2.2 Exploring Historic Building Materials

Background for the Educator: Historically, houses in Burlington were built with a wood-frame and local materials, like redstone, wood, slate, and granite.  Why?  Burlington and Vermont had plenty of stone and wood, the mills and factories to prepare materials, and skilled workers and tradesmen to build the various parts of the houses.  Original materials for historic buildings are all around us today.  Many of Burlington's historic buildings contain one or more of their historic materials or have had new, but similar, materials replace the old ones, which is good practice.  Some of the materials in this kit are modern replications (most of the wood) to ensure no lead paint is present (common historic paints contained lead).  These materials are safe for kids to touch, measure, and look at with a magnifying glass.  The edges of the glass pieces have been rounded, but it might be best to leave the glass in the box as it is passed around.  Each material has a notecard explaining it.