The Rocket's Red Glare!

Worcester Eisenbrandt isn't just about historic preservation and architectural conservation. We also make exhibits and props for museums. One of our latest projects involves exhibit pieces for the new visitor's center at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine.

The mastermind behind our exhibit division, Exhibit Hues, is Hugh Bennett. Among the pieces he has created for the visitor's center is this replica rocket. Hugh used the a design from the Park Service to create the rocket out of new materials and then used his skills as a finisher to make it look like an original 19th century projectile. This one is just for viewing purposes, but wouldn't it be cool to make a working one? I don't know that I would have the nerve to light the fuse!

Exhibit Hues is also creating, with sculpter Bill Duffy, a bronze sculptural representation of Francis Scott Key. The rendering will be a focal point in the new visitor's center. The foundry is currently putting the finishing touches on Mr. Key. More on him later!

Metropolitan AME Church

One of our current restoration projects, the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC, has been added to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 2010 11 Most Endangered List. The church is renowned for it's architecture and stained glass windows, as well as its importance to the national AME church. The building is the mother church of the AME faith. While the building's location was important, as it placed it in the center of Washington DC, that location is now a detriment, as surrounding construction projects and larger buildings have contributed to structural problems with the church. WEI has been assisting the congregation with some of these problems but the scope of the damage will require much more extensive work. You can read more about the Metropolitan AME Church and the other 11 Most Endangered Sites here:
http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/11-most-endangered/

Tool of the Week: Photographs

There are a lot of ways that one can gather evidence for a restoration project. Looking at the remaining original materials is one. "Reading" an historic building is not simple and requires quite a bit of knowledge in the history of architecture and building technology. It helps to know about the period differences in nails and other fasteners, hardware, molding profiles and construction techniques. The complication is that so many people added and changed a particular historic building through its life, so it can be very difficult to tell when and where those changes occurred. Every now and then, however, you get lucky and find an historic photograph.

While the iconic image of the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse has been captured thousands of times, only a few historic images exist. Those images are going to prove invaluable to the restoration of the structure. Because the lighthouse suffers from such severe weather, it has been deteriorating at a rapid rate since it was built. Repairs have been continually made by lighthouse keepers from both the U. S. Lighthouse Service and the U. S. Coast Guard as well as numerous volunteers. These repairs have been made with limited resources and to act as improvements. Like any historic structure, repairs have altered the original appearance of the building. Much of the physical evidence has been lost to repair after repair after repair.

All of this makes these photographs very important. There are two in particular that interest me. The first is the earliest known photograph of the lighthouse. It was taken by Major Jared Smith on the 18th of August, 1885. There are several noticeable differences between today's lighthouse and the 1885 lighthouse, but the most important to me is the difference in the railings. The 1885 railings are taller and include a round railing above the lower sqare railing and pickets. The posts are curved on the outboard side and the round rail, or pipe, runs through a hole drilled through the wood.

The taller railing apparently lasted into the 20th century as evidenced by the other historic photograph. This one is of Assistant Lighthouse Keeper Earl C. Harris. It was taken sometime in the 1930's on the perimeter deck of the lighthouse. Behind him is the railing, including the taller rail. While some of the detail is hard to discern, it provides the best evidence of the rail's appearance that we have. Granted, at this point the railing is 50 years old and has, doubtlessly, been repaired several times.

Whether or not the railing gets restored to its 1885 appearance has yet to be determined. The priority for the U. S. Lighthouse Society is the preservation of the structure. They will also have to determine the dates of interpretation for the deck. It may be that the current railing design is the most appropriate. There are still many decisions to be made before deciding if the railing gets changed, but there is evidence if an historic railing replication is desired. Not every property owner is lucky enough to find historic photographs of their building. In fact, more often than not, historic images don't exist. When they do, they can be very valuable resources.

If you are interested in the preservation of the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse please visit their website: http://www.thomaspointlighthouse.org/

1885 Lighthouse photograph from the National Archives- Photograph 26-LG-25-54
Photograph of Earl C. Harris courtesy of the U. S. Lighthouse Society

Lighthouse Restoration and the Importance of Planning

Every restoration project presents unique challenges. When the project is a 20 minute boat ride into the Chesapeake Bay, the unique challenges are many. Yesterday Todd Anderson, Tyler Anderson and I set off on just that ride. We boarded the "Audacious" and set out with Capt. Howard Lewis, Henry Gonzalez of the U.S. Lighthouse Society and engineers from Keast and Hood Structural Engineers to spend the day planning out the restoration of the perimeter deck of the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse.

Lighthouses, as you can imagine, suffer from extreme weathering. The decking and the joists holding the decking are rotting and much of the fabric needs to be replaced. Our task yesterday was to figure out how we would access the joists and replace them. Obviously, we can't just throw up ladders and scaffolding and go to town. A deck for the scaffold will have to be built and everything will have to be properly secured. We also have to figure out how to get equipment and materials to the sight and where to store it once it is there.

While restoring a lighthouse is not the norm, properly planning for a project should be. We've all forgotten something on a project: climbed a ladder and left your hammer at the bottom, or prepared half of a recipe and found out your out of cinnamon. If your working on a lighthouse you better have your Phillips-head screwdriver with you or its going to be a long trip back to the mainland! Proper planning at the beginning of a job can make everything run smoother. This doesn't just mean having the right tools on hand at the top of the ladder, but also making sure things are done in the right order. You want to make sure you don't have to backtrack. You can't install your wiring after the drywall is up. A successful job begins with careful planning.

As for the Lighthouse, the folks from Keast and Hood have investigated all of the joists, both visually and using a very cool resistance drill. We removed a couple of deck boards and verified what they had determined: that many of the joists have suffered from the exposure to the elements in the bay. We carefully studied the joists and how they were originally installed. Then we game-planned how we would remove the joists and reinstall new replacements. Obviously, when they were first put in, the rest of the building wasn't there. The installation of the replacements won't be as straight forward as it was when it was originally constructed. We have all the confidence in the world, however, that we can successfully replace the joists with proper planning!

So that is how we spent our day: learning as much as we could about a unique and very historically significant structure. Hopefully it was the first of many days spent out on the bay.