Southwest perspective view

Color photographic print showing southwest perspective view of the Mouns Jones House. Details include: horizontally sliding casement windows{1}; southeast corner chimney; north gable-end chimney; board-and-batten shutters; replaced roof; random-rubble masonry. {1}See record MJHPH40 regarding the form and materials [iron-framed leaded glass panes] to be incorporated in the re-fabricated windows. The major restorations accomplished and planned for the western eaves wall seen in this photo through 2019 include: (a) re-centering the doorway and re-setting cantilevered stone lintels above the structural door-frame; (b) re-establishment of the original fenestration array, with pairs of symmetrical window openings in the first and second stories, to be glazed with iron-framed leaded casement windows [and fixed "transoms" above the operating casements in the first story] and headed with pairs of cantilevered stone lintels; (c) closure of the small non-period window off the central vertical axis in the first story; and (d) re-placement of the original 1716 date-stone in the niche above the re-centered doorway. Records MJHPH1, …4, …7, …8, …9, and …13 include photos showing substantial remnants of the 19th century stucco "pargeting" covering all masonry walls of the house. The gray rendering patchwork remnants on the western range of the south gable wall in some photos and in the 1886 woodcut is probably a Portland-based cement material covering the repairs necessitated by a 19th century failure in the adjoining western and southern walls [meeting at the SW corner of the structure]. The gray-toned stonework expresses the variegated coloring and larger-sized stone units deployed in making the extensive repairs required by the near-catastrophic failure of the southwesterly intersection of the two collapsed wall segments. The residue of this exterior plaster-work had disappeared by the mid- 1970s. Note written on verso in blue pen reads: "Mouns Jones House 1979 Oldest House in Berks Co. PA. Douglassville, Pa" Laurence Ward, April, 2019