PLASTER RAISING PARTY

THREE COAT LIME PLASTER ON RIVEN LATHE

Come and learn the materials and methods of lime plaster on wooden lath.
Howard Hall will have a plaster raising party for two successive
Saturdays, scratch coat then the intermediate coat on the main parlor
ceiling and walls.

(A time will be set up for the finishing coat in the near future.)

We will be:

• mixing lime plaster
• plastering
• celebrating
  

Joining in is free as a learning workshop,
but you will have to work with a trowel. Lunch is provided.

Booking in advance is required. 
Call 518-945-1253
or email: howardhall.farm@gmail.com

Open to people in the trades as well as homeowners eager to learn.

This is a unique and free opportunity to learn about historic lime plaster
in a workshop setting.  We will be practicing on the ceiling of the parlor
at Howard Hall Farm in Athens, New York.


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Related events:
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REMAKING LIME CROWN MOLDING
in July with Rory Brennan, the plasterer from  "This Old House".
This is a structured as a paid class with fee limited
number of students.  Click the classes tab for more information
or contact us: howardhall.farm@gmail.com

PRIVATE MORTAR CLASSES
with Reggie Young on exterior pointing with lime mortars.
We will cover mixing of mortar, proper prep of the area, pointing and curing.
Whitewash recipes and appilcations can also be covered.
For more information, contact: howardhall.farm@gmail.com

Breathing Fire

As we embark on this chimney building project I found myself compelled to think of the births, deaths, and everything in between that was once shared in front of these fires.

At this point, just having a fire will seem like a dream 2 years in the making. We had so many other things that had to happen before we could do the chimney. But now that we are here it is very exciting.

The photos of the chimneys core with the flue channel gives one a wonderful feeling for how they were built originally. Due to years of water coming both down the chimneys as well as around them,the lime mortar, and many of the bricks finally gave out. In the process of taking the chimney down, we found the remains of the fireplace on the second floor, which we are restoring as art of this process.

Next Spring, we will plaster the chimneys to bring back their 18th century appearance.

The mantles have made it through all these many years, and in almost perfect condition. We do have to replace one hearth, flash into the old terne tin roof, and then line and protect the flues. After the chimneys are up we can plaster the rooms and finally move into them as living space after 2 years of work.

Whew! That was a big one!

-Reggie
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The 2nd floor fireplace we uncovered and brick coming down on the first floor (showing guts):






The exposed flue.

pre-chimney showing cracks

An ad from 1973

This was sent to us by Sylvia Hasenkopf. It’s a picture of an ad placed by Joseph Groom (one of our house’s inhabitants from days of yore) in 1793!

Walk Backwards In Time With All of Athens

The Athens Cultural Center will be celebrating the Evarts Library's Centennial by hosting a walking tour of the stunning historic homes in our piece of the Hudson River Valley. Some of these homes (including ours) have not been open to the public since the library was a mere 50 years old. Join us in the festivities on Saturday, June 30th. In addition to gaining entrance and stories inside these gorgeous historic sites, there will also be a lunchtime concert in the park, a photography sale, and a parade (complete with horse-drawn carriage, 19th century fire wagon, and a procession of antique automobiles carrying our public figures to the reviewing stand)!

HERE IS THE ROSTER OF EVENTS FROM THEIR WEBSITE:

THREE RARE, EARLY HOUSES OPEN TO THE PUBLIC FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS Celebrate Old Home Week with a tour of homes in Athens, a lunchtime concert in the park and a photography sale. Fete the Evarts Library on its centennial and watch as the Athens Cultural Center helps recreates the Old Home Week parade up Main Street. Saturday, June 30th To help the Evarts Library celebrate its centennial, the Athens Cultural Center has joined forces to stage a celebration replete with house tours, parades, exhibits, old time music and old-fashioned children's games. This revives the first Old Home Week celebration which was started 100 years ago, in conjunction with the laying of the cornerstone of the Evarts Library. In the way that only the village of Athens can do, we're recreating this slice of Americana on Saturday, June 30th. The centerpiece of our celebration is a tour of homes in the village including three major, early houses that have not been open to the public in at least 50 years and an exhibition at the Cultural Center highlighting the library centennial and the celebration of Old Home Week in Athens. The Greene County Camera Club will host a photography sale at the Cultural Center. The Evarts Library will host a centennial celebration on its lawn. Babe Ruth Little League and APAC will help host a lunchtime concert in the Riverfront Park. We'll all parade up Main Street together. So come out to Athens and help us fete the library as it turns 100. Tour of homes: 10 AM- 4 PM Photo: Howard Hall Farm, the earliest Federal House on the Hudson River Tour times: Guided tours of village homes will be held on the hour at 10, 11, noon, 1, 2 and 3 PM. Meet at the Athens Cultural Center at least 15 minutes prior to the tour start. Tickets: Tours cost $15 per person with advance reservation, $20 at the door. To reserve tickets in advance, email your name, number of tickets and requested tour time to info@athensculturalcenter.org. Please put "House Tour Tickets" in your email subject line. Parking: Parking is available on North Franklin Street, just north of the intersection of Second and Franklin Street. The Athens Cultural Center is located one block away, at 24 Second Street, between Franklin and Washington Streets. Haight-Gantley House Featured properties: The tour will feature the Haight-Gantley House, a significant work by Barnabus Waterman, the House of History architect, built during the War of 1812. This house has not been open in decades and the last recorded house tour was for the Athens sesquicentennial in 1955. The house is surprisingly in tact and features an impressive and rare oval ballroom and striking views over the Hudson River. Also featured is Howard Hall Farm, constructed circa 1780 and considered by some to be the earliest Federal house in left the Hudson Valley. This house, which has been in private hands since the 1970's, is virtually unknown to Federal architecture aficionados although in retains much of its early fabric including such rarities as cylinder glass windows and perfectly preserved period European marble fireplace surrounds. An impressive Civil War era house, retaining its elegant period detail and impeccably decorated with a mix of American and European antiques, will be shown on a house tour for the first time ever. This house was probably the last in-village farm in Athens and only left the hands of the original farming family a few years ago. The Evarts Library, other village gems and a stroll up Second Street and down South Franklin Street, which contain some of the most impressive houses in the village, round out the tour. Old Home Week Parade: 12:45 PM The parade route runs up Second Street from the Riverfront Park to the Evarts Library. The Athens Fire Department will pull their 19th century fire wagon, library trustees will ride in a horse-drawn carriage and classic cars will carry local dignitaries to the reviewing stand. Not since Norman Rockwell have you seen anything this quaint. Lunchtime Concert in the Park: 12-1 PM The Saints of Swing brass band and the Dented Fenders barbershop quartet give a lunchtime concert in the gazebo in the Athens Riverfront Park. Have some lunch while you listen to old time music and watch the Hudson River meander by. Evarts Library Centennial Celebration: 1-3 PM Photo: the Evarts Library Especially for kids or the kid in you, the Evarts Library will host its centennial celebration on its front lawn. Following the serving of the centennial birthday cake and lemonade, enjoy free horse and buggy rides, Professor Marvel's Old Tyme Magic Show, Uncle Sam the Stilt Waker and many turn-of-the century games. The Post Office will hold a special centennial stamp cancellation for those secret philatelists in the crowd. The Evarts Library will also be one of the stops on our tour of historic village homes. An exhibition highlighting the history of the library centennial and the Old Home Week celebration is on view concurrently at the Athens Cultural Center.

An Ongoing Correspondence

So a few weeks ago, I started, armed with a small clipping my friend Ursula had found in the NY Times on how to research the history of ”your” house, I embarked on what I assumed would be a hastily dispatched chore. I looked at the warnings of the difficulties in really coming up with concrete information with a sort of lofty distain; I, of course would use my intuitive research skills and cut through the drudgery in record time and, well, just get on with it.

And so I did, at least, start. Frankly, owing nothing to a single ability I possess, the most important fragment of information came right at the beginning of the process from the Vedder Research Library (for Greene County history. Reggie and I dashed up there for one of the rare open library moments and while trying to decide how to plunge into the task, we stood staring at a map of Greene County of about 1881 or so, and realized that it showed what we were pretty sure was our house with the horse-shoe drive and indications of another drive around the back of the house for deliveries. And there was a name on the house: George Griffin. Considering there were very few names of actual people on that map, this seemed terribly impressive and from there, I was sure that all we had to do was find George and home free!

Then, the most amazing thing was that upon scanning a copy of the Beer’s “History of Greene County”, in the Athens history part, suddenly the name of George Griffin popped up again, but this time referencing not only the previous owner who sold it to him, but the owner before, who, it stated, was a “very prominent man of his day”; Joseph Groom. A definite tingle-all-over moment! But the tingle will have to do until I get more time to do the forging ahead some more stuff.