Cracker Farmhouses, 1840-1920

don't miss the details, click on the photos

Manatee Historical Village contains an 1887 Church, a cracker house, 2 barns, boatyard, school house and courthouse, all of which is decorated for Christmas and as close as as they could as it was a hundred years ago. 

Lest you think I want to go back to those days, READ on dear readers.

My grandmother lived in a house very similar to this one, minus the picket fence.

For those of you not born in Georgia or Florida I will define Cracker House.

In its simplest form, a Cracker house is a wooden shelter built by the early Florida and Georgia settlers. Lured to Florida by cheap and plentiful land, these pioneers arrived with few provisions and needed to erect shelter quickly and cheaply. The brush provided abundant supplies of cedar and cypress. Rocks or bricks made of oyster shell and lime served as pilings to keep the shelters off the ground. A wide shade porch wasn't just an embellishment. In pre-air-conditioned Florida, the porches provided relief from the relentless sun.  No AC! No Central Heating!

Beatiful Parlor. See the fireplace? that's the heating for the whole house. No electric, and they did not even have a butane lighter to light that oil lamp. Note: the rocker does not recline or have anywhere to put your feet up. Of course they did not need a recliner because they never had time to sit down long enough to recline. they could not buy the wood for the fireplace at Wal-Mart, they had to CHOP it. And did I mention they had to hand craft all those tree decorations? Also note the stocking are HAND knitted socks.

See that trunk? the kind we love to use as coffee tables? that is where they kept their linens and quilts (note:quilts were made by hand NOT bought in a store) no linen closets in sight. in fact there is not a closet in the house, walk in or not. they used nails on the walls behind the doors or a wardrobe if they were lucky.

see the candle on the bedside table? Guess what? No candle stores, it took hours to make the candles. Think they got the decorations at the mall? Wrong. they had to tramp through the woods and cut it down. I doubt the early settlers had ribbons. also note how small the bed is. You are looking at the wall to wall space, the bedroom is the size of what you see in the photo.  Note: do you see a TV? a computer? alarm clock? YIKES

For those of you who are not familar with an Outhouse, this is one.

I lived in a house in Kentucky, when I was 13 years old, no running water no indoor plumbing. Our outhouse looked just like this, MINUS the decoration. It was down the hill about 50 yards through the snow. Our only heat was a coal burning stove. our house was very similar to the one above and there was only one coal burning stove in the living room to heat a 9 room house. and guess who had to bring the coal in a bucket up from the basement? ME! and the basement was dark and scary and haunted.

I love old houses and I love history and historical sights, but this quote says it all.

People seem to get nostalgic about a lot of things they weren't so crazy about the first time around. ~Author Unknown

Count your blessing count them one by one......................our homes are full of them.