What's this wall for?

I’ve seen these in a few homes, but not sure 100% what they’re for.
There were 2 in this attic, bot running perpendicular the the joists.

100_0267 (2).jpg

Hi to all,

these just appear to be the tops of non-load bearing walls, I used to see a lot of this in older properties up in New England.

Regards

Gerry

thanks, gerry

When I was about 16 (oh,-- maybe 10 years ago) I noticed a builder include walls like that. They were open to the crawspace and he said he used them to install wiring or pipes or vents later if the homeowner wanted something added. (This was a very small towm and he was the only builder there.)

You can find some of those in my attic. When my house was built in the 1860s, I imagine it was quite common. But it was not put in for easy plumbing or wiring, as there was no plumbing or wiring to be concerned with in this area. Everything was outdoors and oil lamps. I magine it was just easier to frame.

This is common on old balloon type house framing. This type of construction was replaced with platform framing. Houses don’t go up in flames quite as fast now.