{ou ter sa nc tum}


tural merit, the quality of build; I look for the passion for the shed,” he said. Witmer “put so much effort into it,” Wilcox said. The shed, which has a loft, rises to a tow-


ering 12 feet, though its flat roof drops eight inches in a bow to both drainage and attitude. Like a cocked hat, there’s a jauntiness about it.


[ AN ANTIQUARIAN ATMOSPHERE ] O


n the surface, the shed that Doug Dupin has built in Palisades is entirely different from Witmer’s. Wooden boards, silvered by the weather, form a square beneath


a pitched roof of corrugated steel. In winter, wisps of woodsmoke tumble from the chimney and catch the nostrils. It seems like a 19th- century shack you might find on the nearby C&O Canal towpath, instead of a 21st-centu- ry offering in the midst of a city lot. Within, Native American artifacts and a few fossils forge an even stronger link to the neighbor- hood named for its perch above the Potomac River. Here, Dupin, who spent the past few


months working temporarily for the Census Bureau, has established the Palisades Museum of Prehistory. Display cases and shelving house dozens


of spear points and arrowheads, flint imple- ments and pottery shards that he has collected literally beneath his feet and elsewhere in Pali- sades as touchstones to a human society and way of life along these shores that today is rare- ly considered. Some of the objects date back nearly 9,000 years, but with the help of archae- ologists and reference books he has dated most from 1500 B.C. to 500 A.D. “It’s not the Smithsonian, but for the neigh-


borhood it’s a great record of what used to be here, a pretty active spot for Indians,” he said. Many of the pieces he excavated are of a rock called rhyolite. This is native to the Catoctin Mountains, suggesting that the people who fashioned these weapons moved south to the Potomac annually for fishing or trading, Dupin said.


Dupin’s shed, for all its antiquarian atmo-


sphere, has strong links to Witmer’s. Built by and for the sheddie owner, it is fabricated from simple or recycled materials with the environ- ment and the purse in mind. The siding is wood from rough-cut oak pal-


lets normally used as shoring for construction. “I ran it through a table saw,” he said, and the exterior seams are covered with three-sided strips of wood to form a classic board and bat- ten construction. The roof, in part, is a green roof of plants, the chimney is fashioned from rebar, and the joists came from old lumber re- moved from his house when it was enlarged. Dupin seems to have intuitive powers of scale.


The shed has delicious exterior proportions, the width, the height, the pitch of the roof, the depth of the eaves and the placement and size of the windows all come together perfectly to reinforce the feeling of rustic beauty. Inside, that same serendipitous golden mean comes into play. You could spend an afternoon in here in relaxed conversation with friends, forget the passage of hours and consider it time well spent. Much of the comfort derives from the organic nature of the space. The interior walls are, simply, burlap sheets doped with paint, spackle and iron oxide. Track lighting brings a modern touch. On my first visit, with February’s snow still thick out- side, a small potbelly stove radiates warmth. My eye is drawn to a bizarre wheeled con- traption that dangles above a hatch. On the


20 The WashingTon PosT Magazine | September 19, 2010


Owners Doug Dupin and Rebecca Cooper


Location Palisades


Style Rustic


Floor area 392 square feet


Highlights Partial green roof, potbelly stove, basement


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192