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Chipman Sweet Potato House

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1913. Chipman's Pond Road, near Old Christ Church, 1.9 miles east of Laurel
  • Chipman Sweet Potato House (W. Barksdale Maynard)

Sweet potato production quadrupled in Sussex County after 1900, a boom that lasted until a root disease struck in the 1940s. Two-story, houselike gabled buildings were used to store sweet potatoes over the winter, with chimneys to vent a stove that gave constant heat. Windows were few, but air circulation was provided by slatted floors and sliding panels. Today, these weatherboarded structures have all been converted for other uses—or, as here, abandoned.

Writing Credits

Author: 
W. Barksdale Maynard
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Data

What's Nearby

Old Christ Church
Fowler House
Spring Garden
Rosemont
Ship-Carpenters' Houses

Citation

W. Barksdale Maynard, "Chipman Sweet Potato House", [Laurel, Delaware], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DE-01-WS24.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Delaware

Buildings of Delaware, W. Barksdale Maynard. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008, 296-297.

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