Closing the Shutters

Reconstructed shutter and baricade at the Casa

Michael Imwalle excavating the barricade pocket of the original shuttered window in room 6 of the Casa. 

     One window with shutters, likely added to the Casa after the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake, remained on the south wall of Room 6 at the time of restoration. The window is roughly three feet wide and five feet high. The shutters were mounted on the inside of the window and excavation revealed nine finish layers applied between 1858 and 1923.

     Imwalle also found two in-filled pockets on either side of the window. The pocket on one side was 12 inches deep, while the pocket on the other side, was only 6 inches deep. This remained a bit of a puzzle until the archeological team visited the Mexican Army barracks in Sonoma, California and saw that they had similar pockets inside the windows used for a barricade pole so the shutters could not be forced open from the outside. By having one pocket deeper than the other, a pole that was longer than the width of the window could be used as a barricade, making it much stronger. 

     In a separate puzzle, Imwalle also found objects embedded in the in-fill dirt in one of the pockets, including a shot glass, melted wax, and musket balls. It is unclear when or why these object were placed in the pocket.