The Spring House
When you leave the kitchen, the
building on your right is the spring house.
It contains three rooms plus the well. The upper room was the pantry, used to
store flour and other food in bulk that would not spoil. The lower room was the smokehouse. In the days before refrigerators salted meat
was hung above a smoldering fire for several weeks. The result is dried, long-lasting,
smoke-flavored meat. Directly below the pantry is the springhouse itself, with its trough
holding the clear spring water. Milk, butter and other food that needed to be
kept cool and fresh was placed in the
cold water.
Mendenhall
Plantation - 603 W. Main Street - Jamestown, NC