Eden House Root Cellar

Before electricity and refrigerators, many people built a half-basement under a home or shed called a root cellar to store food. The ground’s natural insulation kept root cellars at a fairly constant cool temperature of c 50-55°F, which helped deter spoilage, and crops stored there after harvest could remain fresh through winter. The bricks in this floor were discovered in the 1990s during construction of a bridge across the Chowan River. They were part of a colonial homestead called Eden House, built in eastern Bertie County in the late 1600s-early 1700s.

Windsor, North Carolina · United States