Restoration Road (2021–…): Season 1, Episode 6 - Augustus Peck House - full transcript
A 1700s home in Connecticut that once belonged to Revolutionary War soldier Augustus Peck is carefully dismantled with help from Clint and turned into a stunning vacation retreat in Idaho.
About an hour
and a half north
of New York City is a town
of Middlebury, Connecticut.
This is the land of some
of the earliest settlements
of the fledgling
American colonies.
There's a house
back in these woods
that's been standing
for hundreds
of harsh New England winters.
With a story stitched
into the very fabric
of our nation's
pioneering spirit.
I've travelled here today
to meet Kevin Durkin
of Heritage Restorations
to find out just
what that story is.
I'm Clint Harp,
and I'm travelling America
to shed a light on some
incredible restorations
and transformations.
Get hands on
with some of the builders
bringing these amazing places
back to life,
and make sure
these new stories
live on for years to come.
Whoa.
Isn't she a beauty?
This is Restoration Road.
- Hey, hey.
- Hey, Clint.
We're going all over
this country.
Yeah, we are.
How in the world
do you find these projects?
Well,
they kinda find us a lot.
They find you, yeah.
What do you think?
I think it's amazing.
This was the house
of Augustus Peck.
This was his homestead.
He was a Revolutionary
War soldier.
- All right.
- So, think of this,
- he didn't join the militia.
- Mmm-hmm.
He joined
the Connecticut line
- of the regular army at 16.
- Okay.
But after the war,
he comes home and lives here.
This really is
like a time capsule
of what settling
was all about.
- Was a homestead like this.
- Sure.
It was about 1750.
Some women, some man
stepped out of that door
on the same day that
just down the road
in Pennsylvania,
they were signing
the Declaration
of Independence.
Peck was here during
the constitution
being written,
the early part of America.
This was their farm.
They grew a little bit
of everything.
They grew wheat,
they grew rye,
- they grew oats.
- Mmm-hmm.
And they grew vegetables,
I mean,
just what a family needed.
This is a cape cod
kind of house.
It sure is.
This is the real thing.
That's pretty incredible.
It's really an English design,
but, adapted
to the New England winter.
- Oh, right.
- There is a hand-hewn
- oak timber frame in here.
- Okay.
So, this is
a timber frame house?
Oh, yeah.
That, you can see
is the old part.
- That's the original?
- That's it.
And this is probably
about an 1820 edition.
What are you doing
with this house?
We want to take it out
west to Idaho.
- Okay.
- We wanna restore it to the...
Revolutionary War period.
Save this edition, too.
Probably, open it as a, uh,
bed and breakfast out there.
This is amazing.
The town of Middlebury,
they want to see this house
restored, correct?
They do and they've
tried for 11 years to do it.
But it needs so much work.
At one point, it was scheduled
to be burned down
by the fire department
- as an exercise.
- No, no.
We're really doing
the next best thing in there.
They love it
that it's going out
and it's gonna be
perfectly restored.
- Bringing it back to life?
- We are.
I wanna see
this thing first,
just in case there's anything
in there
that wants to jump out
and grab me.
Oh, man.
You got your work
cut out for you.
I thought
it was we?
All right.
Tell me about this house.
Well, we're in
what would be the parlor.
- All right.
- That's 1750.
Big changes happened
in America,
of how people live.
They started having
specialized rooms
like a parlor
and things like that,
which was
very different thinking.
You know, a whole family
is to sleep in one room.
- Right.
- Prior to that.
- That's a luxury?
- Oh, yeah.
- Correct?
- This was luxury living.
There is a massive,
almost eight feet
by eight feet stone fireplace
in the middle of the building.
- Okay.
- You're warming
this massive stone...
- So, all of that stone...
- ...giving off heat.
...is the radiant heat
from the...
- Yeah.
- Got you.
And that differentiated it
from the English precedent
that they came over with.
Which was?
Smaller
and gable end chimneys.
It was warmer over there.
This was moved
in this American house
to the center of the house.
This was the keeping room
right here,
which is what we'd call
a kitchen.
- Okay.
- So, over here would've been
a big hearth of a fireplace.
Where is it?
They abandoned this
and I believe
they covered it up.
I don't think
it was this small.
I think that that fireplace
we might find and there
is granite.
This brick is not original.
All these fireplaces
we're looking at
are Rumford fireplaces.
Count Rumford was born
in Massachusetts.
He was a physicist
on heat transfer.
Fireplaces
are very inefficient.
And by the 1800's,
everyone is changing
their fireplaces
to be much shallower.
I think that's what
they did here.
Okay. There must be
some really cool things
hidden from us
right now behind that wall.
Like this little fun...
Whatever is going on here...
Oh, okay.
- Oh, my, wait a second.
- Look at that.
That gives it away,
doesn't it?
And then, this is actually
the master bedroom
through here.
Oh, the fireplace
again, boom, boom...
One, two, three.
There's three sides to it.
And upstairs.
Look at this.
Hey.
Now that's angled.
It is.
Purely English.
Okay.
So this is called a...
Gunstock post.
A gunstock post.
And that's because
of this angle
- like the stock...
- A stock of a gun.
Why would you
have done that? Is it...
Is it ornamental?
Is it... Is it just...
Don't ask me that.
I don't know the answer.
- Oh!
- You can't ask me something
I don't know the answer to,
come on?
That's okay.
You don't know.
Well, I got it.
I just thought of it.
- We stumped Kevin.
- I got... I got it now.
No, I've got... I got it.
I got it. I got it.
- Oh, now I know.
- Let me have you hear this.
- Okay. Why?
- Okay.
Why did they...
Why did they do this?
Trees taper.
Oh, that, no.
That's it. Come on.
Makes a complete sense.
It's upside down.
This is the head of the tree,
uh, you know,
this is toward the stump here.
They tapered,
and they're just shaping it
just like the tree
coming down.
Oh, okay. Yeah.
Kevin you are officially...
You got it?
...making it up at this point.
Show me the basement.
I'm not into scary movies,
Kevin.
But if I were,
I would start here.
Now, we're in the 1800's
part of the house here.
But look at this.
There's a 12 pane
window right there.
That looks like
an original from upstairs.
They must've replaced
the windows up there
when they built this
and just use them down
in the cellar.
So, we're gonna recreate
these windows
and we'll put it all back
in the original
part of the house.
But I'm gonna show you
something back here
that's incredible.
- This door.
- Yeah.
Look at the width on that.
Yeah,
look at the width on that.
This is a 1700s door.
Look at the bead in it
and look at the handle.
All hand forged,
rosehead nails,
- thumb latch, 1700s.
- Wow.
But it's in the 1800s
edition to the house.
And that is a revolutionary
war period.
- For sure.
- Yeah.
Even the other side,
the horizontal part.
Well, that's how they did it,
with the horizontal.
They did vertical one side,
horizontal the other side.
Oh, so that's a...
Wait a second. Hold on.
- Look at these guys.
- Look at those hinges.
Whoa, baby.
- Yup.
- Okay.
There's an upstairs.
There is.
Let's head up there.
So here we are, upstairs.
So, we have
a fireplace up here.
This is still connected
to the one downstairs.
So, again, fireplace
is the center of the house.
It just continued
all the way up
even into the upstairs. Yeah.
Right through the roof.
That tells a story
right there.
Oh, right.
Brick.
This is the original chimney?
Yes.
So, this is the fourth
fireplace
on this chimney stack.
This is the original brick.
That's original brick.
- Look how small they are.
- They're tiny.
Originally,
there would have been brick
- coming up for the chimney.
- Yes.
And that's all been covered
over now, kinda typical,
but we're gonna
bring it up again.
So, we're gonna need
more brick
to match that size
coming through the roof.
I'm gonna tell you right now,
I'm done listening to you,
but, uh...
- All right.
- Let's have it.
I kinda wanna see
what's back here.
I'm getting excited.
20th century,
yeah, insulation.
Oh, there's the hand-hewn beam
right there.
There it is.
Look at the brick
going all the way up here.
The more we start
to see that, the more
I want to just strip
all the stuff away
and get deep into it.
and a half north
of New York City is a town
of Middlebury, Connecticut.
This is the land of some
of the earliest settlements
of the fledgling
American colonies.
There's a house
back in these woods
that's been standing
for hundreds
of harsh New England winters.
With a story stitched
into the very fabric
of our nation's
pioneering spirit.
I've travelled here today
to meet Kevin Durkin
of Heritage Restorations
to find out just
what that story is.
I'm Clint Harp,
and I'm travelling America
to shed a light on some
incredible restorations
and transformations.
Get hands on
with some of the builders
bringing these amazing places
back to life,
and make sure
these new stories
live on for years to come.
Whoa.
Isn't she a beauty?
This is Restoration Road.
- Hey, hey.
- Hey, Clint.
We're going all over
this country.
Yeah, we are.
How in the world
do you find these projects?
Well,
they kinda find us a lot.
They find you, yeah.
What do you think?
I think it's amazing.
This was the house
of Augustus Peck.
This was his homestead.
He was a Revolutionary
War soldier.
- All right.
- So, think of this,
- he didn't join the militia.
- Mmm-hmm.
He joined
the Connecticut line
- of the regular army at 16.
- Okay.
But after the war,
he comes home and lives here.
This really is
like a time capsule
of what settling
was all about.
- Was a homestead like this.
- Sure.
It was about 1750.
Some women, some man
stepped out of that door
on the same day that
just down the road
in Pennsylvania,
they were signing
the Declaration
of Independence.
Peck was here during
the constitution
being written,
the early part of America.
This was their farm.
They grew a little bit
of everything.
They grew wheat,
they grew rye,
- they grew oats.
- Mmm-hmm.
And they grew vegetables,
I mean,
just what a family needed.
This is a cape cod
kind of house.
It sure is.
This is the real thing.
That's pretty incredible.
It's really an English design,
but, adapted
to the New England winter.
- Oh, right.
- There is a hand-hewn
- oak timber frame in here.
- Okay.
So, this is
a timber frame house?
Oh, yeah.
That, you can see
is the old part.
- That's the original?
- That's it.
And this is probably
about an 1820 edition.
What are you doing
with this house?
We want to take it out
west to Idaho.
- Okay.
- We wanna restore it to the...
Revolutionary War period.
Save this edition, too.
Probably, open it as a, uh,
bed and breakfast out there.
This is amazing.
The town of Middlebury,
they want to see this house
restored, correct?
They do and they've
tried for 11 years to do it.
But it needs so much work.
At one point, it was scheduled
to be burned down
by the fire department
- as an exercise.
- No, no.
We're really doing
the next best thing in there.
They love it
that it's going out
and it's gonna be
perfectly restored.
- Bringing it back to life?
- We are.
I wanna see
this thing first,
just in case there's anything
in there
that wants to jump out
and grab me.
Oh, man.
You got your work
cut out for you.
I thought
it was we?
All right.
Tell me about this house.
Well, we're in
what would be the parlor.
- All right.
- That's 1750.
Big changes happened
in America,
of how people live.
They started having
specialized rooms
like a parlor
and things like that,
which was
very different thinking.
You know, a whole family
is to sleep in one room.
- Right.
- Prior to that.
- That's a luxury?
- Oh, yeah.
- Correct?
- This was luxury living.
There is a massive,
almost eight feet
by eight feet stone fireplace
in the middle of the building.
- Okay.
- You're warming
this massive stone...
- So, all of that stone...
- ...giving off heat.
...is the radiant heat
from the...
- Yeah.
- Got you.
And that differentiated it
from the English precedent
that they came over with.
Which was?
Smaller
and gable end chimneys.
It was warmer over there.
This was moved
in this American house
to the center of the house.
This was the keeping room
right here,
which is what we'd call
a kitchen.
- Okay.
- So, over here would've been
a big hearth of a fireplace.
Where is it?
They abandoned this
and I believe
they covered it up.
I don't think
it was this small.
I think that that fireplace
we might find and there
is granite.
This brick is not original.
All these fireplaces
we're looking at
are Rumford fireplaces.
Count Rumford was born
in Massachusetts.
He was a physicist
on heat transfer.
Fireplaces
are very inefficient.
And by the 1800's,
everyone is changing
their fireplaces
to be much shallower.
I think that's what
they did here.
Okay. There must be
some really cool things
hidden from us
right now behind that wall.
Like this little fun...
Whatever is going on here...
Oh, okay.
- Oh, my, wait a second.
- Look at that.
That gives it away,
doesn't it?
And then, this is actually
the master bedroom
through here.
Oh, the fireplace
again, boom, boom...
One, two, three.
There's three sides to it.
And upstairs.
Look at this.
Hey.
Now that's angled.
It is.
Purely English.
Okay.
So this is called a...
Gunstock post.
A gunstock post.
And that's because
of this angle
- like the stock...
- A stock of a gun.
Why would you
have done that? Is it...
Is it ornamental?
Is it... Is it just...
Don't ask me that.
I don't know the answer.
- Oh!
- You can't ask me something
I don't know the answer to,
come on?
That's okay.
You don't know.
Well, I got it.
I just thought of it.
- We stumped Kevin.
- I got... I got it now.
No, I've got... I got it.
I got it. I got it.
- Oh, now I know.
- Let me have you hear this.
- Okay. Why?
- Okay.
Why did they...
Why did they do this?
Trees taper.
Oh, that, no.
That's it. Come on.
Makes a complete sense.
It's upside down.
This is the head of the tree,
uh, you know,
this is toward the stump here.
They tapered,
and they're just shaping it
just like the tree
coming down.
Oh, okay. Yeah.
Kevin you are officially...
You got it?
...making it up at this point.
Show me the basement.
I'm not into scary movies,
Kevin.
But if I were,
I would start here.
Now, we're in the 1800's
part of the house here.
But look at this.
There's a 12 pane
window right there.
That looks like
an original from upstairs.
They must've replaced
the windows up there
when they built this
and just use them down
in the cellar.
So, we're gonna recreate
these windows
and we'll put it all back
in the original
part of the house.
But I'm gonna show you
something back here
that's incredible.
- This door.
- Yeah.
Look at the width on that.
Yeah,
look at the width on that.
This is a 1700s door.
Look at the bead in it
and look at the handle.
All hand forged,
rosehead nails,
- thumb latch, 1700s.
- Wow.
But it's in the 1800s
edition to the house.
And that is a revolutionary
war period.
- For sure.
- Yeah.
Even the other side,
the horizontal part.
Well, that's how they did it,
with the horizontal.
They did vertical one side,
horizontal the other side.
Oh, so that's a...
Wait a second. Hold on.
- Look at these guys.
- Look at those hinges.
Whoa, baby.
- Yup.
- Okay.
There's an upstairs.
There is.
Let's head up there.
So here we are, upstairs.
So, we have
a fireplace up here.
This is still connected
to the one downstairs.
So, again, fireplace
is the center of the house.
It just continued
all the way up
even into the upstairs. Yeah.
Right through the roof.
That tells a story
right there.
Oh, right.
Brick.
This is the original chimney?
Yes.
So, this is the fourth
fireplace
on this chimney stack.
This is the original brick.
That's original brick.
- Look how small they are.
- They're tiny.
Originally,
there would have been brick
- coming up for the chimney.
- Yes.
And that's all been covered
over now, kinda typical,
but we're gonna
bring it up again.
So, we're gonna need
more brick
to match that size
coming through the roof.
I'm gonna tell you right now,
I'm done listening to you,
but, uh...
- All right.
- Let's have it.
I kinda wanna see
what's back here.
I'm getting excited.
20th century,
yeah, insulation.
Oh, there's the hand-hewn beam
right there.
There it is.
Look at the brick
going all the way up here.
The more we start
to see that, the more
I want to just strip
all the stuff away
and get deep into it.