Bake Oven
The bake oven was usually a brick structure, identifiable by a bulging profile at one gable end that betrayed the oven space beneath. While ovens were often incorporated into the summer kitchen, on some farmsteads, a free standing outdoor bake oven was erected. This provided space for a highly labor intensive and hot task. Examples have been found in field survey work in the Southwestern region, the central portion of the state, and in the southeast. The outdoor bake oven represents farm women's work in a fundamental subsistence activity.
Outdoor bake oven, Adams County, c. 1850.
Summer kitchen with attached bake oven, Jackson Township, Lebanon County, c. 1830.
Outdoor bake oven, West Nantmeal Township, Chester County, c. 1850. (Site 029-WN-004)
The hood at left is lined with shelves. The original oven door has been blocked and a
smaller metal door inserted. The section to the right of the oven has no windows,
suggesting perhaps a later conversion to a smokehouse.
Note
This is a static, archived version of the PHMC Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project website which will not be updated. It is a snapshot of the website with minor modifications as it appeared on August 26, 2015.
Pages in this Section
- Overview
- House Types
- Barn Types
- Barn Features
- Outbuilding Types
- Overview
- Bake Oven
- Butcher House
- Carriage House
- Cider House
- Combination Structure
- Cook House
- Corn Crib
- Dryhouse
- Fruit Cold Storage
- Garage
- Grain Bin
- Granary
- Greenhouse
- Hay Drying Shed
- Hog House
- Horse Barn
- Ice House
- Machine Shed
- Maple Sugar House
- Milk House
- Packing House
- Potato Storage Cellar
- Poultry Housing
- Privy
- Roadside Stand
- Root Cellar
- Scale House
- Shed
- Silo
- Smokehouse
- Spray Shed
- Springhouse
- Summer Kitchen
- Wagon Shed
- Wash House
- Wood Shed
- Worker Housing
- Workshop
- Landscape Elements
- Archaeological Features