The photos below show the sad state of the Abston Building when we began the renovation. The roof had taken on water for a long time. The bottom chord on the huge trusses had rotted and broken on three of them and the resulting outward squatting had pushed the side walls precipitously and they were to the point of toppling. All remnants of the many years of automotive repair had to be ripped out and hauled off, which was accomplished by many members of the Historical Society, both men and women. The photos below amply testify to the value of our ladies in the initial phases of the project. Many dumpsters were filled and hauled off in the process of getting the building empty. Our ladies also performed admirably in cooking and feeding the many craftsmen we utilized from the various prisin crews.
The interior walls were rotted and had to be taken out and replaced. We jacked the roof up over a foot, one lick at a time using many hydraulic jacks pushing up with big poplar timbers. When the roof elevation was corrected, the trusses were repaired. We were able to secure the services of a shortline crew from the Morgan County Regional Corrections Facility, thanks to our own Senator Ken Yager who recommended our project to the corrections officials. The shortline crew proved to be a huge help, and in fact framed the entire front end of the interior, framing walls, ceilings, staircase, bathrooms, corridor walls... The tray ceilings in the various rooms in the front end were designed and framed by Society member Andrew Freer who proved to be a valuable asset to the renovation. The tongue and groove and all the hardwood trim elements, crown and door molding, bullnose, baseboard and casing were milled by Robbie Underwood and installed with assistance from the prison workers aiding Robbie. The prison crew proved to be invaluable on so many tasks, from grinding the I-beam headers down to bare metal and painting, to framing the entire front porch overhang, digging deep footings to support the front columns, repairing and repointing the brickwork, demolishing substandard concrete floors, stripping and restoring the 100 year old display windows that could be salvaged..... Fully half of the front windows were too rotted to repair and new ones were machined and built onsite by Robbie Underwood.
Society member Ed Coker proved to be an asset to the foundation work, operating his own equipment while excavation, prepping and backfilling the floor foundation. The subsoil of the site was very problematic and had to have extensive excavation and remedial backfilling.
The original canopy was beyond salvaging and had to be ripped off and replaced. The lovely new canopy was built by the shortline crew, led by craftsman Walter Raebel and others. Ed Coker took the lead in designing the new canopy, which had to be set back further from the street than the original to satisfy modern code.
Craftsman Mike Cusick was responsible for forming the molds to pour the lovely kneewalls around the front and sides of the building, as well as forming and pouring the concrete pillar and beautiful capital on top with intricate dentil insets. Mike and craftsman Chris White assisted Robbie in laminating the massive gluelam arches to buttress and embellish the grand corridor. The arch trim was accomplished by stacking and gluing 1/4" strips of cherry around the arch form using right angle brackets, then planing and milling the pattern into the glued up blanks. This was accomplished in Robbie's wood shop. Mike and Chris proved to be of huge value assisting in the trim glueup process.
The 100 year old front door to the archives room was removed and taken to Robbie's shop for restoration. The door had several drillings for locksets and was in desperate condition. The voids were filled with specialty epoxy resin and the door was then stripped, filled, sanded, and coated with a rosewood gel stain before receiving four coats of satin Polyurethane. It was then redrilled to accept the new lockset and rehung into place.
To Be Continued...
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