Last updated: February 2, 2025
Place
Chatham Kitchen
NPS Photo
The Chatham kitchen building is a park office and is not open to the public.
The Chatham kitchen is one of three buildings at Chatham (the others being the main house and the laundry) that dates to the 1770s. This building was once a busy place where enslaved people lived and worked. The separation of the kitchen from the main house would have served as a means of protection from fire, but would have also served to segregate this space of labor from the view of the enslavers who enjoyed the meals prepared for them here.
Other buildings that were once a part of the slave plantation complex have been lost over time. A list from 1790 counts 28 buildings at Chatham. In addition to this kitchen, the main house, and the laundry were dwellings for enslaved laborers, a smokehouse, a storehouse, an ice house, and possibly a dairy or springhouse. There would have also been barns, stables, and workshops.
In the 1920s, the Devores converted the kitchen into a residence for household servants. Today, the building is a park office and is closed to the public.
The Chatham kitchen is one of three buildings at Chatham (the others being the main house and the laundry) that dates to the 1770s. This building was once a busy place where enslaved people lived and worked. The separation of the kitchen from the main house would have served as a means of protection from fire, but would have also served to segregate this space of labor from the view of the enslavers who enjoyed the meals prepared for them here.
Other buildings that were once a part of the slave plantation complex have been lost over time. A list from 1790 counts 28 buildings at Chatham. In addition to this kitchen, the main house, and the laundry were dwellings for enslaved laborers, a smokehouse, a storehouse, an ice house, and possibly a dairy or springhouse. There would have also been barns, stables, and workshops.
In the 1920s, the Devores converted the kitchen into a residence for household servants. Today, the building is a park office and is closed to the public.