Take a trip to Creswell’s Davenport Colonial Homestead and see what everyday life was like over 200 years ago. Other buildings have been moved to the site to help demonstrate life at that time.

The main house is less than 600 square feet— not much larger than the family living area of many of today’s homes. It was built in the late 1700s and rests on cypress blocks because brick footings were beyond the means of Daniel Davenport, the owner and future North Carolina senator of Washington County.

Each room of the house displays artifacts of daily life. A crude ladder leads to a loft where children slept on rope beds.. An open hearth offers a swinging iron crane ready for an iron pot. Bowls made of gourds await hot porridge from the hearth. A sedge broom stands ready to sweep the house. Since chickens ran free and ate the grass, a reed broom came in handy for keeping the yard neat. The week’s wash was boiled in big black pots, scrubbed on wash boards with lye soap and hung on bushes to dry. (Landscaping, like everything else back then, had a practical use.)

A beautiful old loom, found in the attic of the house, has been relocated to a Loom House. The loom was used to weave simple fabric for clothes, sheets, tablecloths and more. Thread was spun from cotton, wool and flax. Discarded clothing and rags were used to make quilts as well as rugs. Recycling was a way of life.