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Root Cellars
In order to differentiate between root cellars and
Native stone temples, it is necessary to first understand the former.
Two good introductions to the factors which need to be considered in the
design and operation of root cellars are
HERE
and
HERE.
The factors influencing design of root cellars
include:
-
temperature: around 35°F is optimal for most
produce, depending on the crop
-
humidity: high humidity is required to prevent
desiccation
-
ventilation: ethylene gas will build up unless
vented
-
ease of entry: proximity to the house & a
standard size door (36"x84"
or
36"x81")
-
orientation/location: shading to prevent heating
is often provided by a north entrance or shade trees
-
floor layout: must accommodate produce bins or
shelves
The Root Cellar Capitol of the World
is the small community of Elliston, Newfoundland. Elliston is home to
133 extant root cellars (many more have been destroyed), built during a
period of a little over a century from 1839 until the 1950s. While
these root cellars may superficially resemble the Native American stone
chambers of New England, close examination reveals distinct
differences. One such difference is the treatment of the doors. The
Elliston cellars generally have rectangular entrances designed to frame
doors of standard width and below-average height. Native stone chambers
do not. Chamber entrances include examples which must be crawled into,
as well as doors which are far too wide (spanning the entire width of
the front wall) or high (up to 99 inches - 8.25 feet).
The Elliston root cellars apparently represent the
importation into North America of traditional root cellaring techniques
brought over by European immigrants (in this case from England).
Occasionally, other regional European styles of root or wine cellars are
encountered. Italians, for example, have traditionally constructed the
roof of their cellars with clay bricks configured into an arch, with or
without iron reinforcing bands. Italian immigrants to America brought
this style with them and their handiwork is sometimes encountered in
areas where they settled. The region around Greenwich, Connecticut has
several such examples, apparently created by Italian immigrants who
arrived in the latter part of the 19th Century.
Thanks to the thorough study of their root cellars by
Elliston residents, a great deal of information on these structures has
been compiled. Elliston boasts 133 extant documented root cellars among
their approximately 400 residents. The average dimensions:
These figures show an average square footage of the
floor space of 103 square feet. This contrasts with the floor space of
the New England chambers which ranges from around 350 down to 1 square
feet. A
diagram of a typical
Elliston root cellar shows a double set of doors, board roof (covered
with soil), longitudinal ventilation and mortared stone walls. Contrast
that with the New England stone chambers: stone slabs for the roof
(uniformly quarried without metal drills), drystone walls, no provision
for ventilation and entrances which are often difficult, if not
impossible to fit one door on to, let alone a double set. Setting aside
the small percentage of New England chambers partially or fully out of
the ground -precluding their use for food storage- or the
early references to Indian stone
house or forts by the early settlers, why would New England
builders of alleged root cellars have gone out of their way to make
their job much more difficult? New England buildings supposedly
contemporaneous with the stone chambers begin to exhibit drill marks on
their quarried stones c. 1750, and mortar was certainly common far back
into the 17th Century. A similar type of construction was
the mortuary houses often found in New England cemeteries. These were
built into the early part of the 20th Century, when
refrigeration made them obsolete. Constructed supposedly
contemporaneously with the stone chambers, their method of construction
is entirely different. They do exhibit the more reasonable construction
techniques in evidence in the Elliston root cellars. The lack of a
continuing tradition of root cellar construction in New England is also
problematic. Elliston (where electrification which led to refrigeration
probably lagged behind New England) continued to build many root cellars
into the middle of the 20th Century.
There is data on the construction dates for 121 of
the Elliston chambers (rounded to the nearest percent):
-
pre-1850: 4%
-
1850-1900: 58%
-
1900-1950: 36%
-
post-1950: 2%
Why is there no similar surge in construction of New
England external root cellars during this period? While there are
unquestionably a small number of such structures in New England which
date from the 19th and early 20th Centuries, this
is a question requiring an answer. The most likely answer is that
Colonial (and more recent) New England root cellars were almost always
in the cellar of the house.
Nor was this practice confined to New England, as this
Canadian report makes
clear.
One source notes that "Root cellars were a storage
place, usually under the house but could be dug out of a hillside, where
vegetables such as potatoes, onions, squash, carrots, cabbage and
turnips could be kept through the winter. Fruits and some vegetables
could be sliced, threaded on strings and then hung to dry."
Another source states that:
"Many
plants can be stored in a cool cellar for several months. 'Root cellars'
refer to basement storage places for root vegetable: potatoes, onions,
carrots, beets, and cabbage can all be stored for several months in a
cool cellar. Common storage is usually a northern climes activity. In
southern climes, higher water tables, humidity, and lack of suitable
basements make this activity difficult. Common storage techniques
include "barrel storage" where vegetable are put into a hay fill barrel
and then buried in a shallow trench, Bin storage, where a bin pierced by
holes keeps animals out of the food but allows cold to preserve them,
and garden storage, were cold hardy plants are mulched with hay and
allowed to stay in the garden until needed."
A brief review of early Midwestern food preservation
practices notes that:
"Cabbages put into a hole in the ground will keep well during the winter
....Many farmers keep potatoes in the same way. Squashes should never be
kept down cellar when it is possible to prevent it. Dampness injures
them."
Virginia- Archaeology at Jamestown has revealed that region's
food storage practices:
"In the workers' house, they found what's become a classic sign of
slave living. It's called a sub-floor pit - a kind of storage area
discovered in slave housing excavations all over Virginia. Inside this
one there were unmistakable signs of African occupants - beads of a type
and color favored by West Africans, and pipes made of local clay, but
with West African decorations. The planter's house also had a sub-floor
pit. The English custom was to construct root cellars this way, but
Africans had no such tradition. A century later, the slaves at Carter's
Grove were still building root cellars under their floors -- perhaps to
acquire some at least semi-private space to store food or valuables. . .
. some of these get very deep. We have root cellars that were actually
over three feet deep, some as large as nine feet square."
W. Virginia- Excavations revealed that: "Three of the five
cellars were about two meters (roughly 6 ft) long and covered the entire
backhoe trench width (60 cm or 3 ft). These small cellars fit the size
of typical. . . underground root cellars which were used to store food
products and were usually, but not always, under buildings..."
Deleware- Excavation of an 18th Century house
revealed: "The hall contained nine small root cellars clustered
around the fireplace, and the smaller parlor fireplace had two
brick-lined cellars near it."
Deleware- Another report of the excavation of 18th
Century houses: "Feature 28 was a small circular pit in the floor of
the cellar (see Figures 34 and 35). It was 21 inches in diameter and 17
inches deep. The bottom of the pit was lined with oyster shell. The
shell was presumably intended to provide drainage, suggesting that the
pit was a storage cellar for roots."
Virginia- Excavation report: "Nearly all of the major features
associated with the site consisted of sub-floor pits, or 'root cellars',
within the confines of the dwelling. The archaeological and historical
evidence indicated that the residence once housed members of the
enslaved community who worked as field hands on the Ludwell plantation
from c. 1740s to 1778."
Virginia- Excavations at a 17th Century plantation west of
Williamsburg produced the information that: "a large root cellar
located in front of the hearth. . . . Each cellar was
subdivided into three rooms—a large room used for storage, a smaller
dairy, and a landing for stairs connected to the first floor. The
cellars employed their own waterproofing/drainage system, with the
eastern cellar containing two small brick-lined, tile-floored coolers. .
. . two brick cellars associated with a large brick
kitchen/quarter and a series of root cellars located in front of the
hearth"
Michigan- Excavations confirm the practice of incorporating root
cellars into basement floors:
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