At Shippensburg History Center, we have a new addition to our property. A few weeks ago, we had a colonial bread oven built out back in the yard. 

Our Executive Director, John Miller, is a re-enactor of the life styles of several centuries. He often has programs in the yard where he cooks foods from those different centuries, while dressed in garb from that time. He knew he could enhance these programs if we had an oven to bake bread, and cakes and pies too. Knowing John, he will find ways to make a lot more different things also. 

We got a grant to provide us the funds for the oven. Then we hired two great guys from Lemley’s Handyman Service, LLC. to make it. https://www.facebook.com/LemleysHandymanServiceLLC

They discussed with John what we wanted and what it should look like. And then they went to work. 

They made a roof over an area and built it in in the back.  They put nails in the wood in that structure to hang cooking tools on. Then, a large table, covered at the top with antique bricks from the yard. On top of that, a large piece of slate that would be the base for the oven. 

Then more old bricks to make the oven itself. After that, John made the wooden door to keep the heat and smoke inside the oven. 

Over the next couple days he made  small fires in the oven to season it. Smoke needed to be able to seep into the bricks and cement inside the oven to make a coating that will prevent a concrete taste in the first foods he makes. 

They used all local wood to build the structure behind the oven and the table it sits on. They used hand cut nails, made the way the nails in the colonial era were made. All the bricks and  the slate were from walkways in the yard that were put in there when our Dr. Stewart was totally remodeling the house around 1930.

They had enough wood left from the project to make some benches to sit around the oven, for people to sit on to watch the programs as John cooks and bakes, and to listen to the things he’s saying during the program. 

The wood for the benches and wood for the fires can all be stored under the table that the oven sits on to protect it from the weather, especially during the winter. 

Soon we have a big town celebration, dedicated to our important local crop of corn. It’s called the Corn Festival.  Many downtown streets are blocked off and vendors of all types of things come from miles around and from different states. As many as 20,000 visitors come to town.  The History Center will be open for people to come in and visit. And John will use the oven to make some interesting colonial food for the first time. 

We would like to thank Lemley’s Handyman Service LLC for doing such a good job with this project, and doing it all quickly, including working one day in the rain.