In any historic renovation project, once you have removed the years of add-ons and poorly executed updates, you find that the ravages of time have left very little of the historic interior. We find that to be the case in our current historic restoration project, the Gadsden House. Certainly the plasterwork has suffered greatly to the point that it is completely lost on all but two floors. The main ballroom is indeed still grand but, stripped of it’s finery, it is a shell, a hollow reflection of what it once was.
So it’s time to consider how to put some of that grandeur back. Tim Sites, Project Manager of the Gadsden House restoration, heads the team that is bringing this historic beauty back to life. For us that means restoring intricate crown molding and medallions, then adding the design details of lighting and drapes to do the rest. But just what do we pick and why?
The house was built in the Federal Style. That is a uniquely American term representing architects of the day expressing their own ideas in a new country. Influenced by the Adamesque movement in Europe and particularly the UK. The period lasted roughly 50 years from 1780 to about 1830. More grand than a basic Colonial interior it had not yet attracted the intricacies of later periods. Sure, plasterwork was present but it tended to be muted, fairly geometric with the occasional low key embellishment. The exterior of the building was similar reflecting longevity of the Georgian symmetry with the occasional embellishment around doorways and windows.
Before this turns into an architecture lecture, let us put it in context. We need some crown molding for 16 foot ceilings and medallions for 40 foot square rooms. Whatever we pick is going to have to be big. Proper scale is important in a restoration job such as this, and keeping to the scale of the period doubly so. When replacing crown moldings, oftentimes badly deteriorated over time or completely removed, here is the rule of thumb:
- A 16 foot high ceiling will take a molding between 18 and 24 inches deep. That is large by any measure.
The original moldings (main photo) were wooden and that remains an option. Strong, robust with fine crisp detail but at a cost. To consider anything else except plaster would make us a Philistine as this is a Grade 1 listed building. Luckily there are some good plaster choices out there. I guess in the ultimate this will come down to wood or plaster and also cost and installation time. True to history for this house would be wood maybe with small plaster adornments and swags. Time will tell.
A small point to remember is that the crown molding leaves room to run wires and sprinkler pipes behind it. That could be really useful at a later point in this restoration.
* Note: Photo is of original molding sample from the Ballroom and illustrates how the molding is made up of many smaller pieces. Many would have been made using a scraper box or profile plane though we now have a spindle molding machine and router for the same purpose.
