Example of Homes in Worms / Odessa, S. Russia before 1918

Last Updated: 9 April 2007

Pfaff Genalogy Home Site page 14

Sod / Adobe House Construction

of

German-Russians in Austria-Hungary, Russia, USA and Canada

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An Example of A  Home  In Worms

Odessa, S. Russia

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                                                       Photograph taken by .......? ?

Abobe  Pfaff Homes in Nebraska [NB], USA

Ludwig Pfaff Chalk - Rock house   (BD))-5)

Nebraska State Historical Society Photo by David Murphy - 1977

 In and near Worms. Od. the rocks would have been adobe brick.

This picture give you a view that gives a great perspective of how homes were built.

Nebraska State Historical Society Photo by David Murphy - Aug. 1976

"Detail of adobe bricks on Wilhelm Pfaff Adobe House (BD00-4)"

Back in 1977 I was contacted by David Murphy, a Nebraska State  Architect for the Nebraska State Historical Society ,  about the Wilhelm Pfaff home which the state hoped to use as an example for the historical research of early settlers of the state.  He was kind enough to send the following pictures which gives a great look of what our ancestors built not just in the USA because this is how the Pfaff built their homes in and near Odessa, Southern Russia.  My Pfaff ancestors who lived near Worms supplied the villagers with the melted [liquid] lime stone.

My grandfather, Edward Remick, who's mothers was Pauline , nee Pfaff, Roemmich,  use to make extra money when he was four to six years old, counting the adobe balls which wrapped around the lime that were heated in a out door kiln and when the lime turned to liquid form it was carried to the home that was being plastered.

I wrote David and explained to him what I knew about the building  process and some of the background on the Pfaff families who had settled in Nebraska

Thanks to David, I can, now share them with you.

Construction of Sod Bricks

.........

See Alfred Hein's Photo Collection - Pictures taken in 2006

The following is what I've found that was needed to construct adobe building in and around Worms / Od. from 1809 to the early 1900s:

I. Material needed:

• Clay blocks  [kohlsteine]
  • top soil is removed
  • underlaying clay is loosened
  • clay is mixed to viscous mass which is:
    • chopped straw
    • horse manure
    • water
  • clay mixture is placed in wooden molds
    • shape is usually rectangle and a little larger than the red bricks we use in this century in the USA
    •   See Alfred Hein's Photo Collection
  • the clay blocks could be made into red brick or tile for the well-to-do farmers
• Wood
  • on the steppes of Russia wood wasn't always easy to find so clay blocks [bricks] were used
  • if wood was available , it was used for the frame of the building
  • wood for entire building was used in the following areas:
    • north near St. Petersburg
    • Siberia
    • Volga
    • S. Caucasus
    • Tauria
• Plaster
  • loam mixture
    • smeared on the building like wet paste
    • usually white washed with lime stone that had been liguified
  • limestone
    • large ovens or furnaces were built
    • lime was gathered
    • lime pieces were surrounded with clay and became a ball in shape
    • lime balls were placed in furnace heat
    • lime became liquid form
    • balls were broken and liquid was held in buckets and taken to location of construction of buildings
    • used like paint to white wash buildings

Pfaff Adobe Houses Continued

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