Can't stand the heat....

Can't stand the heat?  Move the kitchen out of the house.

This pre-Civil War kitchen house is part of the grounds at the Bentonville Civil War battlefield.  It was the kitchen house for the Harper family whose farm turned into the battlefield in 1865.  

Many homes of that period had kitchen outbuildings.  With large fireplaces to do the cooking, the danger of fire and the heat from the cooking made it best to keep the kitchen away from the house.  President Andrew Johnson was born in a kitchen house attic in Raleigh (here).  The heat must have been unbearable.

Good Old Days???

Who says the good old days were so good.  This is a typical kitchen building from a pre civil war southern farm.  The heat from the open fire was so intense, and the danger of lighting the whole place on fire was so real, that the kitchen was a separate building near the house.  This one was the first building constructed on the Oak View Farm.  The family lived in the building until the big house was built.  An indoor kitchen was added onto the main house in th 1940's.