Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Collection |
General Information |
Archive Number |
HPTSSR48 |
Title |
November 2017 Newsletter Update |
Description |
November 2017 Sites & Structures Newsletter Update: Keim House: The Trust’s five-year campaign to restore the Keim House to its 1753 architectural composition and appearance was completed in November, 2016. Within a month, National Historic Landmark status [see plaque photo] was awarded to the house and wood turner’s shop, a rare recognition celebrated at the Trust’s November 4 th, 2017 Gala Dinner. A month earlier, Preservation Pennsylvania had conferred its statewide Preservation Stewardship award on the Keim project, which re-created the pent roof, balcony, and plastered cove cornice, and restored the stone steps and stone-arched entryway to the half-cellar under the first-floor Stube and Kammer. Mouns Jones House: Photographs taken a few years after the roof had collapsed in the late 1950s indicate that the ten exposed joists supporting the 2d floor were "edge-beaded", a refinement which will be recreated in detailing this important architectural element. "Edge-beads" had been specifically noted on a 1957 drawing by the Historic American Building Survey, now lodged in the Library of Congress. None of the early joists survive, thus the photographic evidence and HABS note, entirely consistent with one another, are crucial in determining the authentic treatment to be applied to the replacement "floor-beams". X-ray analysis of the primary elements of the early mortar used in the foundation and walls of Mouns Jones’s house has determined the precise chemical composition of the early lime binder. This "dolomitic" limestone type is nearly identical to geologic formations close to the northern range of the Mouns Jones tract nearly four miles north of his surviving stone house. An American source has been located for chemically and functionally equivalent lime-mortar that will be used in the masonry re-building campaign in 2018. George Douglass House: With the generous aid of a Pennsylvania Keystone Grant, matched by funds from the Donald & Esther Shelley Foundation, the Trust will undertake a major restoration program in 2018. The primary objectives will be completion and stabilization of all flooring in the building, interior plasterwork, and re-plastering of the exterior "encircling" [yes, we know it’s rectangular!] coved cornice, and complete restoration of the "best parlor" and its elegant and surprisingly colorful paneled and moulded woodwork. The completed project will accommodate the re-dedication of the structure as the "Shelley-Pendleton Education and Exhibit Center" as resolved by the Trust’s Board earlier this year. Morlatton Village Pathways: In 2018, stone-bordered and stabilized-soil paths will be installed to provide access to all building in the Village and to the Thun Trail. The pathways plan has been approved by the Trust’s Board and has been submitted to Amity Township for its review. The pathway surface material, suitable for pedestrians, cyclists, and wheelchair-borne visitors, will be acquired from the same local quarry that supplied the durable top-dressing on the Village parking areas. The border-stones leading to Trust buiildings, which will provide containment and weed-buffering for the pathways, have been gathered from the Village grounds. See record HPTSSR46 for additional discussion of the above issues. Larry Ward, July, 2022 |
Date |
November 2017 |
Object Name |
REPORT |
Catalog Number |
1008.01.095 |
Search Terms |
National Historic Landmark Preservation Pennsylvania award edge-bead mortar analysis paths border stones |