History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

2 HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON.
ground plan never varied, and they differed only in size
and height. Ordinarily they were two stories high. Forty
feet seems to have been the standard length, while twenty
feet was the established width. More honses were constructed
forty by twenty feet than of any other dimensions,
though occasionally one might have been found forty-oneby
twenty-two, and sometimes thirty-eight and one-half by
twenty-two. In some the upper story projected about
eighteen inches. It has been stated that this feature was
for the purpose of affording better means of repelling an
Indian attack, by firing down upon the foe. But the style
was evidently imported, as houses were built in England
after that pattern. The house was placed close to the
ground, with very little underpinning. In many instances,
the floor was below the sills. All these framed dwellings
were substantially built ; the timbers were usually of oak,
all hewed, and in some cases the posts were eight and onehalf
by nine inches square. Every house had two rooms
on each floor, separated by a huge chimney, which held the
place of honor in the center of the structure. These chimneys
were of various sizes. Some of them measured at the
base ten by twelve feet, others nine by fourteen, and still
others were nine by twelve. The rooms on the main floor
were usually about seven feet high, and in a house fortyone
by twenty-two feet, would be about sixteen by twenty
in dimensions. One noteworthy feature of the chimney
was the huge fireplace. As it formed the only means of
heating the room, it was made as large as the size of the
chimney would permit. It is probable that a few of these
chimneys may have been constructed of wood, thickly plastered
on the interior. But these were dangerous and not
infrequently the means of setting the house on fire. Stones
gathered on the premises or on the commons were most gen-
erally used, though afterwards chimneys were built of
brick.
Interiors of these In frout of tliese huge fircplaces, piled with
Houses. blazing logs, gathered the family, burned
or nearly blistered by the heat on one side,
and chilled or nearly frozen on the other by the "eager and
nipping " blasts that forced their way through every crack