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Freedom House
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18152 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
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11 / 1990 |
1,862 Words |
| Author
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Kate Tsubata
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In August 1776, a Scots-Irish minister and his young family broke ground on a house in what was then called the Marsh Creek settlement of Pennsylvania, soon to be renamed Gettysburg. Reverend Alexander Dobbin's home still stands, a monument to the American dream of liberty and justice for all. While serving as a family home and academy for local students, the manse guarded an important secret - its role as a way station on the Underground Railroad. Ingenious restoration by present owner Jacqueline Dick White has allowed the eighteenth-century structure to be preserved for posterity.
With its foot-thick stone walls and huge beams, the house was built for maximum containment of warmth in cold weather and coolness in the hot summer months. Under construction as the members of the Continental Congress were affixing their signatures to the Declaration of Independence, the mansion incorporated three naturally occurring springs into the crawl space under the house. The spring house doubled as a natural refrigerator and source of fresh, cold water for the family.
A wall-sized stone fireplace dominated the 1 1/2 story kitchen, which was tacked onto the main body of the house. When additional bedchambers were added above, a small spiral strair case was created to access them from the kitchen. Mounted into the wall of that staircase was a simple cupboard to hold the family crockery. These shelves slide back to reveal a ten-foot square room, barely two and a half feet high - a perfect hiding place for fugitive slaves.
Today, as a restaurant and museum, the Dobbin House refreshes travelers and local residents alike with food for the body and the mind. Clever utilization of modern construction techniques allowed the addition of a modern commercial kitchen to the rear of the historic main section of the house. The damp crawl space was deepened and the springs were routed into permanent cisterns to create a colonial-type tavern below the house.
The library, parlors, and even bedchambers have been recreated as dining areas, with the rooms' original functions implied with creative décor. Canopies and headboards symbolize large double beds, for instance, above the dining tables in the chambers. The kitchen and secret hide-away are set aside as museum areas with artifacts and restored architecture of the period.
Home And Academy
The manse was constructed of fieldstone and brick two and one-half stories high, with beams of thick timber framing the medium-pitched roof. Large rooms, each having a fireplace, doubled as living quarters for Dobbin's growing family and an academy for local students.
Like many ordained clerics of his day, Dobbin had a strong education in the classical languages and literature. He described the course of studies required for his students - among whom were his own children - as including "Latin Grammar… Aesop's Fables, Erasums … Ovid's Metamorphoses, Caesar's Commentaries, Virgil and the Greek Testament."
Academic learning was only one part of Dobbin's work, however. As pastor of two congregations in what was to become, under his guidance and in partnership with James Gettys, the town of Gettysburg, he devoted much
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