Upper Tract, West Virginia

The Shack at Hinkle Farm represents a first for record—a residence without electricity. The single-room house is simplicity embodied. Architect Jeffery Broadhurst, AIA, designed the diminutive abode as a retreat for his family. A few hours from their home in suburban Washington, D.C., the shack perches on a 27-acre mountaintop property in West Virginia.

The Shack at Hinkle Farm
Photo ' Anice Hoachlander/HDPhoto

Additional Content:
Jump to credits & specifications

Although Broadhurst thinks of the shack as a place for family and friends, it exhibits an undeniably monastic dimension. Exceedingly remote, it is inaccessible without an off-road vehicle. A long, winding drive over stones and grasses along the ridge of South Fork Mountain leads to a steep clearing where the bucolic box hovers at 3,600 feet above sea level. It’s an ideal hermitage, but on weekends in the warmer seasons, Broadhurst packs up to a half-dozen people in the 140-square-foot room.

The convivial occupation of the shack echoes the nature of its construction. Broadhurst’s friends and neighbors helped him assemble it, using products pulled from the shelves of a home-improvement retailer. Simple board-and-batten siding and a standing-seam, terne-coated steel roof sits atop a wood platform supported by four pressure-treated pine posts. Inside the shack, you can see between the floor planks to the ground below. Rodent barriers, like those used to protect local corn cribs, arm the platform’s underside.

A ladder unhitches from the southwest side of the building and swings down to the ground, providing access to the entry door. Inside, oil lamps provide light and a woodstove heats the space. Lifting a small trap door in the floor reveals the lid of a water tank beneath the platform. A gravitational system delivers water from the tank to a faucet in the miniscule “kitchen.” A hand-powered bilge pump, designed for removing water from the bottom of a boat’s hull, draws water from below the platform to a smaller tank suspended from the ceiling, so it can fall into the shack’s descending plumbing. The pump can also be hooked up to a water-storage compartment on the woodstove, sending hot water to the faucet.

 

Credits

Architect
Broadhurst Architects, Inc.
306 First Street
Rockville, Maryland 20851
(p)301-309-8900
(f)301-309-8915

Jeffery S. Broadhurst, AIA

 

Engineer:
Structron Engineering

 

General contractor: 
Owner, with assistance by Clagett Construction.

 

Photographer: 
Anice Hoachlander/HDPhoto
202-364-9306

Specifications

Structural system:
Wood frame, post and beam

Exterior cladding
Wood:
Locally milled pine board & batten

Roofing
Metal:
Follansbee “Klassic Kolors” Prepainted Terne II, Stone Gray

Windows
Wood:
Custom wood casement windows by Clagett Construction

Doors
Metal Garage door:
Overhead Door Company of Washington, DC, Series 511, anodized aluminum with 1/8” glass.

Wood doors:
Custom site-built entry door

Hardware
Locksets/Security devices:
Master Locks

Hinges:
Stanley

Pulls:
Stanley

Cabinet hardware:
Blum

Deck Railing:
Fence wire and ratchet tensioners, Southern States Supply

Interior finishes
Ceiling:
The underside of the Follansbee Terne roof

Cabinetwork and custom woodwork: 
Clagett Construction

Paints and stains: 
Behr Solid Latex Stain

Paneling: 
The back side of the pine board & batten siding

Special surfacing: 
Corrugated galvanized steel behind wood stove.

Countertops: 
Gray Limestone, Fernando’s Marble Shop

Wood flooring: 
Pressure treated 1 x 6 wood screwed to wood frame.

Furnishings
Chairs: 
Folding Camp Chairs, Gallyans

Table: 
Costco card table

Rugs: 
Plow & Hearth

Bed: 
Antique ¾ “cottage furniture” found at yard sale

Trunk: 
Antique trunk, family heirloom

Metal Tray Table: 
Ranger Surplus

Aluminum Milk Can: 
Ranger Surplus

Miscellaneous Metal Fabrications by ABC Welding, Inc.

Wood Stove: 
Cylinder Stoves

Awning: 
Custom Sunbrella Awning by Canvas Creations, Inc.

Lighting
Interior lighting: 
Dietz Lanterns, Air Pilot model, Lehman’s Non-Electric Catalog

Conveyance:
Accessibility provision: 
Custom fold-up entry stairs

Plumbing 
Rain Barrel: 
Aaron’s Rain Barrels

Milk Can Shower/Water Heater: 
Ranger Surplus

Water Pump: 
Little Urchin Bilge Pump, Boats USA

Water Storage Tanks: 
Diverse Plastics Group, Inc.