility is to recreate the home of Theodore Ramsdell and his family in the 1850s, showing the modest circumstances of a farm laborer who happened to live in one of York's most elegant neighborhoods.
If you would like to support the restoration project, contact Executive Director Scott Stevens at (207) 363-4974 x 15 or send a check specifying the donation to Ramsdell Restoration, Museums of Old York, P.O. Box 312, York, ME 03909