You are standing in front of a reader rail titled “Please Touch!” It includes braille text and a tactile floor plan of Woodlawn House. Above the reader rail is a tactile 3D model of the house. On the wall behind the model is a panel titled “Woodlawn: How the House Changed.” To your left is a historic window frame in a case. To your right is a graphic panel titled “House History: Woodlawn.” Behind you is the information desk.

The text on the reader rail in front of you reads:

Please Touch!
Woodlawn was modified several times over the centuries. Explore this 3D model and floor plan to see how the house changed. The different colors and textures represent different periods of construction.

The tactile floor plan and 3D model of the house are divided into three sections. The section on the right dates to 1979 and 2020. The square section in the middle dates to 1735. And the section on the left dates to 1841.

The graphic panel behind the model includes text and eight illustrations.

The text reads:

WOODLAWN 
How the House Changed

1735
The original house, built for tobacco planter William Sellman and his family, consisted of two main rooms: a hall (the main living space) and a parlor (the master bedroom). Enslaved people and other members of the household may have slept on the floor or in separate wooden buildings, which no longer exist.

1841
In 1841, the Sellmans demolished part of the original house to add a new three-story wing. This included grand parlors for entertaining guests, private rooms for the family, and working spaces for enslaved people and servants.

Mid-1800s
Sometime in the mid-1800s, the Sellmans added two smaller wooden structures to the 1735 wing. This created what is known as a “telescope house,” with a series of ever smaller buildings emerging from a larger one.

1979
The Sellmans moved out of the house in the early 1900s and a new family, the Kirkpatrick-Howats, moved in. During the energy crisis in the 1970s, the Kirkpatrick-Howats demolished the wooden additions and built a passive solar wing in an attempt to reduce energy costs.

Today
SERC rehabilitated the house in 2020, preserving the historic structure while modifying the interior to allow for public access and exhibits.

The eight illustrations on the panel correspond to the different eras of the house from 1735 to 1979. Each era of the house includes an illustration of what the house may have looked like at the time and a floor plan.