#4 - The Hunt Begins

Now, where to start? I wanted to learn more about the Ryves Holt House, learn if it was as old as they said - 1665 seems so very early. I also wanted to see if there would be anything I could contribute to the historical discourse on the building, the town of Lewes, or colonial history/architecture. I am an academically trained historian and architectural historian, but my fields of focus, while varied, never really covered Colonial America. I’ve worked on Ancient Greek and Rome, Native America (especially the Great Plains and Southwest), and Imperial China… I focused on architecture in these areas, but none of that was strictly applicable to a 350 year old house in Delaware. 

Except. Except the Ryves Holt House was made of wood and was renovated in several phases over its lifetime. Boiled down, that's my Master’s thesis. I wrote on the Forbidden City in Beijing and how its use of wood and reconstruction phases affect our understanding of the complex as well as the impact such building technologies and philosophies have on modern architectural preservation. Boiled down, that’s a different project from graduate school - I researched and wrote a paper on Ancient Pueblo architecture, how the Pueblos were constructed and changed over time. I used dendrochronology (using tree rings to tell how old a piece of wood in a building is, and thus figuring out the age of a building) to date different construction phases in several Pueblos. Boiled down, that was a lot of my undergraduate work, too although I hadn’t yet jumped to wood. I looked at Greek and Roman temples and how they changed over time. I traced sources of marble and shifts in decorative styles to look for construction patterns. 

There was my in - I know a lot about strategies to use when trying to understand how a building changes. When you can do that, you can start to figure out its history and how it may have looked at any given moment in its past. So, I knew I could use those strategies and research skills to deconstruct the building history of the Ryves Holt House. But I also knew I had a lot of ground to cover in learning the history of Colonial Delaware. I was going to have to look at the history of New Netherland, York Colony, Maryland Colony, the indigenous presence in the area, and construction techniques for all of those groups.

However, before I started to sink into that pool of knowledge, who am I kidding - that vast ocean of knowledge, I had to start somewhere.

The best place to start with these things is like any other question - good old Google. I first needed to see if anyone else had asked the same questions - how old is the Ryves Holt House, what was its history? This led me to a few obvious sites - Wikipedia, The National Park Service, and The Society of Architectural Historians’ Archipedia project. As well as a whole bunch of tourist sites like Tripadvisor. During this first pass at easily accessible sources, its important to note who writes them and how likely their information is accurate. Keep an eye out for things that may not be true or could be an opinion not a fact.

According to Wikipedia and NPS - the Ryves Holt House is indeed from 1665, it was built by Dutch settlers, on the site of a 1630s destroyed colony called Zwaanendael, it survived the Lord Baltimore Raids, and was home to one of the earliest inns in the region (somehow related to William Penn). They also say that the house was named for Ryves Holt, the first chief Justice of Sussex County, because he lived there from 1723 until his death in 1763

Now, before I get to Archipedia, I want to work through this so you can see how I started to realize the Ryes Holt House could be an interesting and important topic. First warning is ‘Zwaanendael,’ a failed colony story sounds like something a Victorian or early 20th century person would make up to give their small town a ‘authentic, triumphant’ air - our noble (white) ancestors founded this town despite being massacred by the primitive natives. ...Maybe there actually was a failed colony, maybe they were massacred, but I absolutely doubt it was called Zwaanendal. That’s definitely a made up word that sounds Dutch-y. Next, the reference to William Penn. This could be important because he is obviously famous, which means a lot has been written on him and there are tons of primary sources. Penn’s papers could be an avenue to finding more information on the RHH. And finally, the Lord Baltimore Raids - what is that?! That sounds intense! I knew this would be something that could help me date the building. If the RHH survived these raids, there should be a record of that somewhere. And finally, to know that the house is named for someone who lived there over 50 years after it was built could be a hint to its age - was the house built for him? Or was he just the first famous person to live there? Of course, remember that Wikipedia is open source - it's not necessarily factual. But it is definitely a decent starting place. The below photo is from the inside of the original part of the building, the part Ryves Holt would have lived in.

Next up, Archipedia. Archipedia is a sort of reviewed Wikipedia that focuses only on Architecture; because of this (and the fact I helped research for Oregon state), I know the information here should be a good distillation of available research on the house. It claims that calling the RHH the ‘oldest’ house is debated, that it is unlikely to predate 1685 and may be even as late as 1710. It disagrees with the 1980s dendrochronology study, because the architectural style surely belongs to a later date, even though the article later says the construction is of the Dutch style. It goes on to describe the original building as being a 1.5 storey structure with lean-toin the rear, a corner fireplace (removed by 1800) at the left of the front room and the front door at right. The article agrees that Ryves Holt lived in the house in 1723 until his death. It also mentions there are few comparable buildings in DE, VA, and the surrounding area.

Now I start to get the feeling that there may only be a few academic sources to find, which could mean I have found a question without an answer. I needed to get my hands on that dendrochronology report. Archipedia seems to assume that because there are few buildings of similar age made of wood, that it is very unlikely to be as early as Wikipedia and NPS believe. That could be true, but where did that 1665 date come from? It is common in 19th and early 20th century historical research to give buildings earlier dates than they truly have, but that doesn't mean they aren’t right. It was also good to see a theory on the early form of the building, that would give me a jumping off point for visualizing construction phases. Especially considering the mention of moving the fireplace and front door. The below photo shows painted details on the original door frame, which is indeed to the right.

After finding these three sites, I can start to form research questions and strategies. I needed to track down the dendrochronology report and other sources mentioned - the Delaware: A Guide to the First State from Wikipedia, and further writings by W. Barksdale Maynard, the author of the Archipedia page. I also knew I would need to research this Zwaanendael colony and the Lord Baltimore Raids. But first would be a hunt for academic books and articles about the RHH… if there were any, that is.

*both photos are my own, taken in July 2019