Georgetown, PA Photo by Don Parker ca 1960 (Anna L and John F Nash Collection)

Front porches are exclusively American.  Designs of new homes which appear in magazines no longer display large built-in porches.  A cement patio or a small extension in the front does not constitute a porch.  Perhaps it is the price on materials; the extra roof; repair expenses over the years for their disappearance.

Thomas W Poe Home ca 1890 then owned by R Laughlin (Frances and John Finley Collection)

Many old homes in Georgetown show traces of once having large porches overlooking the Ohio River.  In fact, most of the homes built by steamboat captains had second story porches.  Those porches were their window on the world.  It afforded the captain the opportunity to monitor the water level of the river.

Capt Thomas Washington Poe had a two story porch overlooking the Ohio.  Capt Jackman Taylor Stockdale, downriver next door, also had a second story porch.   It is highly probable that Ca[t Thomas Stevenson Calhoon upriver next door, also had a second story porch.  Both Capt Andrew Hague  Parr and Capt George Washington Ebert had their windows on the river.  It is claimed that Capt Adam Poe had the grandest porch of all about one mile upriver.  Unfortunately, his home burned leaving no photographic evidence.

Capt Andrew H Parr Home ca 1900 GPN

All sorts of furniture was found on these porches.  Hickory rocking chairs, love seats, chain swings.  To keep up with the Calhoons, the Eberts planted wisteria along the edges.  These porches turned into grandstands for friends and relatives at summer parties and reunions.

Today, many families prefer to stay inside to enjoy the air-conditioned coolness rather than the hot summer breezes.  Old fashioned porches are almost as obsolete as the packets on the river.

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The United States Gazette · 31 Jul 1816, Wed · Page 1.

Today in historic central PA, the weather greeted us with snow showers and bright sun.  Unusual for the time of year.  It caused me to recall a story about a summer with no sun.  The year of no summer was 1816.  Five years earlier the str New Orleans left Pittsburgh along its historic trip to New Orleans.  In 1811 those aboard the str New Orleans witnessed the shocks of a great earthquake centered around New Madrid, MO.  It was one of the most powerful earthquakes ever east of the Rocky Mountains.

What was so unusual about 1816?  Little documentation in local western PA newspapers has been found.  PA was not hit as hard as New York and New England states where there was heavy snow and killing  frosts in Jul and Aug.  All vegetation, garden vegetables, and corn froze.  Birds died because of lack of food.  People were hungry.  The cause of the climate change was one of the most terrific volcano eruptions the world has ever known.  On the island of Samhawa, East Java, in 1815, a massive cloud of volcanic dust was forced into the upper atmosphere.  The loss of solar radiation changed the temperature on earth and affected the growth of plants on the entire planet. [1]

In 1816, many PA farmers harvested their grains in Jul wearing heavy coats and gloves.  Much ripened wheat spoiled under the heavy snows.

There are many active volcanoes around the world.  Any one of them could erupt violently causing another dramatic change in the world’s climate.  Viral pademics, like Covid-19, are not our only cause for worry.

References.