Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Next Project

My current project is the Fort Dalles in the Dalles, Oregon. The fort complex was built in the years 1856-57. This location is where the travelers on the Oregon Trail either could choose to float their belongings down the Columbia River to the Willamette Valley or they could go overland. Both routes had their perils. My relations in the 1850's took the overland route which proved to be eventful. The only building left is the Surgeon's Quarters. Quartermaster Captain Jordon and Louis Scholls drew up the plans based upon buildings found in Andrew Jackson Downing"s book, Cottage Residences. More information can be found at this link.

My work will be on the 23 windows in this building, involving two re-builds which entail another custom plane similar to the one I built for my job in Iowa. See this previous post on how I made that plane.
Some interesting things I have discovered about these sash are amazing old glass, hand-cut glazing points, and the original faux exterior paint scheme.
More pictures of these details will be posted soon.

2 comments:

Doug K said...

So, what's a "faux exterior paint scheme". Was it "faux painting", as in they grained it to look like oak when it was really fir, or they painted it to look like stone when it was really wood?

Oculus said...

The sash are Ponderosa Pine that has a faux graining on the exterior surfaces. I am not sure what type of look they were going for but it is plainly seen on the protected hinge edge. Even the glazing putty was grained!
The building has only been painted twice since it was built in 1856. Most of the paint is gone. And we don't know when the graining was done. The first paint job or the second. And should graining be put back?