Big House, Little House, Backhouse Barn

John and his wife, Abigail Tuttle, both in their 60s, brought along sons Peter and James and their wives Eleanor and Elizabeth, who were themselves sisters. You heard that right. Two brothers from one family married two sisters from another. It must have been cozy in that house! And as nice as Abigail is said to have been, I bet it wasn’t easy for Eleanor and Elizabeth to be living that close to their mother-in-law! Peter Tuttle’s son, John Alvah, remembered the family home as “something in the manner of a communal house,” which is a polite way of saying no one ever had any privacy unless they were taking their turn in the outhouse.

To accommodate this sizable Tuttle brood, the family did what many New England farmers did around that same time—they pushed two houses together and connected them to two barns. As you can see, this barn is all that remains of the Tuttles’ original structures. We’ll tell you why at the next stop. This configuration was so common that it inspired a children’s verse a couple hundred years ago. It was one of those verses that girls sing about their future marriage prospects. Can’t you just hear their voices chanting?

Now that you know the pattern, I think you’ll find that the rural New England landscape—Maine especially—is still full of this same farmhouse-and-barn structure. When driving down the back country roads, take a look around and I guarantee you’ll see it everywhere.