Greek Revival Interior Features

The Van Slyke House

Interior historic period finishes are largely intact, including flooring, door, and window moldings and trim, and plasterwork. Even though the house was moved in 1953 it retains its setting and was only moved south within the same historic property lot boundary. The floor plan of the house has not undergone any significant changes, except for modernizing the kitchen and bathroom.

The Van Slyke House

Greek Revival Interior Highlights

Main Entrance

The main entrance on the façade opens to a left stair hall with wide plank floors. The stairway features period newel with a tapered, eight-sided fluted shaft. All of the balusters have tapered fluted shafts although much narrower. The stringers feature a faux painted stain technique. There are wooden treads and a handrail that is in two sections that curves to the wall at the top of the stairs. To the right of the stairway is a doorway to the main parlor.

Parlor

The main parlor opens to an approximate 13x 14 room with wide plank floors and two north facing windows along with one window on the west wall. The door is faux stained with mortise and tenon construction. Faux staining, often in rural homes during the early to mid 19th century, employed a technique of wood stain painting to simulate a more expensive wood species, in this case, a richer oak grain look. The walls are plaster and lath with a height of approximately 9 feet. All of the windows feature floor to ceiling faux painted wood frames including wood panels below the windows. The wide baseboards are faux stained and include a ¾ round on the top.

Dining Room

The dining room is approximately 13x 12 also with wide plank floors and two south facing windows featuring floor to ceiling faux painted wood frames including wood panels below the windows. The walls are plaster and lath with a height of approximately nine feet. The wide baseboards are faux stained and include a ¾ round on the top. The dining room has a doorway leading to the stair hall on the north wall along with the wide 6 foot frame leading to the parlor. A door on the west wall leads to a small bedroom, and a doorway on the east wall leads to the kitchen.

Main floor bedroom

The small bedroom in the south, west corner of the main block of the house is approximately 7x 9. There is a window facing west with a floor to ceiling frame,  wood panel below the window and a door facing north that leads to a small closet.

Kitchen

The kitchen, pantry and bath are located in the one-story east wing of the house with the north facing windows and door frame consistent with the rest of the house.

The kitchen’s walls feature stacked plank walls approximately 30-30.5 inches up from the floor with the planks generally measuring about 9-9.5 inches wide. The horizontal planking is finished with a 1in.x 1in. strip of wood on at least three of the four walls. There is a small portion of the wall in a concealed location that has about 2.5 feet of vertical bead board with each board measuring about 2 feet wide.

On the south wall of the kitchen is a paneled partition separating what was referred to as a “sick room”, which is now the bathroom. The four panels are constructed of pine and a matching wooden door, in a similar style. The paneled wall has four sets of hinges so the panels can be folded to open the room to the kitchen where a chimney still has a flue vent for a stove. The pine panels feature wooden pegs with mortise and tenon construction.

National Register of Historic Places (SG100007104)