Wormy Hole Chestnut Paneling

Wormy Hole Chestnut Paneling

We have it!  
​A once thriving but now decimated American Chestnut made into panels.  This rare antique wood cozies up our favorite room in the house.

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We never saw this amazing diamond in the rough before we bought it last summer.  When we got the word that we would be moving to the Washington D.C. area, I quickly got to work scouring the internet for potential properties.  Actually, If I were being honest, I would say that I was looking a year or so before that.  Because looking is what I do.  I do it like it is my job. 

I'm stalking through the internet, like it is going out of style.

So, a couple of months into my search, this property popped up in my search results.  There weren't many pictures and the listing said "lots of history here".  I told my husband about it and he immediately said "no".  The listing also mentioned a cemetery...and um...who buys a house with a cemetery?

In the end, we bought the house...with the cemetery...because I have a fight or fight response to the word "no".  It was interesting that listing only mentioned "lots of history here".  That is an incredible understatement which I will post about soon.  Once we finally saw the house, after we bought it...we realized that there were some valuable finishes that no one mentioned.  Notably, the antique wormy hole chestnut paneling in the "Library".  Did they not know?  Did they not care?

Prior to 1904 the American Chestnut numbered in the billions in the Continental United States.  Both wildlife and rural americans depended on the crop of nuts each year.  Beginning in 1904, a pathogenic fungus (imported from Asia) quickly spread across North America.  By 1950 the American Chestnut was gone.  

Since this wood no longer exists it is considered rare and valuable.  Our paneling was milled into perfect boards of varying widths and nailed in.  In recent years, wormy hole chestnut is reclaimed from old barns, fences, outbuildings, and homes.  Since this paneling has existed here in this house for quite some time (and I have yet to find an old nail hole, I wonder if this wormy hole Chestnut was milled after being taken directly from the property.

With the property consisting on over 900 acres until the late 1970's, I don't think it is out of the realm of possibility.  All of my heart eyes are definitely on this wormy hole chestnut paneling...and on that Scotsman up above.  I am not sure if I am ever going to get answers to the mounding mysteries here at Boscobel Farm, but I really love this adventure.

More From Boscobel Farm...

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Farmhouse Style
Fitzhugh Cemetery
History Of Boscobel
Interior Decorating
The Flora And Fauna Of Boscobel
Winter At Boscobel