Van Cortlandt House Museum
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Picture

Unfinished Attic Room

This plain, unheated room was most likely used as a storage area and possibly as a sleeping chamber for the enslaved people who worked in the household.  When it was used for sleeping, the chamber was likely furnished with a very simple table and chair and a low bed or a grass mattress placed on the floor.  As such a large room, it would also have been a shared space for both sleeping and storage. 

This room is referred to as the unfinished because of the unfinished state of the walls.  You can see that the framing of the house was left exposed in this room unlike others in the house which are finished off with plaster or wood paneling.  Attic rooms such as this one and the nursery would have been finished off as needed as the family or need for space grew.  

This room is currently being used much like it's original purpose, as a storage room for extra furniture, spinning wheels, and other household items.  
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