Trout Hall
Allentown, Pennsylvania

Trout Hall was the summer home of James Allen, the son of William Allen the founder of Allentown.  Trout Hall was built in 1770 and is know Allentown's oldest home. 
 
James Allen was a wealthy British-American during the American Revolutionary war era.  During this time he owned 3,000 acres of land.  James Allen made most of his money as a lawyer and by selling parts of his land.
James Allen's home was built in the latest English style, i.e. this means that everything was symmetrical or in balance to one another.
 
Typical to English customs is also the design of the windows- the bricks above the windows are straight up and down vs. slanted.   The window design usually depicts wealthy English customs vs. German customs.  Each window has shutters, which were used to keep the Indians and animals out.  In James Allen's time you would see many buildings on the outside each building served a specific purpose, a kitchen, laundry area, etc.  Along the side of the house was a cistern- an area to collect rainwater so that the workers could collect water without running to the river. 
 
In side the house you first enter into the study.  In this room there is a picture of James Allen along with a desk filled with various writing utensils.  The writing utensils were made from feathers that were dipped into ink.  To stamp initials into a document they used a candle wax drop and a stamp (PICTURE).  Some indications of richness in the home were the yellow (mustard) and green walls because their pigment was very expensive.  They also had mirrors which were unlikely in poor homes, along with oriental dishes and pieces (PICTURE). 
 
The types of entertainment typical to this era were dances, fancy dinners, piano music, and games like chess.  Ladies liked evening or early morning tea.  Only the higher standard or important people were invited for tea in the chambers, or bedrooms .  Upstairs you would typically see several chambers.  Children would sleep in a roll out cart that was kept under the bed.  An average chamber would have 4-5 people in the room- no privacy, and was very tight. Typical to wealthy customs was  the difference in furniture choices.  The English taste was the high fancy furniture vs. the Germans with the low plain type.  In order to try and keep the bed warm at night the workers would places some bed warmers under the bed- the warmers had a long handle with a covered bowl on the end (like a XXL popcorn popper).
 
There we no bathroom in the homes like we use today instead there was an area reserved in the chambers with a basin and pitchers of water.  Servents then did all the cleaning and housework.  Typically the Allen's only bathed an average of 3x per year, they used lots of makeup and powder in their hair.
 
Children's toys were mainly used sales props.  Salesmen would come to sell clothing and the style would be on dolls, or if the salesmen were selling furniture they would have a details smaller play-size version to show.
 
James Allen dies in 1778 and trout hall was then passed through the family until 1847.  Muhlenberg College then used Trout Hall for their 1st campus but eventually moved to their current location.  Restoring of Trout Hall started in 1916.