New England’s association with witchcraft dates back to the earliest settlers of Massachusetts, where, in 1645, the community of Springfield experienced America’s first accusations of witchcraft when husband and wife Hugh and Mary Parsons accused each other of witchcraft. At America’s first witch trial, Hugh was found innocent, while Mary was acquitted of witchcraft but sentenced to be hanged for the death of her child; however, she died in prison prior to being hanged.
From 1645–1663, about eighty people throughout England’s Massachusetts Bay Colony were accused of practicing witchcraft. Thirteen women and two men were executed in a witch-hunt that lasted throughout New England from 1645–1663.
The Salem witch trials followed in 1692–93. These witch trials were the most famous in British North America and took place in the coastal settlements near Salem, Massachusetts. Prior to the witch trials, nearly 300 men and women had been suspected of partaking in witchcraft, and nineteen of these people were hanged, and one was “pressed to death”.
With the belief in witchcraft and the fear of it so prevalent throughout the Northeast, it should come as no surprise that marks of this superstition made its way into all elements of daily life, including architecture and homebuilding.
In New England, and in Vermont in particular, even to this day, it is not uncommon to find diagonal-shaped windows usually placed in the gable-end wall of a house. These windows, which are known as “witch windows”, are generally rotated approximately 1/8 of a turn (45-degrees) from the vertical, leaving it diagonal, with its long edge parallel to the roof slope. This technique allows a builder to fit a full-sized window into the long, narrow wall space between two adjacent roof lines.
These types of windows, also known as Vermont windows, are found almost exclusively in the Green Mountain State, and are generally limited to farmhouses constructed in the 1800s, although less frequently even newer homes feature them.
Their name “witch window” comes from the folk belief that witches cannot fly their broomsticks at angles, thus when these windows are opened, a witch flying on her broom cannot enter a home through the window.
In addition to “witch window” and “Vermont window”, another name given to these windows is “coffin windows”, as they are said to have been large enough to place a coffin through – a help to families due to the fact that older Vermont homes often featured narrow and winding staircases that made navigating a coffin through nearly impossible.
Despite the many names and explanations for these windows, many historians disagree as to their actual purpose. Some argue that they were placed in the highest areas of upper rooms in old farmhouses to allow heat, which rises to the highest point, to exit and vent from the homes in the summer months.
Though this seems to be the most likely explanation, it begs the question as to why they’re only found in Vermont and not in many places throughout the deep South.
The windows’ diagonal orientation makes placing siding on the exterior of the house challenging, as the angular windows complicate ensuring all siding and edges are waterproof. One solution builders have found to correct this problem is to orient all of the siding on the wall so that it is parallel with the window frame.
