Something I began in November of 2021...
Snake Capstones
@
Happiness Farm
aka
The Petruzzi and then the Murtagh/MacSweeney Community Training Home
The Samuel Atwood House, The Tamarack House,
The Buell Baby Farm,
and the Old Haunted House on
Nonnewaug Road, Woodbury CT
Quite possibly built as
John Minor's Watch House at the Nonnewaug Wigwams
My mother-in-law once told me that there was an old Tamarack tree in front of the house, but all I know of it is a stump that has slowly deteriorated away during the entire time that I’ve lived here. It’s a messy spot alright, the stone retaining wall damaged by tree growth as well as the effects of an ill-fated attempt at a repair involving Portland cement mortar in the 1960s that resulted in more water damage. I should be embarrassed to even show you, but here you go, fresh photos from September 12, 2024:
I'd always assumed that this was simply "European Stonework" because of all the obvious steel tool marks. I've conjectured it was the original central chimney, but these days I'm convinced that it's original to the house, and probably made using the same "Indigenous Iconography" that occurs in other older stonework in the area...
I pulled some weeds, mostly jewelweed,
and I'll put some gloves on before I go back for the blackberries and poison ivy...
Just as the capstone on the opposite end is a recognizable rattlesnake head,
so is this capstone.
An overlay to "make it come alive:"
An older photo (2021):
Another overlay:
I took a closer look, down lower, where there is a sort of rhomboidal or diamond shaped stone:
Where there are some "chinking stones" under one of the larger stones,
a distinguishing characteristic of Indigenous Stonework,
a "supporting turtle:"
Another, just above it, a little to the left:
I guess that back in 11/2021 recognizing a "supporting turtle"
and a similarity in the shaping of certain stones distracted me:
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