Historic Restorations

We've Moved!

2012-07-09T07:20:00.001-04:00

We haven't been posting as frequently in the last two months for a very good reason.... We were busy designing a whole new home for our blog. Please come and visit us (no house-warming gift needed!) and check out our new digs at at:

www.historic-restorations.com/blog

Woot Woot! PA now has a Historic Tax Credit!

2012-07-03T07:31:00.003-04:00

Exciting news just in....from Preservation Pennsylvania:

Historic Tax Credit Established in Pennsylvania

On Saturday, June 30, Pennsylvania became the 30th state in the country to have a state historic tax credit when Governor Tom Corbett signed the FY 2013 Commonwealth Budget and established the Historic Preservation Incentive Act . (Click on the link to read an overview of the act.) This tax credit will be a companion to the very successful federal tax credit program.

Preservation Pennsylvania thanks the General Assembly for the establishment of this program that will offer a 25% state tax credit for the rehabilitation of qualified income-producing buildings that are also using the federal tax credit. By leveraging the existing 20% federal tax credit with an additional 25% state credit, the program will help lure investment into Pennsylvania. Data show that states with state credits tend to have an advantage over states that do not have tax credits in attracting investment in historic rehabilitation.

“We are thrilled with the passage of this legislation,” said Mindy Crawford, Executive Director of Preservation Pennsylvania. “This program is not just about historic preservation – it is about local jobs, economic development, neighborhood revitalization and vibrant strong communities. Pennsylvania has historically been one of the strongest users of the federal tax credit and the creation of a state tax credit will result in more projects that return abandoned buildings to useful life and place them back on the tax rolls.”

Credit for moving this effort forward goes to Senator Lloyd Smucker, R-Lancaster, who introduced the legislation and continued championing for it throughout budget negotiations. Representative Robert Freeman, D-Northampton, who advocated for this legislation in the House and helped move it to the finish line. In the end, this program was established as part of the Commonwealth Budget in the Tax Reform Code.

Efforts to establish this credit in Pennsylvania began in 1996 under the leadership of former State Representative Tom Tangretti, D-Westmoreland, who worked for the passage of this program until his retirement in 2008. Many groups and individuals worked to advocate for the passage of this program during the last 16 years. We thank each and every one of you for your efforts.

What’s Next? The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the Department of Economic and Community Development will develop the program guidelines. The credit goes into effect July 1, 2012 but the first tax credits will not be issued until after July 1, 2013. Just like the federal program, this credit is issued after the project is completed. To start, the program is limited to $3 million annually with an individual project cap of $500,000. Please check the Preservation Pennsylvania website for the latest information.

How do you move an 1800's stone castle from Ohio to Texas?

2012-06-07T11:37:00.002-04:00

You hire Reserections. If you want to have any hope of actually moving the castle a thousand miles (without the post office, the moving company, and the airlines losing a few packages and offering you a complimentary Starbucks to say "Sorry!").

Based in Ohio, Reserections specializes in documenting, marketing, and disassembling architecturally unique historical homes. Supporting the idea that "The Greenest Home is the One Already Built", disassembly and relocation protects the embodied energy of structures (you know, the energy that can never, ever be regained - so it's like taking throwing away a tank full of heating oil you already purchased just so you can fill it with new heating oil).

They carefully disassemble the homes, preserving all the key components, interior framing, exterior stone facades, roof slates, and any other recoverable materials. (And they ship to anywhere in the world, so you could have a castle resurrected on that remote island you purchased last week.)

Currently they are offering five stone mansions, all built during the American "Gilded Age" of the Post-Civil War 1800's, they all reflect the Richardsonian and early Beaux-Arts Classicism typically seen in the homes of the wealthy during that time.

But exactly how do they do it?

Here's how they disassembled and relocated the 1885 Kemper Castle from Ohio to Texas. Built by an Ohio Industrialist, the 6,200SF castle has 23 rooms, 7 bedrooms, 7 full baths, and 6 fireplaces. (Just a bit bigger than your average beach house.)

First, all the interior components that could not be recovered were removed... plaster, drywall, etc. - leaving only the exterior walls, framing, joists, studs, and flooring. Then the slate roof was removed and the slate recovered and packed in straw for shipping. After 120+ years, the extremely valuable slates showed very little signs of wear.

Once the roof was gone, it was time to remove the peak of the turret. The turret weighed 7,300 pounds.

With the peak removed, the house is ready for the removal of the stone facade.

The house must be rebuilt with each stone in the same position, so each stone is numbered. Note the tags on each stone. The stones are identified by an alpha designating the location of the wall and a numeric designating the location of the wall and a numeric indicating its position. Every stone in the house is numbered.

As the stones are removed from the house, they are renumbered with permanent markings and packed in containers built on pallets for shipment.

When originally built, the stone facade was layered over and interleaved with three courses of brick and mortar which constituted the main structure of the house walls. In addition to the surface stones, there were many monolithic stone components that were carefully removed, some weighing over 4,000 pounds.

The Final Stones Coming Down

The stones are palletized and trucked to their destination in Texas where the Kemper Castle will find a new home. This flatbed load weighed over 40,000 pounds.

Finally.... a half acre empty lot ready for development and the Kemper Castle finds a new home in Texas.

3D Brickwork and a Very Funky picture

2012-06-01T09:06:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, Preservation in Pink posted one of her "Preservation Pop Quiz" posts that featured some very decorative 3D brickwork. (If you know anything about 3D brickwork, you might want to pop over there and help us all out - we're having a hard time identifying the term used to describe making 3D cornice work with bricks.)

While musing about how I would describe that brickwork, I realized it reminded me of the 3D brickwork often seen on Tudor chimneys. The Tudor architectural style was a type of medieval architecture occurring during the Tudor period in England (late 1400's to right around 1600).

Most of us have some image we conjure up when we hear "Tudor style", and for me it is definitely the gorgeous Tudor chimneys. They really are marvels of human imagination, design, and engineering. I fell in love with them when I first saw them, and even though my dream house is an Arts & Crafts bungalow - I want a Tudor chimney.

Tudor chimneys on an Arts & Crafts bungalow.... I'm not sure I could convince my husband to give it a try.

Beyond the Garden Gate: A peek at the gardens of a 100 years ago

2012-05-30T11:24:00.000-04:00

If you are like me, you've probably often extended your musings over historic architecture to the gardens that were designed, planted, and cultivated to compliment that architecture and found yourself wondering just what the gardens of 100 years ago looked like. If we've abandoned brick and stone in favor of vinyl facades, turned away from plaster in favor of drywall, install composite woods instead of solid woods - how have our gardens changed?

Were tulips, daffodils, azaleas, bluebells, spring lillies, and cosmos the blossoming colors that heralded spring 100 years ago as they typically do in today's gardens?

Were asters, sage, sunflowers, mums, crocus, witch hazel, fall lillies, and sedum as much a fall favorite for the gardens of 100 years ago as they are for today's gardens?

Now you can answer those questions, with a very special sneak peek at some Lancaster gardens from 100 years ago. The Fivepoints Neighborhood Association of Old Town, Lancaster has developed a walking tour that showcases 15 private gardens in downtown Lancaster City's historic Old Town neighborhoods. The tour will view vegetation planted over 100 years ago - including ponds, fountains, swimming pool, intimate courtyards, elegant gardens, and great outdoor vignettes for dining and entertaining. The interior spaces of four of the homes will also be open for the tour.

"Beyond the Garden Gate"

Sunday 17 June 2012

Noon to 5 p.m.

Rain or Shine

The garden tour starts at 51 S. Duke St. (Stevens and Lee), where visits can view photographs chronicling an Old Town renovation. The following sites will also be open for the tour:

216 Old Trinity Place

213 Old Trinity Place

120 E. Vine St.

145 E. Vine St. (second floor apartment)

46 S. Lime St.

137 S. Duke St.

139 S. Duke St.

330 Church St.

121 S. Duke St.

117 S. Duke St.

109 S. Duke St.

107 S. Duke St.

114 John Hoff Place

33 Washington St.

122 S. Duke St.

Cost of advanced tickets is $10, or $9 for two or more. Tickets may be purchased the day of the tour at the cost of $10 each. The following businesses will be selling tickets until 6/16/12: Chestnut House, Festoon, Tellus360, Lancaster Art and Glass Works, and David the Goldsmith. Look for us on First Friday in front of Tellus326 and the Ware Center. Email me for more information.

Proceeds from the tour will be used to promote Lancaster's Historic District and maintain and further develop public areas of The Neighborhoods of Old Town Lancaster. Currently, the Neighborhood Association with the help of resident volunteers, maintains 24 curbside flower planters, and landscaped public areas. Two passive neighborhood parks (Case Commons at E. Vine and Church St., and Church Pointe Park at Farnum and Church St.) were designed, built and are maintained by resident volunteers of the neighborhood. Visitors are encouraged to view these two public green spaces.

The Association has also developed and published an Historical/Architectural Walking Tour Guide of the neighborhoods. This booklet will be available to the public free of charge.

Tour participants are encouraged to spend Fathers Day afternoon in downtown Lancaster and enjoy brunch or dinner at the many nearby restaurants. After enjoying the tour you can take your ticket to Annie Bailey's Pub and receive a 20% discount on food items.

HIDDEN GEM: Roundup on Gruber Wagon Works

2012-05-14T16:49:00.002-04:00

Is there anything more iconic to early American life than wagons?

Perhaps. And it just might be the Gruber Wagon Works in Bern Township, Berks County.

Most of us are aware of just how important wagons and wheels were to early American life. Wagons carried travelers and cargo up and down the East Coast on a network of dirt roads.... They were loaded with kids and kettles rolled over wide open spaces on the road to the wild West.... They were loaded with people to be carted around towns in the early form of modern buses.... Carts toted plants and produce around farms and supplies and weaponry around battlefields.... Really, there wasn't much end to the uses of wagons and wheels - you can read more about the importance of wagons here and here if you are still unconvinced.

But before you could use a cart or a wagon, it had to be made....and made with a sturdy set of wheels. Which is where Gruber Wagon Works comes in - built in the 1800's it is one of our nation's oldest surviving examples of rural manufacturing. It now stands as an iconic representation of the roots of manufacturing in our country.

And it's right here in our back yard. Here's a round up of resources where you can learn more about this "hidden gem" of history and hopefully you'll go take a gander at this preservation jewel.

Yeehaw!

"Gruber Wagon Works" by Berks County Time Train

This short little one minute video is a great overview and introduction to what the Gruber Wagon Works did and the history it represents, as well as the process of moving the Gruber Wagon Works from its original location when Blue Marsh lake was created to its current location at the Heritage Center. (While you're there, you can enjoy the other Berks County Time Train videos about history.)

The Berks County Heritage Center

The Berks County Heritage Center is where Gruber Wagon Works was moved to when Blue Marsh Lake was built in the 70's. The Center also houses the C. Howard Hiester Canal Center, Wertz's Covered Bridge, Melcher's Grist Mill, Deppen Cemetery, Bicentennial Eagle Memorial, Police & Veteran's Memorial, Doctor's Grover, the Distlefink, and a salad and herb garden."

"Gruber Wagon Works Tour" by Furnace Creek Forge

"My wife and I and several friends visited the Gruber Wagon Works museum on Sunday.Russ, who is one of their tour guides, spent 3.5 hours with us going thru the building. He conducted a wonderful tour and went into great detail about the Grubers and their trade. A normal tour doesn't go that long but it was a slow day and he could spend the time with us."

"Gruber Wagon Works Restored" article in the Reading Eagle

"The Gruber Wagon Works is as good as old. A recently completed $1.1 million project restored the building as close as possible to its original 1882 condition and added a pole barn to display the wagon collection belonging to the Berks County Parks and Recreation Department. The wagon works - a National Historic Landmark - is one of the attractions at the Berks County Heritage Center off Route 183 in Bern Township. It was moved there in 1977 by the Army Corps of Engineers from its original location up the road in Mount Pleasant."

"The Gruber Wagon Works: The Place Where Time Stood Still" by Carol J. Hunsberger and published by The Society for the Preservation of the Gruber Wagon Works.

The Gruber Wagon Works documents the history of the Gruber family and its small business that operated from 1882 through 1971 in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. The book details the history of the wagon works, the people involved, and the preserving of the structure.

"Moving the Gruber Wagon Works"

This 40-minute video focuses on the revolutionary approach used to move the Gruber Wagon Works from its original location when Blue Marsh Lake was built. Believe it or not, this was the first design-built contract that was ever awarded by the Army Corps of Engineer in a ground-breaking new approach that split apart the design and construction processes of the project.

"Wagon Making in the United States During the Late-19th Through Mid-20th Centuries: A Study of the Gruber Wagon Works" by Paul A. Kube, Clayton E. Ray, Cathy L. Wegener

This book includes photos, a chapter on wgon making in general, and production records of the Gruber Wagon Works. Collectors of tools and farm implements, as well as those interested in Americana will find an interest in the descriptions of tools and how they were used by the craftsmen of the period.

HIDDEN GEM: The DOE and the postcard collection at Landis Valley museum - a surprising connection

2012-05-10T14:20:00.000-04:00

What do the Department of Energy's superconductivity and hydrogen programs have in common with a postcard collection at Landis Valley Museum?

Russ Eaton.

Named Volunteer of the Year in 2011 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) for his work on the postcard collection at Landis Valley Museum (administered by the PHMC), Russ isn't really your ordinary man. And it isn't just his distinguished white hair that sets him apart from the rest.

Born and raised in Ohio, Russ earned three degrees in Physics and spent over twenty years working for the Department of Energy. During his time as an engineer at the Department of Energy, Russ worked both in regional offices and at their headquarters in D.C. And as it turns out, it would be a good thing he had those three physics degrees.... Russ worked on research in both the former hydrogen program that explored the use of nuclear fissions in electrical energy applications and the superconductivity program that worked on the development of high-temperature superconducting materials.

In 2003, Russ and his wife moved to Lancaster, PA....

...and a whole new side of Russ began to show.

Facing more free time than his career had ever given him, Russ began volunteering - something he hadn't really done much of before retirement. One day, when serendipity was apparently floating extra freely in the air, the Curator at Landis Valley invited volunteer Russ into the museum's gallery to see the various collections maintained at the museum. While in the gallery, Russ noticed a very large, and very disorganized, postcard collection.

It was love, of a sort, at first sight...

Or maybe it would technically be second, or even five hundred and seventy-second sight, because as fate would have it, Russ has been collecting postcards since he was a young boy. Postcards have always held a special appeal for Russ, and he still has the cards he collected as a child because postcards still hold a special appeal for him.

So Russ began the work of cataloging, categorizing, and inventorying the vast postcard collection at Landis Valley (it's actually one of the museum's largest and most sophisticated collections). It's not necessarily easy work, despite the comfortable chair and climate-controlled work space. He's had to develop a cataloging system for the collection, and then continue to develop that cataloging system as mini-collections within the collection start making themselves apparent over time.

His work often requires research - reaching out to historical organizations and agencies, postcard experts and collectors, tracking down personal histories and information about a sender or recipient, reading up on a particular postcard artist's style and work, and more.

"It's not just about the art or the artifact, I find history in these postcards."

Like the history of the Ferman family that Russ stumbled across as he amassed a set of postcard correspondences between the Ferman family members, particularly from one of the brothers who served in the Navy. Researching this brother, Russ discovered he could match the exact Naval cruises he made by cross-referencing the cities the cards were mailed from.

Or the set of cards mailed between a woman named Gussie Palmer and a man only known as "Carl" who courted Gussie quite humorously in a postcard romance. This particular set of cards has stumped Russ - he's been completely unable to identify who "Carl" is, or even where he's from.

Russ sees postcards that range from the type of "real photo" postcards that Nettie Mae Landis liked to create and receive, the various postcards featuring the Dionne Quintuplets, to artist-signed postcards by local Samuel Schmucker - who's cards can demand a price as high as $400+ each.

But the strangest category of postcards Russ has seen yet are the postcards that have pictures of lynchings on the front of them. When I speculated that perhaps that wasn't any less morbid than the gruesome pictures regularly printed in newspapers, Russ astutely pointed out, "But they wrote ordinary things on the back! So you'd buy a postcard with four dead guys hanging from a tree to say 'I'll see you later this week'!"

When he put it that way..... yeah, I guess I have to admit that's a little weird.

The postcard collection isn't the only work Russ has done at Landis Valley, but his citation from the PHMC for his volunteer work is specifically for his work organizing and preserving the valuable Landis Family correspondences, as well as the bigger hobby collection Nettie Mae collected from people across the nation and around the world that she exchanged postcards with. The PHMC resolution issued to Russ notes, "Bringing knowledge of the history of postcards to this work, he identified many cards of historic and artistic importance".

So why does he do it?

"I have a great reverence for things that are old and worthwhile," he says simply.

HIDDEN GEM: Olde Mill Lighting: An inside look at the handcrafted tinsmith process

2012-05-07T12:21:00.000-04:00

Our first "hidden gem" in our backyard for May's National Historic Preservation Month is Olde Mill Lighting - and we were lucky enough to score an inside peek at their handcrafted smithery process.

Located on an 18th century miller’s plantation on Strasburg Pike, Olde Mill Lighting is part of a family of home enhancement shoppes that resides in a bank barn and stone farmhouse restored by founding patriarch Jerry. Jerry and his wife are now retired, but the family business carries on with daughter Tina now managing the operations.

Relying on the expertise and craftsmanship of their tinsmith, Olde Mill Lighting offers a wide range of both inventory and custom order brass indoor and outdoor lighting fixtures in a variety of finish color treatments. Their fixtures are designed and crafted right here in Lancaster County, though they do order their hand-blown reproduction glass from Germany when an exact replication of 200-year-old traditionally hand-blown glass is needed.

Exacting and expert recreations of historical pieces is so much their specialty that Olde Mill Lighting has even helped set the stage for Hollywood movies. Their work can be seen in the lanterns on the ships of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, where authenticity was so important that no electrical lighting was used at all. They also provided all the period pieces for the indoor and outdoor fixtures for the entire village setting of the HBO mini-series chronicling the life and political contributions of one of our Founding Fathers in John Adams.

“We were recently contacted about reproducing a huge period light from the White House for an Abe Lincoln movie currently being made, but we just couldn’t do it as much as we wanted to – it was just too big,” said lighting specialist Joan.

But lighting isn’t the only thing this family founded, owned, and operated local business offers. “I wish more people realized the variety of things Olde Millhouse Shoppes can offer them,” says daughter Tina. “We not only have hand-crafted indoor and outdoor lighting, we also have period furniture, decorations, gifts, candles, boutique items, and the most recent addition of our floral department.”

Visit their website at oldemillhouse.com for more information.

OFFICIAL PROCLAMATION: May is National Preservation Month!

2012-05-03T14:58:00.000-04:00

One of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's programs to work towards their goal of "providing leadership, education, advocacy, and resources to save America's diverse historic places" is the proclamation of May as National Preservation Month.

As part of this program, the NTHP offers up a proclamation template that local governors and mayors can use to officially proclaim May as National Preservation Month (go ahead, you can steal it - the most creative people and the smartest entrepreneurs do).

Now, we haven't ever been officially elected to any public office position (it's okay, we didn't want to hold office anyway, we are just much too busy saving our built history), but we're going to go ahead and take a few liberties and proclaim May as National Preservation Month anyway.

Heed our call to action and spread the word - May is National Preservation Month! And we'll be recognizing National Preservation Month all throughout May on our Facebook and blog with features on the "hidden gems" of historical preservation that we want to share with you - people, places, resources, and more from Lancaster and surrounding areas that you may not have met before.

Be sure to like us on Facebook and subscribe to our blog and sign up for our monthly newsletter so you don't miss out on anything.

Preserving the Tower of Independence Hall

2012-05-02T15:32:00.000-04:00

In the summer of 2011, the tower at Independence Hall was bared to the bones for the first time since it was added in 1828. In a restoration project for the National Park Service (NPS), contractors bared the face level of the tower down to the structural framing. The NPS has a detailed write-up of the project, along with pictures, videos, and step-by-step pictorial guides of the process.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT ALL OUT AND TAKE A LITERAL LOOK INTO HISTORY

BOOK REVIEW: Architecture of Democracy

2012-05-01T14:58:00.000-04:00

Architecture of Democracy

by Allan Greenberg

Wrapping up our discussion on the founding of our country, we thought we recommend this book on the founding architecture of our country. You can read more information about author Allan Greenberg at his website, a detailed article on Allan Greenberg and this book that ran in a 2007 issue on Traditional Building, and the book can be purchased at multiple places online but we suggest ordering from our favorite locally owned and operated brick-and-mortar bookstore, Aaron's Books.

Timber Frame Hybrids

2012-04-30T19:07:00.000-04:00

“You can’t have your cake and eat it, too” might apply in the kitchen, but when you’re building houses, you sometimes can have both. If you like timber-frame houses but can’t afford one, consider a hybrid. Although a complete timber frame usually costs 10% to 20% more than a comparable stick frame, a small timber-frame structure integrated into a stick-frame house adds only a fraction of that cost. Hybrids also are less complicated to build than full timber frames, yet they retain the dramatic look of timber-frame structures in visible areas. These timber-frame parts can range in scale and complexity from a simple covered entry to an entire two-story addition. In a typical situation, a timber-frame company such as mine is used as a subcontractor and provides the materials and installation; we also have supplied materials and/or assembled components for builders. The following are some examples of projects we’ve built.

Entries and porches: A little timber goes a long way

A home’s entrance serves as a transition between outside and inside; it should be protecting and inviting. A timber-frame entrance (see photo) satisfies these requirements and is relatively easy to build. Typically composed of two trusses and connecting girts, the structure is lag-bolted to wall studs through the sheathing; the posts are anchored to a masonry pad or footings with noncorrosive standoffs and 1-in. dia. Galvanized-steel pins (see drawing).

Building a flat-ceilings timber-frame porch is also fairly easy (see photo). The porch is built with a series of posts, girts and braces that support a simple stick-frame roof, which in turn ties the timber frame to the house.

Any number of styles is possible. Entrances can be as simple as a single bent with a ridge, purlins and side girts that die into the exterior wall. A large entrance can be even more elaborate. Railings can be integrated into the posts, or the posts can be doubled up. Whether on a porch or a deck, posts that look too feeble to support even themselves are the one thing that most diminishes the presence and personality of a house. We always recommend that substantial posts and girts be used – say, 8x8s and 6x10s, respectively. If these dimensions look too heavy, the beams’ edges can be chamfered or beaded for a lighter look.

Sprucing up the ceiling with a floor system

A timber-frame floor/ceiling system usually consists of a massive central, or summer, beam that supports the smaller joists (see photo). The drywall then can be placed on top of the timbers, and a sound-deadening floor (usually layers of plywood) or a conventional 2x-joist floor can be built above, especially if ductwork is an issue. For a wood ceiling, tongue-and-groove boards are usually the materials of choice, followed by a built-up floor or 2x joists. Some builders may opt for a single layer of tongue-and-groove boards, but sound transmitted between floors can be irritating.

Opening a space with trusses

The most popular hybrid form is the timber-frame truss system (see photo). Most often, trusses are placed in a large open space, such as a great room. Heavy trusses generally can be spaced 16ft. apart if they’re connected with purlins (see drawings) spaced 4ft. o.c. If the purlins don’t fit in the design, more trusses with closer spacing do the trick. In such a scenario, tongue-and-groove ceiling boards run perpendicular to the trusses rather than parallel as they do with purlin connections. It’s usually more economical to go with the purlins because fewer trusses are used.

Other considerations include roof pitch and span-loading requirements. In terms of structural effectiveness as well as aesthetics, scissors, hammer-beam, and tied-rafter systems work better with steep pitches (12-in-12 or greater) and shorter spans (24ft. or less). Whatever the choice, review any design with a licensed structural engineer.

Incidentally, for whatever type of project that we’re working on, we have drawings sealed by a registered engineer because loading requirements can dictate not only the shape but also timber size and spacing. The relatively low cost of an engineer’s time is money well spent.

Truss design can make a space feel contemporary and light, medieval and heavy, or just about anything in between, depending on configuration (see drawings), timber species, surface, and finish. Ceiling materials also has an impact. White drywall or pickled tongue-and-groove boards can help a tight area to feel larger; dark painted drywall or clear-finished tongue and groove can make a high ceiling feel lower or make a large room feel more inviting.

This article originally appeared in Fine Homebuilding Magazine and was reprinted with permission from Anthony Zaya of Lancaster County Timber Framers, Inc.

A "Walking" tour of historic Philadelphia and Independence Park

2012-04-27T20:38:00.000-04:00

The kids and I have been studying the American Revolution all year for our history studies, and last week we took a field trip down to Independence National Historical Park (INHP). It was a gorgeous day and I took a ton of pictures just so I could share them with you.

So let's take a walking tour through Philadelphia's Historic District and INHP ..... a walking tour you can take without ever having to leave your chair.

(Disclaimer: I don't know all the names of all the buildings, the years they were built, or even a whole lot of information about their architectural features. What I do know is that Center City Philadelphia has some really cool old buildings and I couldn't stop snapping photos.)

First up, let's visit Independence Hall. This building literally is the foundation of INHP and it's where our country was founded. I won't bore you with a bunch of historical details, mostly because someone else has already taken the time to type it all up for me, but also because I can't wait to show you these pictures.

Here she is in all her grandeur.....

Her crowning glory.....

I noticed the clock below the clock tower and just couldn't help but wonder..... why? Why does a clock tower (with a clock on all four sides) require an additional clock below it? Nobody knew. Google couldn't tell me either. Here are the kids' theories: Did our founders have a secret obsession with time? Or maybe this was the early version of World Time Zone Clock Walls? Perhaps the extra clock showed the time in the Mother Country? Maybe the Founding Fathers just thought it would be pretty?

I am used to seeing date stones at the bottom of buildings. I've never noticed one at the top of a building before, or such a small one. It also seems to be applied to the exterior, rather than built into the wall as I am accustomed to expecting in a datestone. I tried searching out some information, but Google failed me here too. I found one short Wikipedia on datestones, and while the reference sources seem to be Euro-centric it did include a link to this blog post about the use of datestones in Europe that I found a fascinating read. After reading it, I have to wonder if this datestone is actually original to the building.

Now let's head inside......

The Court Room

In the 1700's, the American Colonies used the same Common Law system that England used, using Grand Juries to determine criminal indictments and after declaring their independence, the United States of America continued using the same Grand Jury system as the basis for their justice system.

The concept of Grand Juries was introduced by King Henry the II in 1166 C.E. While they were widely used in England and several other countries around the world, they were not initially used in the Colonies. Instead "Assistants" acting as magistrates made laws, accused suspects, and passed judgments on those charges. Such unmitigated power lead to widespread abuse by the "Assistants" and by the mid-1600's Grand Juries were replacing the use of "Assistants" in the Colonies.

But critics soon turned their attentions to Grand Jury hearings saying they didn't protect witnesses and the accused enough and granted the Grand Jury and the Prosecution too much power.

Eventually Grand Juries were abandoned and today the United States is the only country to still use Grand Juries.

There is no doubt, the Court Room felt imposing, embellished, stately, and significant. But even the halls and stairways at Independence Hall felt the same way. Everywhere the eye turned it found the sense of style and essence it expected in such a hallowed building.

In the one corner of the Court Room, my husband noticed and pointed out the hidden doors that sat in the curved corners at the back of the room. The Park Ranger was leading our (rather large, thanks to a Fraternity group from MIT) group out of the room and the temptation was strong to go take a peak at what those doors were hiding - but we resisted.

And now for the room that's responsible for it all....

The Assembly Room is the room where it all began, where the delegations from all thirteen colonies regularly convened to discuss Provincial government matters at first, and eventually where they planned and plotted a Revolution. It was surprisingly small at only 40 feet square, a nice balance of understated and architecturally interesting, and contained fifteen tables - one for each of the colonies facing the front, one for whomever was presiding over the meetings, and one for the secretary of the meetings. The only original furniture in the room is the "Rising Sun Chair" (see below for an explanation) used by George Washington and the silver inkstand used to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. All other furnishing were Constitution period items purchased by the NPS when recreating the Assembly Room setting.

The "Rising Sun Chair" is actually an original piece of furniture to the Assembly Room. It held our Founding Fathers as they discussed, debated, and declared our independence. It held George Washington while he presided over the discussions, debates, and declarations that eventually produced our Constitution a few years later.

Ben Franklin is purported as saying, "I have often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now, at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising. and not a setting. sun."

Speaking of Ben Franklin....

We also stopped over at Franklin Court. Franklin's house is no longer standing (apparently his relatives tore it down a mere 20 years after he died to erect a commercial structure), but the NPS has constructed a "ghost" house that shows the outline of what Franklin's house would have looked like. And while Franklin's house could not be preserved, the rest of the Court could and houses an 18th Century printing press shop and an operating post office and postal museum.

Oh, and the places where Ben Franklin pooped. No joke. They have the round holes where privies sat marked with manhole-like metal covers, inscribed with the notation that they were Ben Franklin's privies. Talk about your fanatical preservation.... (No, I did not take pictures. You can continue scrolling without fear.)

The front of the shops at Franklin Court

The kids participated in the NPS' "Junior Ranger Program" while we were visiting INHP. To be sworn in as Jr. Rangers, they had to complete activities in a workbook throughout the day at our various stops. Here at Franklin Court they drew a picture of what they thought Franklin's house would have looked like had it still been standing.

What an 18th Century print shop looks like....

This was hands-down my favorite stop and I came away from our time spent in the print shop with a new found passion and an absolute determination that some day I will own and operate an 18th Century printing press. No joke on this one either. I even put it on my Mother's Day wish list and have the kids campaigning hard with their Father for me.

And this is how flyers, newspapers, sales ads, political papers, notices, etc. were made and printed in the 1700's.....

First a typesetter would spend hours to days setting the printing plate with the type, embellishment designs, spacing, etc. that made up the layout of the page.

Then the ink was applied to the plate face with the use of leather tampers repeatedly pounded over the face of the plate to make sure ink was adequately and evenly applied to the entire printing surface.

After the ink was applied and the cloth paper (they didn't make paper out of trees in the 1700s) laid out on the opposing wooden lid, the lid was lowered and secured in place on top of the printing plate, and the entire thing was rolled under the press which was then cranked down onto the printing plate to "stamp" the paper with the inked print.

And this was the final result - our Declaration of Independence. Did you know we had a few different versions of our Declaration of Independence? (What he's holding in the picture is the Declaration of Independence as it was printed and distributed in July of 1776. It was slightly different than what was printed and signed later that year. Before we left, we were able to purchase that version and the version that was signed from the printer that had been printed right there in the re-created shop. Now how cool is that?)

After being printed, the papers were hung to dry in railings around the ceiling of the print shop. The printer noted that there would have usually been several people running a shop of this size - probably one or two dedicated to setting the plates, a few who ran the actual printing in an assembly-line fashion, one who dried and pressed the papers - and they would have been capable of printing several papers a minute.

We also stopped for a photo opp at the First Bank of the United States....

The First Bank of the United States is not only A Very Cool Building, it has A Very Cool Story behind it. I highly recommend reading the Wikipedia on it. I won't get into here, because again, there's already a well-written and documented Wikipedia on it. And I've already noted that I highly recommend you read the Wikipedia on it. Need I say more?

If you look close in a few of these pictures, you will see the foundation looks like blocks of marble with a joint. And it is blocks of marble. But what was fascinating to me was that the blocks of marble were not nearly as small as they looked. They were larger slabs of marble that were carved to look like smaller blocks of marble with a joint, though there were no actual joints.

Miscellaneous Pictures from our walkabout.....

A glorious 18th Century garden where we rested our weary feet for awhile and enjoyed a surprising pocket of quiet serenity in Center City Philadelphia.

Oh, and one Very Cute Kid (i.e., the blur running through the pictures).

The best way to end a day....

When we just couldn't go anymore, we headed towards the Franklin Fountain. Our family has a tradition of hunting down local creameries every time we go anywhere (even if it is just ten miles down the road), and the story behind Franklin Fountain fascinated us. (And when the kids heard Man vs. Food visited the Franklin Fountain, it was a done deal. Click here to watch the short video about his visit.) The creamery itself fascinated us as well, particularly the cash register with Franklin quotes and the pulley system ceiling fans.

On our walk back to the train station, we caught a view of Independence Hall we hadn't seen earlier in the day. I found this particular view perhaps the most poignant of all the views we saw that day.

VIDEO: Thaddeus Kosciuszko: A Hero On Two Continents

2012-04-27T10:19:00.001-04:00

Thaddeus Kosciuszko is a little known hero terribly important to American History. We hope you take ten minutes to learn more about Kosciuszko with this well-done video created by a student for a National History Day competition.

Let Freedom Ring

2012-04-18T20:30:00.000-04:00

Take a 30-second field trip to the Liberty Bell Center at Independence National Historical Park and learn the (maybe surprising) way our bell came to be called the Liberty Bell. It may have tolled for independence on that fateful day in 1776, but we didn't call it the Liberty Bell back then.

Honoring our Independence on the 8th of July

2012-04-18T11:41:00.000-04:00

We might celebrate our independence on the 4th of July every year, but we actually declared our independence on the 8th of July in 1776. In honor of our birth as a nation, our Declaration of Independence is read aloud in Independence National Park on the 8th of July every year. Watch the video below to hear last year's reading.

The Women of the Ephrata Cloister

2012-04-17T08:04:00.000-04:00

Ever wonder what the women of the Ephrata Cloister were like? What other local women of that era were like? The Ephrata Cloister can show you, with their program "Mothers, Sisters, Daughters" that explores the roles, duties, responsibilities, and influences of both the celibate women of the Cloister and married women of Colonial America. For more information, visit their website at: ephratacloister.org.

Coming Soon..... The Lancaster Campus of History

2012-04-16T07:37:00.002-04:00

It probably comes as no surprise to most of us that history is very important to us here in Lancaster County. So important, in fact, that Lancaster County's Historical Society and President James Buchanan's Wheatland are working together to recreate Wheatland into an entire campus dedicated to Central Pennsylvania history.

Here is the press release they posted on their website regarding the campus:

The Lancaster Campus of History

LancasterHistory.org—Lancaster County's Historical Society and President James Buchanan's Wheatland—has experienced more than a decade of pronounced change and growth, made possible by strong leadership, innovative educational programming, exceptional strategic planning,

first-rate historical collections, and enthusiastic support from the community.

The Lancaster Campus of History will build on the strengths of LancasterHistory.org, and will transform Lancaster County's official historical society and Wheatland, a National Historic Landmark and the home of Pennsylvania's only U.S. President, into a new national model for historical learning and public programming. It will place Central Pennsylvania at the forefront of a movement exploring foundational themes of American history by demonstrating the relationship between local, regional, and national stories, events, and people, creating a center for critical reflection on America's past.

The centerpiece of the Campus of History will be a 19,755-sq-ft addition to the headquarters of Lancaster County's Historical Society to accommodate expanded programming for both Wheatland and the Historical Society, new research facilities, new archival, library, and collection storage areas, exhibition galleries, learning centers, conservation space, and a multi-use educational auditorium.

Additionally, the project will include significant site enhancements to make the Campus more visitor-friendly, more park-like, and a model for responsible

stewardship through a variety of "green technology" initiatives. The Campus of History, composed of Lancaster County's Historical Society headquarters and its new addition, as well as President James Buchanan's Wheatland, its outbuildings, and historic landscape, will offer a ten-acre park-like setting enhanced by the Louise Arnold Tanger Arboretum and the Wheatland Gardens.

Building on a solid track record of award-winning educational programs, LancasterHistory.org is well-positioned to explore historic themes and events under the rubric "County, Commonwealth, and Country." We are confident that the Campus of History will provide an engaging civics laboratory to investigate fundamental principles of American society and life at the local, state, and national levels that will lead citizens to a deeper understanding of important issues like

religious tolerance, the quest for freedom and democracy, as well as the American presidency and national politics of the antebellum period.

A recently-awarded challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, being matched by LancasterHistory.org supporters on a three-to-one basis, will support a new roster of research fellowships and expanded humanitiesbased programming. Furthermore, as a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver-Level project, the Campus of History will be a model of sustainability and will help set a new standard for environmental preservation amongcultural organizations.

Click here to visit the LancasterHistory.org website to see more pictures of the coming campus and to download their latest capital campaign newsletter.

Preservationist vs. revisionist history - is there a time and a place for both?

2012-04-10T09:00:00.000-04:00

Since I put last month's e-newsletter to bed (obligatory you can sign up here) yesterday morning (hey, that e-newsletter is one wild party animal on the weekends), I've started researching this month's snail-mail newsletter (another obligatory you can sign up for that one here). We're delving into the history at Independence National Park in Philadelphia since it's fresh on our minds from our recently completed project at the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial.

Independence National Historic Park

The park captures quite well the beauty, freedom, wide open spaces, breathing room found in our country.

In my reading about the history of the park and its founding, I discovered that in the early 1900's when the park was first proposed, the architects decided that the actual setting of Independence Hall wasn't good enough and set about creating what they determined to be a "fitting setting" by clearing the half-block between Chestnut Street and Ludlow Street in front of the Hall.

So what's so terribly notable about making it better when we preserve it? Don't we do that all the time? It's nothing new....

And that is the very point that struck me. We do it all the time. We set out to preserve a piece of our history, and along the way we make changes and judgment calls based on our aesthetic preferences. We don't always preserve the way something actually looked. Sometimes what we are actually preserving is our own nostalgic idea of what it would have, should have, could have looked like.

In the case of Independence Hall, early proponents of its preservation recognized that the architecture that surrounded the traditional brick building stood in stark contrast to the iconic structure, what it represented, and what the public's expectations were regarding its preservation. So they tore them all down to "beautify" the area and set a proper stage for the feeling they wanted to create.

If we aren't preserving the way it actually was, is it still historical preservation? Or is it revisionist history? What if we we preserve the way the building actually was originally, but disregard what it became over the years? And then I wondered.....if simply expanding historical preservation to include the experiences and perspectives of all the people who lived it (i.e., minority groups like African-Americans, Polish-Americans, and women) is often met with cries of "revisionist history!", why wouldn't an actual revision of history be met with such resistance? Is it so important to us to maintain the "reality" of history we have formed in our culture's collective mind's eye that we are willing to overlook inaccuracies in one area while we actively seek to create inaccuracies in another?

And perhaps most importantly, what are we losing in our attempts to hold on?

With the creation of a "fitting setting" for Independence Hall, we may have quite adeptly captured the "historical context and character" of the nearly 250-year-old hall that helped give birth to our nation - and there isn't much of an argument against this, the awe that even mere pictures of the Hall inspire is tremendous something that is without doubt worth every attempt to hold onto.

But what did we lose? When we cleared away the surrounding “buildings whose diversity is only surpassed by their ugliness” (as an architect noted in the early 1900's) it is possible we lost a golden opportunity to showcase the very point of our nation - embracing and valuing diversity without holding any single one as "higher", "better", "more desirable" than another?

Meet the Women of Historic Restorations

2012-04-06T17:38:00.000-04:00

THE WOMEN OF HISTORIC RESTORATIONS, Circa 2012

From the Left: Katie, Lois, Karri, and Danielle

With all our posts, articles, education, and discussion on Women's History month, would you have expected any less of us? Of course not! And we are always happy to meet (and then exceed!) expectations. So without further ado, let's bring these lovely ladies out into our preservation spotlight and let you get to know the wisdom, grace, talent, ability, grace, expertise, and all-around general fabulousity of these strong women.

"I'm a woman. Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that's me."

-Maya Angelou

"Right-Hand Rosie" Lois

Lois Groshong

The original lady of Historic Restorations, Lois radiates the quiet, centered wisdom that makes you want to fold your legs in under yourself and sit and listen in her quiet for a week or two. Born to a father bearing the name of Apollo, would you have expected her to be any less of a goddess than she is?

Raised in a Victorian farmhouse in Nebraska by her parents Apollo and Evelyn, Lois and her older brother Thomas spent their days ripping through the fields and orchard playing cowboys and indians and pretending to be an assortment of superheroes, letting their wild imaginations create the world in the unique way that only unfettered childhood can do.

Lois' Mother had different desires than mud and muck for her daughter. Initially Lois resisted her Mother's efforts to turn her into a lovely lady looking sweet in pink, lacy outfits - but eventually Lois blossomed into that lovely young lady indeed. And while her tastes may not have run along the lines of pink lace, Lois' original aspiration was to be a fashion designer and she pursued that interest in aesthetic design by majoring in art in college, flexing her creative muscles and rounding out that creativity with a minor in psychology.

Lois may have mimicked a variety of superheroes, but she had a host of real-life superheroes to ground her in the firm reality that heroes and she-roes are not merely for the makings of myths and childhood play. Lois says, "My heroes are my family members. One of my uncles was the first African America to graduate from Creighton University School of Dentistry, and many of my aunts and uncles (and now siblings and cousins) are doctors, lawyers, in the teaching profession (college level and school administration), and entrepreneurs. My Mother programmed computers for her job with Farmers Union Insurance Co. for over 20 years."

With such a strong framework of determination, accomplishment, capability, and obvious worth, Lois' family were the perfect stewards for the growing goddess. Stewardship that impacted her strongly and helped her develop the determination she would need to face the world. "I was told at a very young age that no one was 'better' than me, and that I might have to work twice as hard to be recognized as equal, but to never, never give up or 'they' win," Lois says.

And apparently Lois Groshong doesn't like to lose, because her quiet determination is as solid as the historic buildings she works to save and bring back to life.

"As a child I was creative, curious, and a tom boy. As a teenager I was creative, introspective, and goofy. As a young adult I was creative, searching, blooming. As an adult I am creative, spiritual, traditional, and sometimes everything I was as a child, teenager, and young adult!" she says.

Obviously creativity is a running theme in Lois' life, and that creativity suits her role in the Historic Restorations team. As our "Right-Hand Rosie", Lois facilitates our projects in a variety of ways and in any way necessary to keep the business, clients, and the other team members positive, organized, and focused. Clients have been known to refer to our goddess as the "remodeling psychologist".

And that suits her just fine. "The most satisfying aspect of what I do is knowing that our talents and principles go against the accepted and typical building practices of today, and that what we do will be around long after we are gone," Lois says. "Historic preservation is all about conservation as well as preservation and our legacy will be that we shared something that is greater than ourselves and left this world a better place."

Lois believes the biggest challenge to women in business is simply, "They are not men. In the building business men are reluctant to have a positive reaction to women directing them in how to do anything." But Lois doesn't let that stop her and simply continues on her way, knowing she has as much ability and right as the next person. Encouraging other women to do the same, Lois also encourages us all to support women in business by judging businesses by the quality of the service and product they offer. "Shop at women-owned business not just when you can, but when you should," she says.

What does the future hold for our (still growing) goddess? "My future is full of continuing to put my creative talents to good use," Lois says. "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine."

"Riveter Extraordinaire" Danielle

Danielle Groshong-Keperling

If Lois was something of a tom boy, her daughter Danielle was an even bigger one. Born in Denver, Colorado, her early life was spent following in her Father's footsteps - figuratively and literally. Danielle recalls a photo of her at age two where she is wearing her Dad's work boots and carrying his lunch box, fully prepared to go to work. "I wonder if that picture was a harbinger of things to come," she says both with a laugh, and in all seriousness.

(And those of us who know Danielle don't doubt for a second that even at age two, she really would have accompanied him right into work, fully prepared to pitch right in and get to work!)

"By the time I was in Middle School, I would help him clean the shop on weekends to spend time with him, sometimes I would even make wooden plugs," says Danielle.

Danielle may have inherited a penchant for all things shop-related and a work ethic from her Dad, but she was born with an innate thirst for knowledge. (Winnie the Pooh once asked Danielle, "Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?" Danielle patted his head and offered him more honey.)

At the age of 11, Danielle migrated to Lancaster County, PA with her parents, where she began her long and lustrous career of educating herself. She attended private Catholic grade schools and graduated from Lancaster Catholic High School. After which she studied Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management at HACC and then completed her Organizational Leadership degree in 2009 at Eastern University. In late 2011 she graduated with a Masters in Business Administration from Eastern University as well.

While she very much values her formal education, Danielle notes, "Real life eamples and experience have always been the 'best' teacher for me, which is one reason I did not feel as comfortable in a traditional college setting. After all, my first 'college' experience was people that brought their real life experience to the 'class room'."

And believe it or not, she uses both her Culinary Arts education and her business education to this day. As Chief Operating Officer at Historic Restorations and as a pastry chef at Byers Butterflake Bakery in Leola.

"I wanted to be a social worker until my senior year of high school when I had the revelation that I could not, in fact, save the world (or even, failing my saving of the world, just bring all the unwanted children home with me). One day I was home from school sick with wisdom teeth, saw a commercial for a pastry arts program and decided that is what I wanted to do," Danielle says.

Chief Operating Officer by "day".... Wedding Cake Decorator by "night"....

And she could rivet too.

That is indeed our Danielle. Not having any interest in being anyone but herself, Danielle is funny, creative, decisive, determined, quirky, educated, and sharp. So smart, we're pretty sure we've seen tacks bow to her as she passes by them in the office.

In her spare time, when she's not intimidating the office supplies, Danielle can be found reading, watching MSNBC or reality TV, helping friends, working in the community, or working on her master plan for world domination as she belts out her theme song - The Gambler by Kenny Rogers.

Danielle pulls from all these strengths, her work history, and her education in her daily management of Historic Restorations' operations, working hard towards good stewardship of our collective built history - the most rewarding part of what Historic Restorations does for Danielle. "My favorite quote points out that we are only on this planet for a short period of time, how we care for and preserve our history is a legacy for for future generations," she says.

"Like people, houses are created, live, and grow old. Like us, they eventually disappear. Houses that survive to be studies, explored, and admired by distant generations should be regarded as emissaries from another time, as gateways into our past."

By Jack Larkin in WHERE WE LIVED: Discovering the Places We Once Called Home, The American Home from 1775 to 1840

But it's only one of the legacies Danielle is working on leaving behind. As a strong woman in a male-dominated field, she faces daily challenges in her career. She says that while she does believe things are changing for women in construction, they still have to work a little bit harder and know their "stuff" a little bit better to get respect. "I don't know how many men get winked at during a project meeting for knowing the right answer.... but I bet it's not as many as me," she says with a laugh.

She advocates for women in business to be supportive of other women in business by sharing stories and providing information, helpful resources, guidance, and support. "I've enjoyed reading books about women that have overcome obstacles and paved the way for my generation. Including Personal History by Katherine Graham (the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 company after her father died), and If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails: And Other Lessons I Learned from My Mom by Barbara Corcoran (who built her real estate empire with a $1,000 loan)," she notes.

So what does the future hold for Danielle?

"Babies, more puppies, penguins, teaching on the college level, a pygmy hippo, who knows? I am waiting for my crystal ball to arrive - it has been back ordered for awhile now."

"Office Maven" Katie

Katie O'Brien

Our newest addition to the Historic Restorations team, Katie, is a Lancaster County native (though her parents are originally from Pittsburgh, where they now live again). Active in dance and sports in childhood, Katie was adventurous, friendly, and eager to learn as a child, "rebellious, active, and confused" as a teenager, and now finds herself solidly in "happy, independent, world traveler" as a young adult.

Katie graduated from Clarion University of PA with a B.S.BA and a focus on marketing. She also studied abroad in Dublin, Ireland and attended Dublin Business School, as well as interned for a non-profit organization while in Dublin.

"Traveling, studying, and working in Europe heavily influenced who I am today. I don't believe I would have gotten this far in my career without that asset," says the frank Katie.

In her free time, Katie enjoys spending time with family and friends, watching movies, listening to music, being outside, and reading. She brings many strengths to the table, but isn't one to over-estimate herself. "My strengths are that I am easy to get along with, a quick learner, and I am always interested in learning and doing something new. But I procrastinate sometimes and always have multiple to-do lists going on at once," she says in her straight-forward manner.

But while managing multiple to-do lists may feel like a weakness to Katie, it works as a strength for the important role she plays in the Historic Restorations team. As our resident "Office Maven", Katie executes daily administration tasks and marketing strategies with her precision efficiency and organization (and flourishing penmanship). Quite literally everything and anything might be thrown Katie's way, and she's a master at woman-handling it and throwing it right back. If this she-roe weren't quite so petite and friendly, it might almost call Paul Bunyan to mind. And for many, it does anyway.

Katie's interest in historic preservation stems from her innate value of older buildings. "It is important to me to preserve these buildings. If they aren't, they will be lost forever, and buildings just aren't built the same anymore - they aren't as grand as they once were," she says wistfully. With a sigh.

When asked about the challenges women in business face, Katie said, "They face discrimination, judgement from others, and are often viewed as being incompetent. Through my career, I have faced not being respected by older colleagues and being looked down on."

How does Katie woman-handle that?

"I turn to older colleagues and family members. It's easy to feel alone when situations happen, and women can support each other by sharing their experiences and stories. It's always good to remember that you're not the only woman who has experienced challenges in business," she says.

Katie's biggest she-roe and influence has been her older sister, Kelly. An independent woman who is very successful, happily married, and mother to an 18-month-old, Katie values having a strong and capable role model to look up to.

With that same positive outlook on things, Katie says of her future, "I am not certain what my future holds for me, but it is bright!"

"Wordsmith" Karri

Karri A. Sensenig

Karri is another Lancaster County native we recently added to our (apparently growing) collection of native artifacts. She's joined our team as a consultant to help us develop and implement the Historic Restorations newsletter and blog as the solid educational resource we want it to be.

Karri uses her background in journalism, writing and reporting, marketing, education, and construction to pull together educational content for the online community we are building for our customers, colleagues, and the preservation community so they can continue learning, discussing, and sharing historic preservation information.

"I like to talk and teach people about things. Or type. Whichever is most accessible for me at the moment. I'm not terribly picky," she says.

Married to one of Lancaster County's few remaining stone masonry artisan craftsmen, and raised in a family of construction tradespeople, Karri is no stranger to the construction industry. Raised in a Mennonite family and the traditional Lancaster County culture, historic preservation is as ingrained in her as hanging her wash out to dry and growing her own tomatoes. (Heirloom varieties, of course.) Her first full-time job after graduating high school was with a construction company, and over the years she has worked for and consulted with a wide range of small to large construction companies.

In addition to her career activities, Karri has spent the last 15 years homeschooling, home-making, gardening, reading, writing, pursuing her B.A. in Educational Studies, studying and learning. She's rather curious about pretty much anything and everything and might surprise you by holding her own in discussions about anything from the best way to knead bread, to the economic impact of current trade policy, to the financial implications of local school district policies.

"I don't believe in blindly following someone's opinion - even my own - so I question it all, especially myself. I don't know that I ever really gets answers to those questions, but I do learn a lot along the way," she says.

As a child Karri grew up on farms and spent most of her time outdoors, in the fields, woods, ponds, creeks, and occasionally the back yard. "I was a 'free range' kid," she says, "Organically grown. But I'm pretty sure there was some genetic modification, so no official organic label." As a teenager she continued to spend most of her time outdoors, this time usually on her horse. As a young adult she poured her energy into mothering the four children she had in seven years. While getting her B.A. and helping her husband start his own business.

We're pretty sure they make a medication for people like her, and we're kind of glad she doesn't take it.

Now she splits her time between her family and homeschooling her kids and helping Historic Restorations save our history - one building at a time. She says, "Historic preservation provides us all with a sense of community, a sense of self, a sense of place - all of which is important to me."

But that isn't the only thing important to Karri, supporting women in business is just as important. She says, "The culture I grew up in is a very practical culture, and we don't like things like wasted space so our glass ceiling was pretty low. And I'm rather tall, so I kept hitting it. After enough of bumps, I decided it might be smarter to just raise it."

How does Karri accomplish that?

"Education. Knowledge is power, not just because you now have awareness, but because now you can take action. Without knowledge, the action true change requires could never happen. So I educate people," she says.

Will she do that for the rest of her life? What else will she do?

"I'm not sure I'd know how not to do that!" she proclaims, adding, "I could try, I guess. But I'd rather try lots of other things first. Like running a marathon, or better yet an ultra-marathon like the 135-miler in Death Valley."

Trekking through Women's History with Heritage Trails

2012-04-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

One of the more intriguing interpretative strategies we read about during our research into expanding historic preservation to include women's history was the use of heritage trails. By now, we are all familiar with heritage trails - those walking and driving journeys around to different historic sites that historical commissions, museums, public agency, community organizations, and even private individuals put together to motivate us put on our shoes, grab our keys, and plan a trip to explore history.

And motivate us it does, who doesn't read about a particular heritage trail and decide they *don't* want to make that particular journey?

Which is why a historic preservation master's thesis we stumbled across piqued our interest with its title, "Commemoration and Protest: The Use of Heritage Trails to Connect Women's History with Historic Sites" submitted to the University of Pennsylvania by Marissa J. Moshier.

We're not going to bore you with a full-blown rehash and review of the excellent information Moshier conveyed in her thesis, mostly because you can read it for yourself right here, but also because we'd really rather make a better use of this space (and your time) to discuss this topic.

You see, for all the information Moshier presented (and believe us, you should read it, because it was a ton), it was what was missing from that information that stood out the most to us. For all those wise, wise words, for all her obviously extensive research, for all the astute observations and connections she made, for all the motivation her writing inspired, for all her details on the women's heritage trails in states and cities across the country, there was one thing Moshier failed to include in her information: any mention of a woman's history heritage trail in Pennsylvania.

Because there isn't one.

So what we would LOVE to discuss is how a heritage trail could be developed, promoted, and used by the public to connect women's history to the rich network of historic sites we have here.

Here are our beginning questions, let's open up the discussion. Feel free to give us your thoughts in response to these questions, or respond with more questions you might have.

Who would develop this heritage trail?

How would they develop it?

Would it be contained to publicly operated sites?

Could it blend both publicly and privately operated sites?

What were the important contributions women made in
Pennsylvania's history?

What were the roles they played

throughout our history?

How are those contributions and roles already
represented in our history sites?

How can we connect those sites with a heritage trail?

Which sites would we use?

Which sites specifically include women's history already?

Are they the best ones to use to tell women's stories in

Pennsylvania history?

Do we need to develop new ones?

Resources for Further Study into Preserving Women's History

2012-04-05T16:02:00.000-04:00

The following is an excellent list of resources for further reading and study into the effective inclusion of women's history into historical preservation. It is by no means comprehensive, but we found great value in reading the following and hope you will too. Most of them require nothing more than a click (or a few) of the mouse and a few minutes of your time to explore.

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"Declaration of Sentiments"
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/senecafalls.asp

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal..." So begins the Declaration of Sentiments - the document created at the first Women's Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848. In it, 68 women and 32 men, used the model of the U.S. Declaration of Independence to lay bare their demands for women's rightful place in our society. It is simply a must read for any preservationist, but unfortunately it's one most don't even realize exists.

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Women's History Resources in Pennsylvania

http://hsp.org/collections/catalogs-research-tools/subject-guides/womens-history-resources

The Historical Society of PA maintains online collection access for many resources, including resources on women's history in Pennsylvania. In this guide they detail those women's history resources and collections and include a link to their online catalog of collections. Further exploration of their website will yield you a ton of other good information, resources, and inspiration as well.

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"Raising Our Sites: Integrating Women's History into Museums" by Kim Moon
http://crm.cr.nps.gov/archive/20-3/20-3-14.pdf

In this article, Kim Moon, Assistant Director of the Pennsylvania Humanities Council (PHC), details the PHC pilot program from the early 1990's that consciously worked to incorporate the female historical perspective into state museums across Pennsylvania. Several museums in our area participated in this program and Moon's article discusses what worked about the program, the challenges they face and how they overcame them, the procedural structures the program used to implement changes in exhibits, and sample activities developed to include women's history.

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National Women's History Project
http://www.nwhp.org/

Founder of Women's History Month is just one of the praises we could sing about The National Women's History Project (NWHP). In addition to supporting Women's History Month and coordinating women's history celebrations, observances, activities, etc. every March, the NWHP hosts collaborative workshops and conferences to raise awareness of women's history, provides wide accessibility about women's history through their award-winning website, and serves as our nation's number one resources for information, artifacts, and resource material about the roles of women in American history.

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"Places where women made History" by the National Park Service
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/pwwmh/index.htm

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first Women's Right Convention, the National Park Service (NPS) developed this travel itinerary of 75 places in New York and Massachusetts where you can learn about many women who made important historical contributions to education, government, medicine, the arts, commerce, women's suffrage, and the civil rights movement. This itinerary can be used as an actual travel itinerary, as well as an online opportunity to take a virtual trip to learn about how these women helped make history. Each location link has general information about the site, pictures, maps, and links to essays that provide historical background for the sites. This website also includes an extensive bibliography of resources, many online, in their "Learn More" section.

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"Feminism in the Museum" by Lisa Price
http://www.wrinklybrain.com/FeminismInTheMuseum.pdf

In this essay, author Lisa Price provides and overview of the information contained in Barbara Melosh’s article "Speaking of Women: Museums’ Representations of Women’s History". Price provides a succinct summation of the information in Melosh's article about the role historical preservation plays in our society. Melosh's full article was printed in History Museums in the United States: A Critical Assessment (edited by Warren Leon and Roy Rosenzweig, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989).

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"Transmitting Culture by Preserving Women’s History" by Connie Lamb http://www.mtnforum.org/sites/default/files/pub/1019.pdf

Connie Lamb's article discusses the Women's Manuscript collection that focuses on Mormon and Western U.S. women maintained at The Bringham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. Lamb presents a strong case for including women's manuscripts in historical preservation to access and document women's life experiences throughout history by preserving diaries, letters, poetry, oral histories, biographies, etc. Her articles includes a link to the online guide to the manuscript collection maintained at BYU, which does offer online access to some texts.

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"Restoring Women's History Through Historic Preservation" edited by Gail Lee Dubrow and Jennifer B. Goodman

This book is not available online (though some of the articles it contains are), but it is available at the Franklin & Marshall College Library in Lancaster, PA. The general public is welcome to join the library for a nominal fee, and we encourage you to do so if for no other reason than to read this book (though you might find yourself enjoying the architecture, the quiet, and the Library of Congress cataloging system at the library). In it information abounds about how to research women's history, combat challenges to preserving women's history, include women's history in existing preservation, organize new preservation of women's history, build a "village" that will tackle the issue of preserving women's history in your community, and more.

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"Revealing Women's History: Best Practices at Historic Sites" by the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites
http://www.ncwhs.org/images/stories/revealing-womens-history.pdf

In this publication, five case studies are presented of how the historic sites across our country have brought the female part of our history into their preservation based on asking: "What women were present here?", "What women were affected by the events/people here?", "How did women affect this site?", and "How did they perceive it?".

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National Collaborative for Women's History Sites
http://ncwhs.org/

Founded in 2001, the National Collaborative for Women's History Sites (NCWHS) works towards the goal of making women's history and their participation in American life highly visible and valued in historic sites. One of the ways they do this is by publishing Women's History: Sites and Resources, a 142-page reference guide for American women's past that features forty women's history sites and projects, complete with travel itineraries, teaching plans, and websites. Additionally, NCWHS is currently working on a women's history heritage trail project, and hosted an "Integrating Women's History" workshop in 2011 (the complete video series of the workshop is available to watch free of cost on their website).

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Best Practices for Preserving Women's History

2012-04-05T14:47:00.003-04:00

Over 100 years ago, women in this country began working towards being recognized in the eyes of the law. They sought the right to vote, the right to own property, the right to fair and equal wages, among other rights. They fought hard and they won them all.

Yet in the early 90's out of over 500 historic sites in Pennsylvania, only a single one of them intentionally featured the women's historical experience in their permanent displays.

After almost two hundred years of work by women's rights activists, we are still recovering from the affects of treating women as less important than men and clearly need to turn a conscious eye towards preserving women's historical experiences in our preservation efforts.

So how do we do that? What exactly are we preserving? What opposition and challenges might we face? What resources and tools can we use to accomplish this goal? What methods are best for reinterpreting our preservation efforts?

Revisit the history you thought you knew....

In Restoring Women's History through Historic Preservation, editors Gail Lee Dubrow and Jennifer B. Goodman point out that the first step towards expanding our interpretation of history to include women's perspectives is to put women's historical experiences and women's questions about the past at the core of the preservation framework. Before we begin even putting together the what the final preservation will "look like", we need to ask ourselves what the woman's experience was at the time and what women today will wonder and ask about that experience.

This should include preserving both the shared experiences between men and women, as well as the gender-defined roles they each played separately. Neither men nor women lived completely apart and separate from each other and a well-rounded preservation of the past will value both their individual roles, the roles they played together, and the roles they played to influence the other gender's roles.

A common challenge preservationists may come up in the process of integrating women's history into their projects is the opinion that reinterpreting our history is "revisionist history". What may be most helpful in overcoming this challenge, should you find yourself facing it, is to build public awareness of the contributions women made as producers, consumers, wives, mothers, healers, nurturers, social and political influences, community organization, moral authorities, etc. These contributions make up half of our collective history and reinterpreting our historical preservation to include women's perspectives is not rewriting history, it's deepening our understanding of it.

Preservation
doesn't need
to add
women into
history,
it only need
show how
history has
already
included them.

Identify and tell your woman's story....

Since women recorded their experiences, opinions, thoughts, interests, and roles throughout history in a multitude of ways, resources to help build women's perspectives into our historical preservation literally abound. Diaries and journals, household receipts and account books, organization records from social, cultural, and political organizations, correspondences (both public and private), prints and drawings, as well as manuscripts are all good beginning points to research the feminine viewpoint for your particular preservation project. You may be surprised at some of the stories that begin to weave themselves around your preservation project as you learn more about how women functioned within its context.

Thanks to these vast and far-reaching roles that women throughout history played, artifacts that can be used to tell the women's story you discover include your research is virtually unlimited.

Clothing, postcards collections, period prints and photos, newspaper articles, jewelry and hair adornments, costumes, textiles, home and domestic artifacts, portraiture, period books, magazines, recipes, medical instruments, tools related to women-defined occupations, childbearing and child rearing artifacts such as toys, period advertisement about women, furniture and decorative art, political papers and campaign advertisements. All of which can be used in a variety of settings such as inside the period home, factory, social hall, church, town center, civic organization, etc.

Your site's period and subject matter will also be a source of inspiration for how to tell women's stories in your preservation. But don't limit yourself to just focusing on those things traditionally associated with the women of your preservation's story. Turning to objects not typically associated with women (large power machinery, guns, military uniforms) can create a powerful commentary on the gender and value judgments that society of that time held.

Preserve extraordinary history with ordinary people....

Preservationists looking to include women's history need also be careful that they are not falling into the easy habit of focusing only on well-known, high-profile, or prominent women in society. Their stories are easy to tell, but the common, "ordinary" experience of the many should not be overshadowed by the more noticeable experience of the few. Not only will the public more easily relate to the experience of "every day" women, these are the very experiences that most shaped the stories our preservation efforts seek to tell.

Notable female figures
in history play an
important role when we
preserve our stories.

William Penn is a notable historic figure to most Pennsylvanians (and many non-Pennsylvanians), but do you know who Sue, little Sue, Mary Lofty, and Abigail Pemberton were? If you have been to visit Pennsbury Manor (reconstruction of William Penn's summer home located north of Philadelphia) recently, you probably do.

They are the women of Penn's household. Sue was his enslaved African American woman, little Sue was her daughter, Mary Lofty was Penn's housekeeper, and Abigail was her assistant. In the 1990's, these women's historical experience were built into the preservation at Pennsbury Manor in order to provide visitors with a more in-depth look into William Penn's life.

Adding these ordinary women into the site's preservation not only sheds light on the lives of the women, children, and servants who once lived there, it also allows visitors to explore the issues of class, race, and gender in the context of William Penn's ideals and philosophy. Were these women "unimportant" to history? To William Penn?

So do the lesser known
women who's ordinary
lives built an extraordinary
history for our culture.

The answer, of course, is a resounding "no" - there are many more Sue, Mary Lofty, and Abigails in our history than there are William Penns and building our preservation efforts based solely on the notable, wealthy, powerful, noble, brilliant, famous people throughout our history presents a narrowly focused, imbalanced view of who and how we were.

In reference to Ghandi, Albert Einstein once said, "Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth." A quite fitting sentiment indeed to express about such an inspirational human being as Ghandi. But does this sentiment apply any less to Ghandi's siblings? His parents? His neighbors? Perhaps in some ways, it's even more meaningful to express such a sense of awe, such an an overwhelming esteem, towards a common, ordinary, "every day" person.

In conclusion.... and hopefully in inspiration....

Make no mistake, progress for women in our culture has come a long way, and our preservation of women's culture has too. Almost everywhere you turn, you see another piece of evidence showing how we've brought women's places in society into an increasing consciousness and growing esteem.

Let's approach our future preservation with that very same goal: increasing consciousness and growing esteem of the roles women in our history have played and how we can broaden our preservation efforts to include women's history.

"When people ... took action, then there was a change."

-Rosa Parks

How does it become "history" so fast?

2012-03-26T14:54:00.000-04:00

One of the most rewarding things about historic restoration and preservation is constantly learning about new things and new places. Last week, we learned that we have a National Postal Museum in a former Post Office building in Washington D.C.

The National Postal Museum is a Smithsonian museum in Washinton, D.C.
residing in the old Post Office building next to Union Square.

Beautiful isn't she? Built in 1914, she served as the city's Post Office for 72 years. Now she houses the Postal Museum's exhibition spaces, research library, and store in order to achieve their goal of "preservation, study, and presentation of postal history and philately" with "exhibits, public programs, and research".

And she's every bit as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.

But the fact that our country has an entire Smithsonian museum dedicated to preserving our philately heritage wasn't even the most mind-boggling thing we contemplated on our walk-through of this historic building. The thought we kept getting stuck on (and have been ever since) is:

How did we go from features like the ornate, hand-crafted ceilings commonly seen in historic buildings like the Post Office building to fiberboard drop
ceilings customary in modern buildings in just a little over 50-60 years?

Compromising on the Right Things

2012-03-12T13:48:00.000-04:00

Achieving energy efficiency without compromising historic integrity in old buildings is always a high priority, and sometimes surprisingly easy..... when you learn to compromise on the right thing.

Recently we restored an early 1900's wood exterior door for a private residence. When this door was constructed there would have been no door sweep or weatherstripping and restored to original condition this door would have a high rate of air infiltration - leading to moisture damage and high energy losses. Fortunately, we do not have to choose between energy efficiency and historical integrity - non-original features like door sweeps and weatherstripping can be added in a historically complimentary way.

Instead of the commonly used plastic door sweeps, a sunken bristle door sweep can be installed to limit visibility and eliminate an obvious visual intrusion on the door's historical features. Brass or bronze weatherstripping can be used in lieu of plastic to remain in keeping with materials and styles one would expect to see for that period.

Strike the right kind of compromise by choosing historically complimentary options and you too can have energy efficient historical preservation.