During the Civil War Caledon was a working farm. The buildings near the cache are the former farm manager’s residence and associated out buildings. The house was built in two stages between 1820 and 1840. Modern heating was not available during construction so the house was built with six fireplaces for heating and cooking. At a later date the fireplaces were bricked up so that more efficient woodstoves could be used. The woodstoves remained the main source of heat all the way up until the last caretaker moved out in 1978.
Food preservation and storage has always been an issue. Imagine what your life would be like without a refrigerator or freezer. How would you store your food? Behind the house is a small gray building, a root cellar. The floor of the building is nearly 5 feet below the surface and uses the steady temperature of the ground (55 F) to help food last. The building to the left of the house was also used to preserve food. The farmer and his staff would hang meats and fish in this building to be smoked. While the building hasn’t been used for this purpose in over 40 years many of the timbers still smell like wood smoke.
Work on the farm was labor intensive without today’s modern farming equipment. The men that worked the farm lived in the small building across the gravel driveway from the house. The lower floor has a fireplace for heating and cooking and the upper floor was a bunk room for them to sleep in.
While we welcome you to walk around the outside of the buildings do not enter them. These historic structures need repairs and are not open for public access at this time.