It's Halloween

APVA Preservation Virginia has come a long way in 119 years - at least our ladies smile now!!

Hollow Affronted

The front siding for the Hollow was installed and primed this week of 10/27/08. The restoration crew received enough siding to finish the west gable end next week, but are still waiting on material for the back side. The Hollow is finally starting to look like an 18th century house. Windows and interior restoration is planned for next year.

Jamestown Archaeological Conference, Nov 20

2008 Jamestown Conference

The staff of the APVA Preservation Virginia’s Jamestown Rediscovery Project, and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Archaeology Department are pleased to announce that the 2008 Jamestown Conference will be held on Thursday, November 20, in Williamsburg, VA. The conference, by and for regional archaeologists will be held at Colonial Williamsburg's Lane Auditorium in the Bruton Heights complex from 9:00 am to approximately 4:00 pm.

As is traditional, the conference will be an informal sharing of recent archaeological work work. Presentations consist of 20 minute papers from any discipline with a bearing on the archaeology of the Chesapeake Region (c. 16th-19th centuries.) Many papers will be fairly technical in nature, but the conference is free and open to all interested persons.

If you know anyone who wishes to present an archaeological paper, please have them contact jamie@apva.org before Nov. 5.

Conference information including the schedule will be posted by November 7 at http://www.apva.org/jr.html

For additional information, contact the 2008 Jamestown Conference Organizers: Jamie May jamie@apva.org; David Givens dgivens@apva.org; Meredith Poole mpoole@cwf.org; Andy Edwards aedwards@cwf.org; Ed Chappell echappell@cwf.org

Hollow Front Side-Week of 10/20/08

The Restoration crew concentrated their efforts on the front side of the Hollow this week. After repairing the generator, Karl started the tedious process of restoring the pieces of 18th century siding located on the southwest section of the house. He is using both abatron and west system liquid epoxies and Woodepox paste filler made by abatron. The weather has cooled considerably, so the temperature window for using epoxy products is closing.
The crew also did an assessment of the heart poplar siding on hand. They determined that there was enough siding to completely finish the front, so Mike belt sanded and beaded siding. He installed prepped siding Wednesday afternoon. The project was cut short this week because of tent take down duties at the Customs House. The supplier is supposed to deliver more siding this weekend. He is having difficulties finding logs large enough to make 9.5 inch wide heart poplar boards. Jon continues to work on the exterior of Bacon's Castle and has not quite finished the Godspeed Cottage shutters.

East End

The East end of the Hollow is now completely finished. The restoration crew has tent duties for the 16th,17th and the 23rd, and has not yet received their entire heart poplar order, which will limit progress on the house. The crew intends to make repairs to their generator the week of Oct. 20th, and if that is successful they will side the front of the house.

Visible Progress

After weeks of consolidating old doors and old trim, squaring existing door openings and making and installing period trim, the Restoration Dept finally has something to show at the Hollow. The East gable end is almost completely sided, save for a few short rows above a 20th century window opening. What took so long? Each of the 9.5 inch wide by 16 feet long pieces of heart poplar siding had to be belt sanded to remove the planer marks and then beaded, with a router for expediency. The work is being done on site with a generator as the power source.
The second picture shows the Northern, back view of the house. The window openings are exact duplicates of the existing original window in the front. They are unusual for an 18th century house because they are nail framed instead of mortice-and-tenon framed. The exterior and interior trims for the windows are jointed at their corners by mortice and tenon, then nailed into place. Why are the frames done so simply and the trim so complex? Next time you bump into Louis ask him, thats why he makes the big bucks. The back door was preserved in its 20 century, tenant house style.
Back on the peninsula but not forgotten, Jon has at last finished all the exterior painting at Smith's Fort. He has also been repairing and replacing storm shutters for the Godspeed cottage, at the request of resident Archeology Directer Bill Kelso. He will soon turn his attention to exterior repairs at Bacon's Castle, among other tasks.