TOUR INDEX ENTRANCE HALL NORTH OR MORRIS PARLOR HOUSEKEEPER’S CHAMBER SOUTH OR DEGN PARLOR DEGN DINING ROOM SECOND FLOOR HALL DEGN-ERA BEDROOM MORRIS MASTER BEDCHAMBER CHANGING EXHIBIT SPACE ATTIC CELLAR PASSAGE MEAT CELLAR DAIRY CELLAR SCULLERY ROOT CELLAR KITCHEN WING OUTBUILDINGS AT HOPE LODGE WHAT USED TO BE Clickable Map

HOUSEKEEPER'S CHAMBER

This room's connection with the parlor allows the person in the chamber to serve the parlor. The housekeeper could easily tend to guests' needs and to the fireplace in the parlor. This room's finish shows its original colors — yellow ochre with a red ochre-burnt sienna glaze. The baseboards are black; the window sashes are the unglazed yellow ochre color. In the 18th century housekeepers were charged with managing the household along with its accounts, its supplies, and its staff; making and repairing household linens and some clothing, caring for the sick, supervising housecleaning, and sometimes cooking and serving meals.

Because Samuel Morris was not married, he probably entrusted a great deal of responsibility for his household in the hands of his housekeeper. Morris' inventory lists both wool and flax spinning equipment, as well as loose wool and flax. This spinning equipment might have been found in this room.

According to Samuel Morris' account book, he seems to have had a number of women helping him with domestic tasks, including Susanna Ramsey, Hannah Sinn, Isabella Deacon, Dorothy Griggs, Ann Waln (cousin of Samuel Morris), Elizabeth Collister, wife of Samuel Gaskey, Mary Rush, and Susanna Jones.

The small fireplace in this room was not used for cooking, but it could have been used to keep things warm. The passage to get back to the entrance hall from the housekeeper's chamber has a pegboard, original to the time of the house's construction. This little passage also contains the doorway to the cellars.

TOUR INDEX ENTRANCE HALL NORTH OR MORRIS PARLOR HOUSEKEEPER’S CHAMBER SOUTH OR DEGN PARLOR DEGN DINING ROOM SECOND FLOOR HALL DEGN-ERA BEDROOM MORRIS MASTER BEDCHAMBER CHANGING EXHIBIT SPACE ATTIC CELLAR PASSAGE MEAT CELLAR DAIRY CELLAR SCULLERY ROOT CELLAR KITCHEN WING OUTBUILDINGS AT HOPE LODGE WHAT USED TO BE Clickable Map