This 1999 photograph shows the chimney at the right-hand end of the old farmhouse on the Michael Korns, Sr. Somerset County PA family homestead. It also shows the windows in the second story and the attic. The chimney was made from 3 distinct types of brick. Up to the attic floor the brick was crude, having a rough misshapen home-made appearance, and the mortar was equally crude, suggesting that the chimney was built after the wall was enclosed. From the attic floor to the roof a better looking grade of brick was used, and the mortar has a more professional appearance. The brick above the roof had a white glaze on the outside, as did the chimneys on the nearby Daniel Korns house. It is quite possible that the brick from the attic floor on-up represent a repair. By oral tradition, the man who made the white glazed brick locally took the secret of how to make them to his grave. The glazed corner bricks had a radiused corner, and had glaze on the exposed side and on the exposed end. The other glazed bricks were only glazed on the exposed side. This photograph also reveals that, at least at this end of the house, the attic was apparently not floored. Note that the plaster has fallen off of the second floor ceiling, and daylight can be seen through the lath. It is unlikely that the lath would remain intact if the attic floorboards had rotted away and fallen on the lath, so I conclude that there were no attic floor boards. This photograph also gives a good view of the lath on the exterior wall; observe how the plaster has flowed through the spaces between the lath, thereby achieving a strong attachment to the lath.
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