Tour gives ‘modern’ side of Woodburn mansion

John Staed, Independent Mail

A July 10 tour at Woodburn Historical House in Pendleton will highlight pre-Civil War technology for heating, cooling and water collection.

PENDLETON — When you think of pre-Civil War life, the idea of air conditioning, bug spray and modern plumbing doesn’t come to mind.

But a new tour at Woodburn Historical House will offer some surprising details about how plantation farms used advanced ideas to offer those types of amenities.

The tour on technology before the Civil War highlights 1830s technology for ventilation, heating and cooling, water collection, lightning dispersal, insect damage prevention and more. The event is scheduled for 10 to 11 a.m. July 10 at the house, off U.S. 76 in Pendleton. The cost is $3 per adult.

Included in the tour is a short hike to the house’s cistern, so visitors should wear comfortable shoes or hiking boots, according to a statement.

“When we look back in time, many of us think that plantations used rudimentary tools, and fail to realize how efficient farm and plantation life really was,” said Christa Skeen, executive director of the Pendleton Historic Foundation, in a statement. “In fact, many of the techniques used in pre-Civil War plantations can be, and in many cases, are still used today.”

Ellen Harrison, director of education for the Pendleton Historic Foundation, which operates Woodburn, said an example of early technology was the design of the fireplaces.

“For heating today, we use box fireplaces and most of the heat goes up the chimney,” she said. “But they used a Rumford, which is designed to push the heat out into the room rather than go up into the chimney. Also, they were designed to streamline smoke so it doesn’t come out into the room. They were very shallow-draft fireplaces.”

Another successful technology was building walls by “stacking logs on top of rocks instead of putting a solid foundation underneath or even mortaring in the rock,” she said. That aided in ventilation and would keep termites from being able to get to the wood, she said.

The tour is part of the Pendleton Historic Foundation’s mission to share the South’s history with future generations, according to a statement.

The technology tour will be followed by a tour of the Woodburn house, at a cost of $4. For those who wish to tour the house and not take the technology tour, the cost is $6, and the tour starts at 11 a.m.

Woodburn is normally open from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. A second antebellum home operated by the foundation, Ashtabula, is open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.

Call 864-646-7249 for more information on Mondays through Wednesdays, or leave a message.

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