Fitch House Yard

In the 1830s, ornamental front yards became more common in village households. This yard includes a circular garden, decorative plantings, and a small grassy lawn, while the back part of the yard is used for work and storage. The rear area includes a barn, outbuildings, and space for outdoor tasks such as laundry. A circular flower garden for children follows a design from Joseph Breck's The Young Florist, published in 1833, reflecting the growing popularity of ornamental gardening in the 1830s. A center village family might have kept a cow, a horse, hay, and vehicles in a barn. A shed served mainly as a woodshed for storing firewood and keeping it dry, and one side held a privy, or necessary, built into an embankment for easier cleaning. A small corn barn from Scituate, Rhode Island, stood on stones to keep out rats and mice and to improve ventilation for stored corn. Laundry was done outdoors with a firepit, kettle, tubs, scrub board, and clotheslines.

Sturbridge, Massachusetts · United States