Well, You’ve All Been Pleasant, I Guess.

I haven’t gotten death threats from any pacifists over yesterday’s remarks — I think they mostly sleep in — so I guess I have to pony up the pictures of the Wellfleet Oysterman’s House described in Henry David Thoreau’s Cape Cod.

 

That’s called a “full cape.” It has five bays. A bay is nomenclature for the portion of the facade allocated for each door or window. A “half cape” would have two windows and a door beside them. A “three-quarter cape” would have two windows, a door, and then another window on the other side of the door. It’s a full cape with ell, as there’s an addition sticking straight out the back, too.

Not a lot of the interior was original, even when these pictures were taken as part of the vestigal tail of the depression-era Historic American Building Survey. The house had been purchased shortly before then by a somewhat notable person, Joseph Jay Deiss. I assume it’s still there but can’t find any current pictures of it on the intertunnel.

The house itself is interesting, especially to a person as consumed with anachronism as I am, so tomorrow maybe I’ll point out ten things about this house that more or less will disappear in our lifetimes. The ghost of the Wellfleet Oysterman will rattle around in there forever.