Dining Room, Kitchen & Laundry

A breezeway attaches the Number One House to this structure. Guests enter through the Dining Room, where residents of the house ate. The next room is the Kitchen, where the cooking was done. The room at the back of the structure is the Laundry. This complex was completed in 1835 as part of the Number One House construction. The building comes from the European style of living where the detached cooking area protected the home from fire, heat, and cooking-related smells. Female residents of the Number One House would have been responsible for preparing meals and cleaning the buildings in the complex. Depending on the time of year, the Dining Room would have 37 guests at five different mealtimes: breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. The Laundry was added to the Dining Room and Kitchen structure around 1860. This Laundry likely only serviced the residents of Number One House.