Full Circle

An interesting project came my way this past year.  I was asked to bid on making 3 casement windows for Fort Yamhill.  I had completed work at Fort Dalles the previous year (here is a link to the post about that project) so I thought that working on this fort would be a great addition to my knowledge about Pacific Northwest military outposts.  Little did I know how providential that decision would be.

Original frames for the new casements

Once I was on the project I realized that there was a great deal of research that had been done previously.  I asked the project manager for copies of this material.  Once I received it I noticed that the researcher had labeled some of the documents with the name "Harrington Era".  My "maiden" name is Harrington and I did know that some of my relations did settle and live in the area that Fort Yamhill resides in.  I was more than a bit intrigued.

After searching through my genealogy records and looking at census records on ancestry.com I found out that my great, great uncle Edward Harrington purchased the remaining Fort Yamhill officer's quarters building in the early 1900s.  He was responsible for the drastic remodel that altered the gable roof to the gambrel one you see below (Edward is seen along side his new modern marvel).

Let me tell you it was strange being in the house knowing that my ancestors once inhabited it.

Edward Harrington's house

The bay that I was working in can be seen behind his right shoulder.  The two photos below show how the replicated sash look in the bay.

Interior

Exterior

 This project has a lot of controversy surrounding it and the project has taught me a lot about different historic preservation theory and methodology.

Yaquina Done

After 4 weeks of waiting for material, and 8 weeks of assembly Yaquina Head Lighthouse had itself a new door and jamb.  Now to install it.  

Completed door

Exterior of new door

Installation was fairly basic.  After the door was installed I got to work on the arched transom above the entry.  

Interior of new door

Some interesting pictures of the interior staircase up to the lens.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Here is one of my projects from earlier in the year.  

Yaquina Head Lighthouse, 

South Elevation

I was contracted by the BLM to provide a new front door for Yaquina Head Lighthouse, not to be confused with Yaquina Bay Lighthouse.  The BLM wanted a new door to match the original that had long since disappeared.  They had one drawing of what the door looked like and I had some old photos provided to me by one of my Preservation Field School students.  Her family was one of the Lighthouse Keepers back in the late 1800s.  The Lighthouse was built in 1872.

From the original drawings the size of the door was 7' x 3' at 2 1/4" thick.  The BLM wanted the species to be Alaskan Yellow Cedar (AYC); the species of the original could not be determined.  Alaskan Yellow-Cedar (C. nootkatensis) is a fine grained softwood actually related to the cypress family .  It is very expensive but a dream to work.  Because of this fine, tight grain planing and sawing this wood is a wonderful experience.  It does have an odor and some people are allergic to it but it is very durable in wet environments.

Planing AYC

Applying decorative chamfer

The assembly process for the door was intense due to the massive size of all the elements. The photo below is of the D-8 rip saw cutting the tenons in the bottom rail.  That bottom rail is 1' in height.  Since the drawing I had did not give any construction details I used Fred T. Hodgson's book Modern Carpentry, published in 1906 as a guide.

Ripping tenons

Assembling bottom rail and side stile

One of the biggest things that I fretted about was making the drip edge for the bottom of the door.  This piece was very clear in the original drawing, I just had to figure out how to do it.  It turned out to only take about 15 minutes to plane and fairly easy to install.

Start of planing drip edge

End result-ready to install

The dado for the drip edge

Seems like a great detail.  I'll see how it holds up down on the coast.

The Summit on PreservationNation Blog

Check out this blog post by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.   It is a start to the widespread exposure that we at the Summit want to see for the push to save historic windows.  The mentality of disposability in this country can not continue.

Pine Mountain, Kentucky

It is hard to write a post after such a long absence.  But I wanted to put up some things about my trip to Pine Mountain, Kentucky.  Not too many pics, I was kept pretty busy.

Chapel at Pine Mountain Settlement School

I left Portland, OR  on Sunday July 24th.  I took the redeye to Phoenix and then had a connector flight to Charleston and then onto Knoxville.  We ran into a huge thunderstorm in Phoenix and my plane was diverted to Las Vegas.  I missed my connector by 3 hours.  So I slept in the Phoenix airport since the soonest flight to the East Coast was not until noon the next day.  I was cursing Sky Harbor Airport by the end of it.  More bad storms caused my flight into Philadelphia to be a bit late therefore I was running hard to meet my little puddle-jumper plane to Knoxville.  I finally rolled into my final destination at midnight (Knoxville time) but it felt like only 9:00 so I got into my rental car and drove north toward Kentucky.  It didn't take me long to realize that I needed to pull off and get a hotel room; fog was moving in.  

After 2 hours sleep and a shower I was off again.  Through the morning light I made my way up to the Cumberland Gap.  I was very excited to go through this historic region of the country and it didn't disappoint.  I think it was the longest tunnel I have ever been in.  I soon turned off the main highway and made my way into the Appalachia country.  Lots of coal, even on the side of the road.

I made it to Pine Mountain Settlement School in time for breakfast.

The Summit was fabulous!  I met so many great people that I hope I know for a long time to come.  I am very excited about the Standards document.  We hope to have it out by the end of the year.

Some interesting fungus.

Lots of big moths.

I will not soon forget evenings on the front porch of Big Log, my first fireflies and those terrible biting insects.  Thanks to the Founders for setting-up such an amazing event.  I feel honored to have been part of it.

Oculus in the New York Times today!

The New York Times features an article today on window preservation, mentioning the  summit I'm attending this week in Kentucky.  Here's the link if you'd like to read the article, which, in its conclusion, includes some of my thoughts on why preserving windows is important to the integrity of a structure.

News From The Summit

"There is nothing difficult about making old windows energy efficient.  It is work but we know exactly how to do it."  -- Amy McAuley
Testing at the Summit proves it.  More on this later...