In The Gutter

The restoration department recently had to repair squirrel

damage to a soffit on the 1854 wing at Bacon's Castle. Close inspection revealed that a clogged and leaking downspout had started to rot the soffit, which in turn drew the squirrels to take advantage of the distressed wood. With their attention now focused on the importance of fully functioning gutter systems, the department checked the Isle of Wight courthouse. Here you see Karl breaking up a gutter jam that was so bad, he had to disconnect the downspout and physically break it up. His earlier attemts with a snake and a water hose had failed. Jon shows you some of the tree material removed from the downspout. Had they not unclogged the downspout, the rainwater bubbling out of the spout and onto the porous brick would have eventually soaked through and caused the interior plaster to fail.

Pear Valley Update

We had a local groundsman over to Pear Valley last week to cut the grass and trim the area immediately against the house. As a follow up, Jim Sturgis, the Northampton Branch Director, took this picture last Friday. The grounds look great and we will certainly use the local guy again to keep the place neatly trimmed. But the photo does show the growing need for a bit of paint to protect the clapboard and keep the house from looking too shabby. Perhaps this should be added to our (ever growing) Fall priority list

Surry Surprise-Bacon's Castle Style

The Restoration department has been busy at Bacon's Castle in Surry County, scraping, reglazing, and painting windows and exterior trim. When Jon Miano removed a loose piece of trim from a window on the porch tower he was unpleasantly surprised to discover the entire window frame was substantially compromised through wet rot. A close examination of the mortice-and-tenon frame revealed it was made out of heart poplar. There are no discernable tool marks left, due in part to its poor condition. The header has a paint ghost and a line where earlier trim had been attached to it. The existing trim on the window matches the 1854 wing in style and material, indicating that the poplar frame may indeed be quite early, since it was on the house long enough before the 1850's period trim to acquire the ghost. The department will replace the frame reproducing the early joinery, but using pressure treated pine instead of heart poplar material. This is in keeping with our policy to only use period replacement materials where it actually can be detected, preserving that scarce resource.

Patrick Henry's Birthday

Today marks the 273rd anniversary of Patrick Henry's birth at Studley in eastern Hanover County. Although neither it is among our promoted sites, we do own both the site of Patrick's birth and the graveyard where his mother is buried. Studley is long snce lost, although it's site is known and marked. Two years ago, the Freeman Branch sponsored an archaeological investigation that uncovered much more than had previously been known about the site. Even with this broader understanding in hand, the future use of the site is uncertain. Preliminiary discussions with the Polegreen Foundation have not deveoped a specific plan. For now, the site is re-covered and within an argriclutural area, safely awaiting some determination of it long term future.

Sarah Winston Henry's gravesite is also well cared for, being in the midst of a golf course just outside Amherst. It was the last of the Preservation Virigna properties I had not seen when I visited there last summer. Larger than you might think and containing quite a few marked graves, it is seen, if not fully appreciated, but many golfers every day.

So Congratulations Sarah, and Happy Birthday Patrick!

Hang'em Low?

Ten of the twelve new garden gates for Scotchtown have been hung. The pressure-treated yellow pine gates are replacing the red cedar gates of unknown age. We would have preferred to use cedar this time as well, but the price of cedar is many times that of pine. The department is experimenting with the use of this material, trying to determine if its lifespan is equal to or greater than the less abundant and more expensive woods. One thing we did notice, was that treated pine is more susceptible to checking and warping. We have had to epoxy cracks in the curved diagonal braces quite a bit during and after the construction of the gates. Western red cedar would not have checked like that. The straight posts and rails have not had the checking problem, with the exception of one post. It has taken three men about 31 days each to make and hang these gates. There are two left to be done, and they are about 2 days from being finished.

Scotchtown Gates Progressing

The Restoration crew is progressing at super glacier speed in the construction of the replacement garden gates for Scotchtown. Karl and Jon are moving a gate after drilling and pinning it. They were utilizing the nice weather we had Friday to escape the cluttered confines of the Mule barn during a major shop project. The other pictures show Jon shaping the pins with the pin driver, a steel plate with assorted holes bored into it. Once the pins are split and roughed to close dimensions, the pins are driven through the correct size hole to true them up so they won't bind or split the wood when they are driven into a joint. the other picture shows Karl and Jon in the process of clamping and pinning a gate on the work station in the Mule barn. There are 12 gates to be made. Each gate has 13 mortises and requires 13 pins for completion.

Scotchtown Gates et al

After two weeks of shuffling offices and furniture at Cole-Digges, the Restoration Dept. started the manufacture of the Scotchtown gates in earnest. The picture shows the 12 middle posts mortised. The taller end posts have yet to be done. This work took one man almost a week to perform.

The dept. also reset the the fence and brick edging, backfilled the stump hole and resurfaced the stone dust pathway following the removal of a walnut tree by the East corner of Smiths Fort Plantation in Surry. The walnut was in declining health and was a real threat to the house. Tom Forehand, the site administrator, had the usable part of the wood sawn for the purpose of making and selling reproduction furniture at the plantation.