PRESERVATION PROJECTS
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The Front Entryway
Pictures of the restoration of the front entryway

The Kitchen
The Decatur House kitchen, as original to the 1818 design by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, is an unusual example of an urban cooking space of the early 19th century. At first glance, its uniqueness lies in its location at the front of the first floor of the house. Although this seems a conspicuous place for a kitchen, with its less than beautiful functions and smells, its placement instead comprised a central component of Latrobe’s plan for a “rational” house. Guests to the home in the early 19th century would have been greeted by the reserved and balanced appearance of the front facades. However, instead of encountering the center hall interior plan typical of Georgian and Federal homes, visitors would instead experience the illusion of a side hall townhouse with no doorway to the north room from the entry vestibule. This was consistent with other Latrobe designs where he incorporated the service functions of the house into the main body of the structure, while cleverly separating the spaces so that service functions could continue without intruding into the rest of the house. Thus there was no hint that behind the solid wall of the elegant front hallway lay an efficient kitchen in which servants and enslaved individuals “invisibly” prepared meals for Susan and Stephen Decatur and sometimes for hundreds of their guests. In this capacity, the history of the kitchen presents a unique opportunity not only to explore the genius of Latrobe, but also to illuminate the important individuals who lived and worked in the space.

Amazingly, the original use of this space as a kitchen remained unrealized to Decatur House until 1998, when documentary and structural research completed by architectural historians revealed its existence. Detailed investigations completed over a three-year period included the collection of cooking grease from wall surfaces and the examination of architectural details such as smoke-stained walls, floor joist construction, original holes and grooves left by built-in cabinetry and shelving, and paint layers. Taken together, this evidence allowed the museum to accurately piece together the original appearance of the room, down to the very colors of its walls.

Restoration and reconstruction of the kitchen took place in 2004, but did not encompass the entire space. In order to tell the kitchen’s compelling story of discovery, Decatur House left one-third of the room completely unfinished. This combination of unfinished and reconstructed areas provides a unique and memorable experience for visitors by replicating a 19th century kitchen while simultaneously illustrating the process of investigation. In addition to focusing on this story of preservation, the room also tells the story of the persons who worked there, and who made the entire house run – the servant and enslaved members of the household.