DeTurk House cellar summer beam

Summer beam in DeTurk cellar kitchen, channeled and restored to structural use between cellar cross-wall partition from root cellar and fireplace lintel, with re-purposed white oak timber inserted into core of original beam after termite-tunneled wood had been chiseled out. See archive record DTR09PH136 for detailed narrative and numerous photos of the 2009 restoration of this relatively short ‘summer{n} beam’ ”. {n} “summer” is probably derived from the French “sommier” (beast of burden) or sumer or somer, to bear a burden, in this instance the floor and “live” loads supported by the joists bearing on the summer. A “summer-tree” is defined by Richard Neve, self-described English ‘Philomath’, in his 1726 Builder’s Dictionary as “A Beam full of mortises for the ends of Joists to lie in.” In this DeTurk summer beam, floor joists under the living space do bear on the beam but do not “lie in” mortises. Larry Ward