Porch Discoveries: Adobe Columns and a Broken Pitch Roof

Cutaway diagram labeling the parts of the broken pitch roof and adobe columns

The porch before restoration with the columns separate from the porch

The exposed packed dirt floor of the east wing of the porch with the sandstone retaining wall and adobe column bases.

Field notes from the discovery of the second adobe column, which include an early archeological diagram of the broken pitch roof and adobe columns.

           Removing the old porch with the solid pitch roof yielded two major discoveries. First, the archeological team found 85 in-filled rafter pockets about a foot and a half below the existing roof rafters. This proved that the original roof had not been one solid piece, but instead had an upper and lower part, what is called a broken pitch. Some of the pockets still had mortar that had held the original rafters in place. By measuring the impression the rafters had left in the mortar, the archeologists determined the pitch of the porch roof.

Second, the team found evidence of 16 square adobe columns in the sandstone retaining wall that held the packed dirt of the porch. These columns had held up the original porch roof. The ends of the rafters extending out of the pockets in the Casa wall rested on horizontal beams that were supported by the adobe columns.

             The original porch with the broken pitch roof and adobe support columns was destroyed in the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake. Jose de la Guerra's son, Pablo, took the opportunity to modernize and expand the porch. He replaced the broken pitch roof with a continuous roof and added new paneled Victorian porch posts 4 feet in front of the sandstone retaining wall.