Past meets present at family farmhouse
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BY LINDA ULRICH / For the Lincoln Journal Star
Older farmhouses in various states of repair, disrepair, renovation and splendor frame the Nebraska countryside.
Their numbers are fewer than they once were, and the presence — or demise — of a farmhouse can create strong emotions in the people who lived in them, particularly if it is part of the homeplace that has been in the family for generations.
People who grow up in towns or cities don’t love their family homes any less. The difference perhaps is that, for the most part, urban homes are less likely to become weathered ghosts of the homes they once were. And for some people, white farmhouses and red barns have come to symbolize the kind of rural life that is no more.
Nebraska farmhouse architecture is as varied as the culture of the immigrants who built them.
Czech farmhouses are different than German farmhouses, which are different than the ones built by Swedish or English Americans, said David Murphy, research architect at the Nebraska State Historical Society.
From about 1854 to 1900, immigrant farmhouse building materials and styles were reflective of the farmers’ original culture. The houses were constructed with native building materials or other materials familiar to the immigrants. In Southeast Nebraska, that included log and timber frame houses and homes made with stone.
“There wasn’t an American style of farmhouse until the late 1800s, and even then farmhouses were often a hybrid of old and new ideas,” Murphy said.
American farmhouse styles developed with a new American way of building known as wood stud or balloon framing. It appeared in the middle of the 19th century and by 1900 was dominant. Balloon frame farmhouses were built with studs that were single pieces of wood extending from the basement to the roof. Many of the humble early homes were torn down when farmers became more prosperous and could afford nicer living quarters built with wood studs.
In the 20th century, balloon framing was replaced with platform frames in which the second floor is stacked on top of the first floor, which is the construction method still used today, Murphy said.
Many early immigrant homes had only one door that opened directly into the kitchen. Early American-style homes usually had at least two doors. The more formal front door, sometimes described as the door the preacher used when he came to visit, opened to a vestibule or parlor, while the back door off the kitchen was the door the family used daily. Mud porches are the “vestibules” of farmhouse back doors, he said.
Around 1900, housing styles began to change ” and to have more uniformity ” when pattern books at lumberyards and house kits sold by Sears and Montgomery Ward and others grew in popularity. One of the most significant changes was an increase in size and the inclusion of separate bedrooms for the children.
But agriculture has changed dramatically, and fewer farmers and smaller families mean fewer people can live in and maintain farmhouses and other farm buildings, which can make preservation difficult.
The only practical way to preserve something is to continue to use it,” Murphy said.
Farmhouse and farm building preservation makes sense only when it is practical and economically feasible to do so, and emotions can make it even more difficult, he said.
Sometimes family members are so attached to a farmhouse that they don’t want someone outside the family to live in it. The paradox is that the desire to hang onto the home may hasten its decline until preservation is no longer feasible.
“Water is the biggest enemy of houses,” Murphy said. “Once water gets inside a home, it deteriorates very quickly.”
Barns are even more difficult to preserve. Even if a farmhouse is sold as part of an acreage, there’s not much demand for old-fashioned barns, and even less for old machine sheds, smokehouses, corncribs and chicken coops.
“You can live in those farmhouses, but barns are quite different. How many people can afford to maintain a barn that they can’t use? You have to have continued economic and functional value to preserve them,” Murphy said.
“Sometimes when I drive around Nebraska, I get the sense that in the future we’re not going to see any barns at all.”
Rustic style comes to new construction
In what some would consider a bit of architectural irony, there is growing interest in building “new” farmhouses.
An example of new farmhouse construction is Midwest Living magazine’s 2007 Idea Home in Indianapolis, which reflects “a traditional farmhouse exterior with a smart and efficient interior.”
“It will be a salute on Midwest Living’s 20th anniversary to the rich heritage of the heartland,” said Carol Schalla, Midwest Living senior home editor.
Schalla is not the only one enthusiastic about the revival of this American classic.
“I’m happy to say that the farmhouse, after years of decline, is making a comeback. Even though fewer people now farm to make a living, the style endures because we have come to see it as a classic symbol of home ” an unforgettable feature of the American landscape,” says Jean Rehkamp Larson in her book, “The Farmhouse ” New Inspiration for the Classic American home,” published by Taunton Press.
“In practical terms, the simple, hearty form of the style is highly adaptable. A farmhouse can easily be expanded because the basic shapes make it easy to add porches, sheds and wings,” Larson says.
Her book gives examples of both rethinking older houses and starting from scratch.
The two approaches are often indistinguishable, she says. “The homes have in common a solidarity and a measure of grace that identifies them as heirs to the farmhouse tradition.”
” Linda Ulrich
While they can’t bring back the early days of farming, some people have a strong need to preserve the buildings.
Mel and Nancy Luetchens are among those preserving a family farmhouse.
The two-story brick house east of Murdock, which has been in Mel’s family for 80 years, had been rented out since his mother’s death in 1994. The Luetchens married in 2002 and began renovating the house the year before. Nancy was the one who originally suggested they work on the house and make it their home. She focused on lighting, paint colors and furnishings while Mel turned his attention to the many other aspects of renovation.
Like many old-house renovators, the Luetchenses have strived for a balance between modernization and restoration.
The house was built in 1892 by East European immigrants whose last name was Glaubitz, and Mel Luetchens’ grandparents bought the farm for his father from the original owners in 1926.
There are five brick farmhouses within five miles of each other — Luetchens’ is the simplest.
“It’s plain but it’s majestic,” he said.
The home is constructed of three layers of brick on the first floor and two layers on the second with no wood framing support. The 1,800 square-foot home originally had four rooms on the main floor and four upstairs. Every room has a chimney. High ceilings and 28 tall, narrow windows give the house an open, airy feeling, something his mother loved.
His parents, who were of German descent, were proud of their home and tried to maintain it, but they were more interested in practicality than aesthetics. They used the living room as their bedroom, and some rooms were blocked off to decrease heating costs. One of the upstairs rooms used to be a storage room in which his father kept seed corn.
A living room wall covered the staircase. Removing the wall has made the staircase one of the nicest features of the house.
The doors of the built-in china cupboard between the kitchen and dining room had been covered with wood on the kitchen side. The wood has been replaced with glass so the shelves that held his mother’s “good dishes” are visible from both rooms.
The dining room floor, which had been covered for 55 years, is wide-planked red maple. The soft pine floor in the upstairs hallway had been painted. Both refinished nicely.
The couple had plumbing installed on the second floor. A large master suite with a walk-in closet and large bathroom with a whirlpool tub was created upstairs. A guest bathroom and a second-floor laundry room also were added.
The renovation continues. Luetchens’ parents “modernized” the kitchen in the 1950s, and because of the war had to wait to get a metal sink. New kitchen cupboards, a dishwasher and, undoubtedly, a new sink are in the plans.
Another project in the works is the porches. Luetchens has a photograph of the original owners in front of the house and wants to rebuild the first- and second-floor porches on both the front and back of the house to resemble the original ones.
One of his parents’ additions to the home will remain. They had added an attached garage that is entered from the basement on one side of the house.
Luetchens initially wanted to remove it. “It’s kind of ugly and interrupts the architecture, but after one winter out here, I decided to keep the garage,” he said, smiling.
Many of the farm buildings are no longer standing, but the small brick smokehouse in which Luetchens’ parents kept fires going for weeks to make dried beef and sausage is being preserved.
An important part of living in a farmhouse is, of course, the rural setting, and that doesn’t appeal to everyone.
When you return to the farmhouse you grew up in, are you moving forward or backward? That was a question Luetchens pondered before moving back.
What he found is that moving back to his childhood home has been a huge step forward in his appreciation of his parents and rural life.
“The things that I thought would be negatives have become positives,” he said. “I had become so urbanized that I wondered if I would feel isolated. But rather than feel isolated, I look forward to the renewal of the isolation.
“When you’re living in the country, you’re involved with nature all the time, and I enjoy watching the crops grow. It’s peaceful here.”
He even installed a switch on the yard light so he can turn it off at night for a while to better see the stars.
Most significant, he said, has been a reconnection with his parents and their values.
“I feel like I’ve gotten more in touch with my parents and what was important to them. It has been a good reminder of how the past, present and future are so intricately linked.”
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