The houses that DuPont built for their munitions workers at Penniman, Virginia featured “Beaverboard” interiors. Sounds pretty fancy, but in fact, it was an economical alternative to real plaster walls.
Bill Inge lent me his “Sweet’s Architectural Catalog” (1917) which had a two-page spread on Beaverboard. It answered all my questions (and then some).
Apparently, this wallboard product was quite the rage in the first years of the 20th Century, and was hugely popular in low-cost industrial housing.
In 1981, our family moved into a house built in 1949, and it had Beaverboard on the walls of its small attic room (complete with 2-inch strips at the seams). When we tore it out, it created a massive mess.
Apparently, Beaverboard wallboard was a product that endured for many years.
According to Wikipedia, it can also be used as an artist’s canvas. Grant Wood’s famous painting of the morose farming couple – American Gothic – was painted on a piece of Beaverboard.
What made plaster so expensive? Click here.
To learn more about industrial housing at DuPont’s villages, click here.
Interested in Virginia’s own Ghost City? Click here.
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I wanted to title this blog, "Beaverboard: Who Gives a Dam?" but I couldn't bring myself to do it. 😉
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The houses that DuPont built at their munitions plants had beaverboard walls.
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Despite the glowing reports in the Beaverboard literature, this was still an "economical" alternative to plaster.
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The header says, "Foreign Branches." Quite an outfit!
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"Long tough fibers of white spruce...compressed and built up into...panels..."
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Is the homeowner weilding a walking stick at the old worker?
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Now that the worker has started putting up Beaverboard, the walking stick has been removed from sight.
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Why bother to put six big beautiful windows in a house and then cover them up? Why not just put Beaverboard right over the windows? If I were queen of the world, I'd make it illegal to have a sunporch shrouded in heavy drapes.
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"It permits of mural decorations in theaters..." I have my doubts about this.
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Under "Club" it reads, "The club's activities never will be hindered by repairs..." Wow.
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Here's a Penniman house that was moved from the munitions factory to Capitol Landing Road (Williamsburg). Was it built with interior walls of Beaverboard? Probably so.
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How I'd love to see the inside of this Penniman/DuPont house when built in 1918.
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To learn more about industrial housing at DuPont’s villages, click here.
Interested in Virginia’s own Ghost City? Click here.
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