Stencil House

Built around a large central fireplace that opened on multiple sides to maximize warmth, Capen houses, like their medieval English counterparts, typically possessed three or four rooms on the ground floor: a parlor, a “hall,” a kitchen, and sometimes a foyer.

The stairwell, not yet considered a focal point of design, remained a discreet and functional element of the house's plan.

While American colonists maintained the basic floor plan of the European houses, the ready and cheap supply of timber allowed them to use clapboard siding and shingled roofs rather than the mud and thatch common in Britain.

Before moving the house to the museum, workers removed several layers of peeling paper, revealing the scope of the painted decoration beneath.

These papers frequently represented scenic landscapes and possessed bright colors and bold patterning that could stand out even in weak candlelight.

In the early nineteenth century, itinerant artists would stencil walls in exchange for room and board.