The Cole House dinner rush

	PROGRESS UPDATE: Charity dinner had benefits for two historic sites: The Thomas Cole House, and our 1780's parlor

Last weekend, we hosted a dinner to help raise money for the restoration of the Thomas Cole House National Historic Site in Catskill, NY. In addition to being a fantastic cause, it gave us incentive to speed up the restoration of our parlor. For the first time since moving in, our eyes were able to feast along with our stomaches.

This was our Parlor long ago:

By the time we got here it looked like this:

Since then, we've done a seemingly infinite number of repairs to the room, not the least of which were restoring the original chimney, and bringing the walls back to their original lime plaster.

Our Parlor now:

To view a photo gallery of the Parlor's various incarnations through time, click here.

Click here to view our house in 3-D

About the Thomas Cole House:

Today, only a few remaining acres constitute the National Historic Site, but the modest, picturesque residential grounds reflect Thomas Cole's period, and are to be restored to their period condition, when the landscape was described by fellow artist, Jasper Cropsey, as “not give off an atmosphere of luxury and wealth.” The panoramic views to the Catskill Mountains and its great “Wall of Manitou,” experienced daily by Cole, can still be enjoyed. The entry driveway coming from Spring Street can still be traced, and the adjacent flower garden blooms each summer with renewed care. Close by is the Federal-style privy, built to complement the house, and Thomas Cole's studio at the old store-house. These outbuildings have, or will soon be, fully restored. Beyond is the grove of old trees, the woodlot mentioned in Thomas Cole's writings. A stand of Cedar trees in the grove probably inspired the name Cedar Grove, and it is possible that Cole himself coined the term before 1830. With its scenic attributes and authentic rural amenities, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site is a living memorial to the artistry of its famous resident and the world of romanticism in the Hudson River Valley.
Click here to visit the Thomas Cole House website for more information.

This time last year: One year later:

Definitely a good excuse for a feast!

Restoration pages that relate to this post:

LIME PLASTER Custom Mortar Analysis and Mortar Mix Lime Plaster Training Workshops in Upstate NY Lime Plaster Internships

About Lime Plaster Chemistry of Lime Plaster General Guidelines for Working With Lime Mortar and Limewash Safety LimePlaster Workshop Video Lime Mortar Limewash Hydraulic Lime Environmental Impact In the Arts In Architecture Misconceptions References Further Reading Green Restoration Lime Plaster Photo Gallery

Click here to view our house in 3-D

HOWARD HALL FARM HOME

Early February Update

Harry is working on the fascia boards, soffits and crown moldings for
the front of the house. We are trying to save as much as we can of the
original, but sadly much of it is rotted beyond use...

Lorena is prepping all
these boards so we can
get them up primed.
Can't wait until spring
to get this all finally
painted.

Andy has been jack hammering off the last Portland Cement left in the place. We will white wash these walls, even though they must have been plastered at one time. This area in the front of the basement hall never had white wash on walls or ceilings like the rest of the hall, so we suspect it was a closed storage room with plaster ceiling and walls. Very odd as it would have blocked the light in the hallway.

  

Ralph has been steaming off the paint in the hallway.
Getting closer to final plaster throughout the house.

Good Green Neighbors

TWO GREAT SITES I WANT TO SHARE:

RECLAIMED HOME

Those masks are no joke. Talk about a survivor! This woman has lived through 13 years of renovations, and now shares what she's gleaned by donating time to blogging about affordable real estate, diy, period restorations, decorating bargains, and sustainable living. She writes more than any other house blogger I know, and always has interesting tidbits and links to share. I wanted to thank her for helping us out with our green fundraising efforts and always posting great content! You can visit Reclaimed Home by clicking HERE.

KEN GREEN AT THE SEED LIBRARY Heirloom Seeds for Northeast Gardeners.

Ken Greene's efforts to revive the local seed trade and save heirloom seeds and their stories has culminated in the creation of a unique regional Seed Library. Like us, Ken and his friends are trying to share information about environmentally conscious skills and trades with workshops like Permaculture in Action and by sharing planting instructions for all to learn and grow from... You can read the article Ken wrote after his visit to Howard Hall Farm below.

Dennis Heaphy, the tin man behind the restoration of statue of liberty and Ellis Island, coming to Howard Hall, a center for Historic Restoration and Green Technology in Athens.

The History of Mortar may sound like a heavy subject for a workshop, but Reggie Young at Howard Hall Farm finds the topic enlightening. For years Reggie and his partner Nora Johnson had been dreaming of finding a stone house that they could afford to buy and restore. Young, previously a New York City restaurateur, had been doing restoration in the Hudson Valley for six years. “I had thought about offering training on the lime/mortar issue,” he says.”I had seen too many buildings screwed up by using the wrong mortar.” Young had gone out of state, to Chicago, for his training, but it wasn’t until he looked at a dilapidated house perched on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River that the idea of creating a training center crystallized in his mind. “It took five seconds,” he says. “The building lent itself perfectly to the idea.” Young and Johnson bought the house and have dedicated themselves not only to its restoration but to its development as a hands-on learning laboratory.

Young sees the Federal-style home’s potential to be transformed into a modern, functioning dwelling that preserves the home’s historic integrity and has a minimal impact on the natural environment. Three years after purchasing the property, Young and his team are deep into the renovation of the structure and are still tinkering with the training center’s mission statement. Currently, the center’s main purpose is to “investigate, restore, and revive every facet of the structure in a green manner, and provide a forum for other interested homeowners and craftspeople to learn to do the same.” Part of this process of educating themselves and others involves bringing in preservation and restoration experts from all over the country. “With the help of these incredible individuals,” says Young “we can all learn to bring an old home out of the cobwebs and into the green. We are in a global crisis, and conservation and restoration can be very green.”

Young sees his responsible approach to renovation as one facet of solving many environmental problems. He advocates fixing up existing structures rather than building new, reusing as much as possible, locating local materials, and incorporating alternative energy practices into historic renovations. In at least one instance, Young found that being green and historically accurate go hand in hand. He located and used a type of sand from Saugerties for his mortar mix which brought him closer to replicating the mix originally used on the home.

Mortar is not the only mixing happening on the hill. Young’s use of the Howard Hall website and blogs reflects his pride in working collaboratively. One site, howardhallfarm.wordpress.com is called the Faces of Howard Hall Farm. Its pages are an enthusiastic and affectionate introduction to the core group and their contributions to the project. The home site howardhallfarm.com is overflowing with before and after photos, short videos, archives, history, introductions to visiting experts, and an impressive list of workshops past and present.

The fall series of offerings ranges from the practical to the esoteric. Young’s partner, Nora Johnson, will bring New York City artist Toby Nutall and collaborator Moira Kelley to teach a workshop entitled “Historic Paints and Finishes: Faux Wood Graining: Creating Fantasy Wood Finishes”; it takes place October 13^th and 14^th. For those in historic homes, there is the quintessential lime plaster workshop with famed plaster professional Roy Brennen. On the fascinatingly obscure end of the Howard Hall workshop spectrum is Lady Liberty’s personal face lift professional (and fourth generation tinsmith) Dennis Heaphy—also known as the Tin Man. He will offer a lesson on working with Terne Tin, the material that keeps the Statue of Liberty clothed and smiling. In addition to the workshop, Heaphy will also be working on Howard Hall’s tin ceiling and conducting a presentation for children on October 20^th about the making of the Statue of Liberty.

For a complete list of workshops, presentations and available internships, visit Howard Hall Farm’s extensive website (www.howardhallfarm.com ), email howardhall.farm@gmail.com, or call 518-945-1253.

Happy New Year

We are hoping that 2008 finds the world a lot greener and bit better preserved.  
Here at Howard Hall, we continue to work toward this goal. I had to move out for
part of the winter with all the chaos that was happening in the house every day.
We insulated with Soy foam in December, which was very exciting. I know that
there is limited soy in this version of insulation but it has the green effect of doing
a very tight high R value job, and (that's not nothing/ that counts for something). 
I would never use fiberglass as it is a bad idea to introduce workers to it, doesn't
get very good R value, and if you research you will see that it causes endless
future problems that you would rather avoid. Our application was tricky in that
we wanted to do entire second floor ceiling without any demo of the original
plaster, and without man-handling the old attic floor. We were able to take out
some flooring and blow it in, and it did the job.

The view that day:


We also got the Co-generation unit up and running. That little boiler now 
just hums while heating this place, and it is so tiny. (Nora says it purrs). 
We have sold several of these units to our restoration clients as well.  
Everyone who comes here just wants a moment in the boiler room to see
the beautiful install job, and see and hear the thing working. 
On Top of that we also got Our Jutl stove in and working, so it's all  
about warmth here these days. I have moved back in and can actually
get warm without leaving a huge carbon footprint!  (If you would like
to see the Co-generation unit for yourself, call us:518.945.1253)
 
On other fronts, we just had a great class with Rory Brennan.
 
 

It was our best attended class so far, and filled with a lot of
knowledgable people.We are getting ready to do all lime wash finish
on walls of the first floor. For the first time we will be posting a 10
minute video of the class, so watch for that soon.
*(The video is now up in the video section of the blog)
Rory will be back for another lime wash class this spring.   
Lots of paint steaming and stripping happening now: 


Our Soffit story and fascia boards continue, as do the pointing and
whitewash stories.




We have a few cooking classes in March, which is our deadline for 
having beehive oven back up and running. The chimney for that side of  
the house is 4 feet from complete. So soon those fireplaces will also be 
up and running:  Beehive Oven (2),Parlor Fireplace:

 

NE Bedroom Fireplace:
 
 

Our Spring line-up is coming together and we have many exciting classes to
green your historic world and rock you preservation boat. Come join us and take
in the beauty of the Hudson Valley and it's fantastic Historic fabric, the local
foods on our lower loggia, and the good cheer of our crew and staff.   All of our other restoration and preservation projects are going full steam ahead.
We will post soon on some of these. Our crew and professional base continues
to grow with as we introduce other teachers in to the mix.
 

This season we owe thanks to many people. Bob Godwin for all his time and
Architecture expertise, not the mention his sharing
Annie Katz, his beautiful partner, with us. We all were so excited that after months
of cancer treatment she joined us last Saturday for a moment of cheer here.
Go Annie!!!!! We love you. Peter Mattei for housing our office when it was too cold here
to work here with no heat. Mike Veeter from Kool Temp for a fantastic co-gen boiler install job.
Tom Harkins for his plumbing our cast iron baseboards and his good humor. 
Gary Dodson for his ongoing electrical install, and his southern charm.
Eric Guyer at Climate Energy for creating this great boiler. 
Rory Brennan and Laurie Klenkel for such a great class on lime wash finishes.
Sarah Gonek for her never ending blog and class work, and being in such  
a state of grace always. Harry Klarr for his wonderful finish carpentry combined with his quiet 
seriousness. Patrick Pulver, Christoph Vilaghy, Ralph Mauro. Nicky Karas, and Andy 
Bolevic for their never ending work on the house.  Dan Laffin, for his kindness and for
being a hero to our distressed electronics. Dennis Heaphy for his tin expertise and oral stories, 
and last but not least Dan Grabinger for his excellent chimney  construction.
Love those fires Dan.

 *And thanks to Reggie and Nora for their inspiring compassion and
productivity in this busy season. -Sarah

Every single project we're working on today

			l

Age of Restoration: Times Union

This just came out in the Times Union.

(There was one tiny mistake, but it's less than a century long, so... for the record, the house was built in 1780, not 1870.)

From: timesunion.com

Age of restoration Tinsmith Dennis Heaphy is turning a 19th-century house into a workshop

By TOM KEYSER, Staff writer First published: Sunday, November 18, 2007

Dennis Heaphy doesn't require affirmation of what he does as often as most workers do. But every now and then, even for Heaphy, affirmation is nice.

"I was having a glass of wine last night, and the bartender asks, 'How was your day?' " Heaphy says. "I said, 'Well, you know, I'm really enjoying this. I'm laying on the roof, and I'm intent on what I'm doing; I'm scraping off the existing tar on the metal to prep it to be soldered. And then I realize that it's a beautiful day, and I'm looking out on the Hudson from the highest point.' "

From his rooftop perch at Howard Hall Farm, Heaphy can watch the Hudson River hug the bank as it pushes past the village of Athens, near Hudson. A fourth-generation tinsmith, he is restoring the roof of the 1870s house.

A beefy man with flowing hair and a bushy mustache, Heaphy usually divides his time between New York City, where he is resident tinsmith at the Statue of Liberty, and Syracuse, where his great-grandfather opened a metal shop 115 years ago. But for several weeks over the next several months, he will be in the Hudson River Valley helping restore the old Federal-style house and giving lessons in tinsmithing.

Platform for school

Heaphy's participation exemplifies how Howard Hall Farm is a laboratory for "sustainable, environmentally conscious restoration techniques," as its owner Reggie Young puts it. He and his partner, Nora Johnson, bought the house in 2005 as "the platform for a school of restoration that I had fantasized about," Young says.

It was in rough shape -- perfect for what Young had in mind. He's a former restaurateur in New York City and Connecticut who grew up on a farm in eastern Pennsylvania. His parents did restoration work, and he did, too, even while owning restaurants. But he wanted to do more.

At Howard Hall Farm, he and Johnson started by ripping out the electrical system, plumbing, ceilings, floors, walls and siding as well as tearing down all additions.

"We gutted it back to everything that was original," Young says.

That took about six months. Then reconstruction began. Young and his partner are bringing in preservation and restoration experts from around the country to oversee the work and give seminars in, for example, masonry and historic paints and finishes.

The real thing

Young recruited Heaphy this summer after reading about him in an article in a New York newspaper. The article was headlined "The Tin Man."

"He told me the house was built in 1780. That was the hook," Heaphy says. "The opportunities don't come up that often to come in and try to salvage old work.

"This is not theoretical. This is the real thing. You watch some television show, and you can muse about it. But actually to get your hands in it ... "

And Heaphy's hands are full with this project. Standing on the roof, he says: "You're looking at a map of people's mistakes over 200 years."

He has the expertise to correct them. He learned to work with metal from the old men in his family's shop in Syracuse that supported the family's hardware store and heating and roofing companies. What turned out to be a fortunate happenstance started as a nuisance.

"I inadvertently learned a trade that very few people have anymore," says Heaphy, 48. "I really only do work that I find interesting, like this. Having this talent has given me the freedom to do that. But when I was 11 years old I didn't want to be a tinsmith."

He wanted to be with friends. Instead, he worked after school, Saturdays and summers learning to solder, bend metal, corrugate pipe, lay out a job and envision how it would look when finished. By the time he was 15 or 16, he says, he was master of the shop.

"I learned to appreciate the craft," he says, "to love working with metal."

To the statue

He also loves performing, and that led him to the Statue of Liberty. His mother was a singer, and Heaphy, while running the shop, did summer stock and regional theater. Through people he'd met acting, he got a job transforming a room of the Ellis Island museum in New York City into a theater. Then he befriended workers in the Ellis Island maintenance department, the same workers who oversee the Statue of Liberty. He told them about his family business.

"I said, 'So what do I have to do to become the resident tinsmith for the statue?' " Heaphy says. "I'm positive the guy's going to laugh in my face. And instead he goes, 'I don't know. We can probably find you something.' And inside, as a tinsmith, I'm thinking, 'What did he say? Did he really say that?' "

They found him a job repairing the brass windows in the statue's crown. Then he repaired the brass grating in the lobby.

"They kept on giving me different projects," Heaphy says, "and I became the go-to guy."

He also got a job performing, five times a day at the base of the statue, a dramatic re-enactment of how the statue was built. He puts the show aside when there's work to do on the statue.

Bringing it back

He's been the statue tinsmith for eight years, working from April to October and then going home to Syracuse for the winter. Until it snows, he says, he'll continue working on and off on the Howard Hall Farm roof. He's planning on finishing in the spring.

"The tin roof is still intact," Heaphy says. "But over the years people have dropped things on it and punctured it, and they put nails in it to hold it down, or they put tar on it, or they put caulk on it, and when they ripped out fireplaces and chimneys they put aluminum over it."

He is removing as much tar with a chisel as he can, and then he'll have helpers remove the rest with paint thinner. They'll wash it with soap and water, and he'll use a brush to get it as smooth as possible. It will eventually be painted red.

Heaphy will solder the holes and remove any exposed nails. A tin roof like this, he says, should be bent and folded to create waterproof seams. He'll peel the roof back so the soffits can be replaced, and he'll create drains. He'll replace the tin around the new chimneys.

In the process, he'll teach contractors and others about the art of tinsmithing.

"What Reggie's trying to do here is give people a window to the past and the opportunity to get their hands into these processes, to appreciate the original process," Heaphy says. "Happily, these old roofs do exist, and there are people out there trying to keep them."

Tom Keyser can be reached at 454-5448 or by e-mail at tkeyser@timesunion.com.

Classes for restorers

For more information about lessons with Dennis Heaphy or Howard Hall Farm renovation and seminars, call Reggie Young at 945-1945. (or 945-1253)

Upcoming seminars:

Dec. 1-2: Rory Brennan (plasterer from "This Old House"): Lime washes and finishes.

Dec. 2: Brigit Binns, spokesperson for Williams-Sonoma and author of cookbooks: Green-friendly cooking.

Dec. 8 (tentative): Shannon Hayes, author of "The Grassfed Gourmet," "The Farmer and the Grill" and "The Carnivore Chronicles": Cooking class.

Dec. 15: Mercy Ingraham, author of "Open Hearth Cook": Hearth cooking from the Federal era.

Next year's seminars begin in April. Topics include kiln building, Dutch-barn building, historic sash restoration and historic doors.

A green-technology conference, exploring options and costs for restoration, is scheduled May 17-19. Heaphy will give seminars in tinsmithing June 21-22.

All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2007, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.

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
-----


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






The exposed flue.

pre-chimney showing cracks

Howard Hall Farm is about to be free watt ready!

Here's the scoop on our new heating system:
Mind you, we are not engineers, but have a practical approach to these issues.
After much researching of what is available out there(and there are other cogeneration systems that we did not choose),we chose to go with a product from [**Climate Energy**], which
will eventually both produce our heat, as well as provide the bulk of our electricity, all in a highly efficient system that has been developed by Honda.

On Saturday we (the heat system installers and myself)went to Climate Energy's training session. We saw units running and working. The only down side is that we have to wait to get the electric side of the system until it gets through UL approval, unless we get a test unit, which we are
working on...

For now we have the boiler that will be ready for the final
install next year. If we were doing hot air, and not propane, we could be up on line with the whole system right now. But the wait will be worth it. Once we have it, even if the power goes out we will still have electricity, and not from the grid.

It will be **much more efficient** making wattage from our unit than from the fossil fuel plant that feeds the grid as they aren't very efficient at all. We feel that this is the greenest option out there at this time for all kinds of reasons, and one that makes a big difference in terms of pay back in less time than geothermal, which we can hardly afford right now anyway.

We will be discussing the system on the blog as we get it installed and going. We're looking forward to installing the whole deal with the hot air natural gas option (that does make electricity now) for a client soon,
so we will have practical experience on that end soon. (We couldn't do that in our own house, since we can't do duct work here without destroying the historic fabric of the
building).

Our installer will become the dealer for the Upstate New York area soon and we will posts links as soon as all that is arranged. Very exciting technology that is just out, and we are getting the first Climate Energy system in New York State. **I believe we're number 57 in the chain of
installs in this country.**

Keep posted for more info on this topic if you are an energy enthusiast!


The following photo's are our ancient old oil tank coming out (which was once a water tank). We are setting this room up so that it can be a viewing room for the system.

-Reggie






THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER:


THIS NEW SYSTEM IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR.....

New Old Pictures of the Federal Mansion at Howard Hall Farm

Reggie's friend Kathy just let us scan these historic photos of the house we're restoring!:

Greg Howell's Article about Howard Hall Farm made front page!

Our Sheep got haircuts

After months of searching,WE FINALLY FOUND A SHEEP SHEARER!

They got the **latest** possible hairdos in every sense of the word.

This new sheep shearer we found was truly incredible...

And since it took us MONTHS to even find an available shearer in the area, we decided to bring him in next spring to train people in sheep shearing...more on that to follow. We're just glad our Shetland sheep are finally pampered as they deserve to be.

Airing out the Attic Bathroom

The newest addition to our crew, Ralph, helped us finally get rid of the hideous attic bathroom. He threw it down the stairs!

**Airing out the attic bathroom floor.**


**lovely restoration scene...**

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!

Visit From A Morning Prophet

Visit From A Morning Prophet

Click on the album below to meet my strange visitor.

praying mantis on my desk

This morning, I was greeted by an unusual guest. I sat down at my computer at Howard Hall Farm, and perched on top of it was an enormous Praying Mantis. She stared at me calmly and followed me with her eyes. The magnificent creature was inches away from my face, and longer than my hand. She looked around at the scenery. The way she moved was stunning and sinuous. She held her forelegs delicately, and moved them with the grace of a Flamenco dancer. When I sang to her, she moved the top of her body and swayed, arching and lowering her back. Her antennae balanced on a gust of wind. She was very aware of all of my movements, as I was of hers. ... following me with her large amber eyes. She showed me her underside. It was a stunning synchronicity of delicately monochromatic corals and reds, with iridescent copper filaments. We looked at each other. I was awed by the acuity of her awareness. We watched and tilted our heads together. I couldn't help but speak to her. She was like a fairy. When a mantis is threatened, it spreads its forelegs to allow penetration of the victim, fanning its legs and opening its mouth...hissing... This mantis did not do that. She danced: turning, swaying, and writhing. For twenty minutes this went on. Silences and sways. Communication. We shared one last gaze, then she flew over my head and away. Mantis means prophet in Greek.

____________________________________________________________

In other news, " WHY would some people willingly spend decades — and hundreds of thousands of dollars — renovating houses they will never own? " From By EVE M. KAHN, New York Times.

A Good Morning from the Post-Eclipse Light to the Place It Eats Its Noon

The stunning Eastern light on this morning after the eclipse saturated the Howard Hall Farm Balcony, and turned everything to gold laced with delicate gray shadows.

I am reminded of an old favorite poem:

"At North Farm

Somewhere someone is traveling furiously toward you,

At incredible speed, traveling day and night,

Through blizzards and desert heat, across torrents, through

narrow passes.

But will he know where to find you,

Recognize you when he sees you,

Give you the thing he has for you?

Hardly anything grows here,

Yet the granaries are bursting with meal,

The sacks of meal piled to the rafters.

The streams run with sweetness, fattening fish;

Birds darken the sky. Is it enough

That the dish of milk is set out at night,

That we think of him sometimes,

Sometimes and always, with mixed feelings?"

John Ashbery

A Participant's Review of the Historic Paints and Faux Finishes Workshop

An excerpt about our most recent HISTORIC PAINTS AND FAUX FINISHES WORKSHOP from one of the participants, and a dear friend:

The historic painting workshop was fascinating. I've been enjoying the feeling of being in class, taking notes and looking at slides! **I think I've been craving this kind of focus, this kind of subject matter. I've walked away feeling inspired to start so many projects! ** It's been a few years now since I've had the opportunity to talk exclusively about painting for hours at a time.

Athens is an interesting town. Victorian houses and storefronts in rows, with trailers and little salt box houses between. I've lived in towns like this, but they were too sleepy for me. This one is far more alive. I suppose if I lived in the city and had the means, I'd like a Victorian project home on the riverside too. I can appreciate the need for an escape.

S's friends are great fun. Interested in the sensuality of objects, food, and drink. We and I spent two lovely nights sitting along the porch on rocking chairs admiring the stars. I was impressed by the level of detail they've incorporated into their living spaces. There was a fabulous walnut sofa upholstered in silhouettes of trees. Both her friends and her uncles had collections of old photographs and portraits of mysterious, stern-looking men and women. I understood very well the impulse to populate one's home with faces and personalities. It seems to me unimportant that they be family or known people.

I’ll be damned! I left my camera battery charger at home! I am kicking myself over this… There were some beautiful scenes I should have documented. Hopefully, S. will make a flicker site or pass the images along to me.

We visited Olana, the home of Hudson River School painter Frederic Church. He designed the home with inspiration from his trips to Arabia and the Orient. The mansion is perched at the apex of a mountain, looking over the Hudson River. A breathtaking view can be taken in on the rear porches. One of the presenters at the workshop had recently completed the restoration of the original stencils found throughout the house. It's an opulent space. In some cases, Church imitated the Arabian theme with innovation! Placing a meticulously made paper cut-out, in the style of a Morrocan screen, between two panes of glass, to simulate the effect. All wall colors were original, in palettes of ochre, red, purple. I have returned home with some ideas!

The presenting artists were all lovely people, with great command over their medium. I learned a great deal about paints and varnishes. When I experience something as I did this weekend, I come away with questions about my own path as a painter. The lectures were given in the context of restoration, which is something I was once very interested in pursuing as a career. But I feel fairly certain I will not end up doing this. It is more useful to me as a way of bringing contemporary subject matter into a traditional medium. For instance, I think it would be great to do narrative murals in historic style, or giving the illusion of being old. There are also possibilities for creating objects that simulate aged wood. I shall practice on my apartment!! Perhaps I will begin with a stencil border on my plank living room floor?

I feel relaxed, as if I have been away for a week. It was the best escape I've had all summer!

---

---

Thank you Ami! Here are the pictures I took from the workshop. Enjoy, Sarah

Lovely Lorena Strips the Doorways

Talk about a Full Metal Jacket! The doorways of the house are cloaked in layers of lead paint. Today, Lorena's decked out in riot gear with sci-fi mask and all, attacking the toxic cracks an crumbling bits. The picture on the left is the balcony doorway she finished last week during the historic paints and faux finishes workshop. On the right, you can see her working on the front door (today). The wood beneath the deadly veils of lead is beautiful. By the end of the day, all will be revealed!

Some things we've learned about lead (mostly gleaned from Michael Black during the first Historic Paints and Faux Finishes Workshop):

• There are two means of ingesting lead: breathing it in, and allowing it to be absorbed into the bloodstream.

• It's the lead you can't see that is hazardous. In its particulate and vapor forms (it can be vaporized with a heat gun), it seeps into the membranes of your lungs. ** Do not allow it to become airborne!**

• While it is obviously best to prevent contact with lead if at all possible, while working on a historic home, that can be a little tricky. If you think you've been exposed to lead, get tested!

• While this is not really an effective preventative measure, we have heard that as a disaster management tactic, the consumption of food containing dark chlorophil (for example, wheat grass, kale, or molasses) is mildly beneficial.

  • For more information on lead:

The National Lead Information Center (NLIC) provides the general public and professionals with information about lead hazards and their prevention. NLIC operates under a contract with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with funding from EPA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Contact the National Lead Information Center to receive a general information packet, to order other documents, or for detailed information or questions.

Too Many Chicks In Paradise! Who Ever Heard of Such A Thing?

Sad but true. We have way too many chicks! The Adams and Eves of foul have been having a ball, and now there are far too many little beaked babes scampering about. Yes, we have heard of gathering the eggs and making them deviled, but you try "happening to notice" that one of the little mamas has a secret nest in the roof. (We eventually did notice, when in the middle of a lightning storm in our windowless office on the balcony, we began chasing wind-blown papers about, and chicks started falling from the sky! Blossom was snapping them up in her jaws as quick as a whip, but many escaped under cover of the howling wind to proliferate, gobble, and peck.) So...

Help us by helping yourself! Free Chickens...take one, get one free! A dozen for the price of zero, et cetera, et cetera...

To get your free chicks, send us an email by clicking the link at the top of this page! Raise them, braise them, do what you will!

Our Shirts and Tank Tops Have Arrived!

The T-shirts and tank tops Reggie and I designed have just arrived, and they look gorgeous! The Front says "Howard Hall Farm". The back is an image of Atlas with our house on his back.

It's too cold today to try on one of the tank tops and take a picture, but I'll put one up as soon as I can feel my fingers again... The t-shirts are $15 each Tank tops are $20 each

To sport one of our shirts:

send me an email: howardhall.farm@gmail.com Tell me what size t-shirt you want, and I'll send you a secure paypal button via email.

Statue of Liberty's Tinsmith To Visit Howard Hall Farm

Lady Liberty's Tin Man 'Ternes' toward Howard Hall Farm

Our House at Howard Hall Farm has a Terne Tin roof, so over the years, Reggie has done a lot of research on it. He's been looking for an expert for quite some time now, so when he read an article in the New York Post about THE TIN MAN who is the fourth generation of a line of tinsmiths (dating back to 1892), and Lady Liberty's personal assistant, he couldn't resist getting in touch with him.

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Incredible as it seems, Dennis Heaphy has agreed to come work on Howard Hall Farm's tin roof! He'll be working here for a week in mid-October. During his stay, Dennis will be conducting a presentation for children about the making of the statue of Liberty.

In an interview for "The Tin Man:Metalsmith puts best face on Lady Liberty", by C.J. Sullivan(New York Post), Mr. Heaphy said, "This truly is my dream job. It’s an evolution of everything I’ve ever done. It’s an opportunity to use an esoteric knowledge, combined with an opportunity to display it. And there’s nothing like seeing a child fascinated with something they didn’t know they’d be fascinated with. They love to hear me tell how hard it was for me, at 11, to hold the tools. They grab them and try and keep them steady.

When I leave for the day, it’s a real gift to go home by boat. I always look back at the Statue of Liberty and feel good that I enriched some people’s day there. It makes me giggle when I look back. I feel that good."

We are open to the idea of offering a workshop for anyone interested in learning at the hands of a true artisan, but we will only do this if enough people are interested. If you would like to take a workshop to learn to work with Terne Tin, contact us at howardhall.farm@gmail.com

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For those of you who aren't familiar with Terne Tin, Reggie found a posting about it on the Slate Roof Central Message Board:

"Terne is an alloy coating of lead and tin used to cover steel - the terne coated steel is also known as terne metal and often referred to as "tin" (get the Slate Roof Bible). You can still buy terne-coated steel at any roofing supply place. We do not use it because it's better to use terne coated STAINLESS steel (TCS), or copper, when replacing terne metal roofs. Both TCS and copper will outlast terne metal and don't need painted until they reach about 50 years (if ever).

Terne metal needs painted immediately or it will rust and it has to be painted regularly. If it is kept painted, it will last a long time (90 years).

The latest version of terne is called terne II. It is an alloy of zinc and tin (the lead has been removed for environmental reasons). The terne coated stainless is now called TCSII. It's available from Follansbee in Follansbee, WV.

I should add that when ordering terne coated stainless from a roofing supply company make sure you make it very clear that it's STAINLESS steel you're ordering. Numerous times we have been shipped terne coated steel instead of the terne coated stainless steel that we ordered due to salesmen who weren't too bright and didn't know the difference."

Once Again, The Intern Hunt Is On

**Not that kind of hunt...we don't want to shoot them, just invite them over for a nice cup of tea, and a week of restoration.

INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES We're inviting anyone interested in a week-long restoration or research internship to click on this article's title and read on! We're offering a number of different internships between now and November. We have positions ideal for students (of restoration, historic structures, writing, history, library studies, construction, architecture, antiquarian processes, artisans, etc.) as well as places for people who have their own historic home (or someone else's to work on), and would like a chance to get a feel for our environmentally friendly restoration techniques, and apply them to their own structures! Glean some of the benefits of taking our workshops at off-peak times working as an intern, and have a chance to meet all the interesting characters lurking about this old pile of beams.

All the Elves Have Been Hard at Work!

All in the last week....

Nicky applied lime plaster to the basement wall below the stairs. Of course lime plaster is much better for your walls than regular plaster, and allows them to breathe and drink when thirsty, but who knew it could look so luscious! The texture of it is eyeball heaven. It has a lively color and richness to it that is unsurpassed by any other plaster. It's so beautiful you have to restrain yourself from licking the walls!

At the beginning of the week, the room that is now a fully functional bathroom looked like this: A misty realm devoid of life, fit only for mists and invented creatures...

Until Nora saved it: she plastered the floors, scored them to look like large tiles, and applied a gorgeous treatment to them that made them look old and time-worn. Nora is the artist who did the stunning interiors of The River Tavern, and as always, she worked her magic well. She's one of our instructors for the Historic Paint and Interior Finishes Workshop. So for those of you who come to the workshop, maybe she'll teach you how she did this incredible face-lift in our basement. Check back tomorrow for photos of the bathroom as it is now. You won't believe your eyes. I don't.

Descendants at our Door! And I don't mean the stairs.

We have just been contacted by a descendant of William Brandow and Joseph Groom (born in 1748, before the Declaration of Independence!), previous occupants of this very house!. She and her grandmother (also a descendant) are going to come visit us, and let us interview them. Hopefully, they will be able to help us fill in some of the gaps in the history of this place. I'll put everything up once I have their permission in early July.

THUNDER IN THE GLOOM

This was the view from where I'm sitting as I watched the storm approach. Reggie (he took this picture) told me that this is the first time he's seen a storm come through here from the North-East in the entire time he's lived here. I'm sitting in the beautiful new open-air office we just moved into on the balcony of Howard Hall Farm.

Crackling in the far-off skies. I suddenly remember that we never finished fixing the lightning rod. I was indirectly struck by lightning in my car a couple weeks ago, but even that did not remind me. This old place is set in a dangerous, electric, storm-prone land. We haven't even put all the windows in yet so it's all fluttering plastic and pounding rains, and this clutching wind...It's only 7mph, but the old documents on the tables of the porch don't understand math and they fling themselves over the railings, past the melted candles and into the pooling waters below. The smell of wet antique woods wafts up from the floor.

It's a very strange storm. I'm listening to a Coil c.d. (the one with a magic mirror on the cover) very quietly beneath the rains, and it sounds like ghostly footsteps behind me as I sit alone in this old room between the deep cracking groans of thunder outside my window. The house suddenly feels as old as it is, and the creatures are crying out in the fields. A brief lull in the rains. ..[I ran out in the storm to feed Lucifer, the horned Shetland lamb. In his terror he lunged at the bottle frantically long after it was empty]....The storm reconvenes...thunder gathers in the distance on the southwest side of the house. It has wraithed around this place and it will pass. The house will survive another storm, and the sounds of the footsteps will fade away. We are lucky to have a chance to restore this place. That it's survived this long without being swallowed by the sky.

The Sheep of Sorrow

The other sheep must sense that we are trying to find a new home for one of the gorgeous Shetland Lamb twins.

Since they lost their mother, she has been needing more care and attention than we can give her. (We have to spend some of our time restoring this gorgeous old house, or there will be nowhere comfortable to live come winter.) So, if anyone knows of a good home for her, there's no adoption fee. We just need to know that you'll have time to give her that extra attention. If you would like to give our girl a home, send us an email! Let's talk...we just want her to be happy.

This is the Shetland lamb that needs a loving home. (She's a lamb, but she's also a dear):

Here she is with her brother Lucifer. (I guess that makes her 'god'...I wonder which one she'd like to be...):

The Miracles of Soy Gel

Nikki has been experimenting to find the most environmentally friendly and cost-effective way to strip the incredibly thick lead paint off these great old doors. There were so many epic layers of paint on them that they looked more like a geological survey of some untouched rock shelf than something that spends its days swinging back and forth in someone's home.
First, she applied soy gel, and waited. A lot of paint came up then, but not all of it...

Then she reapplied the soy gel, covered it with plastic, and let it sit. That seems to be working very quickly!

You can already see those layers of paint bubbling up under the plastic....

Floor Scraping

We have been working on the second story floors for the past week... what a disaster the old linoleum was! The pitch is nasty business, but we discovered that soy gel works well if left on over night under plastic.

We wouldn't wish this project on anyone, the process is slow and painful... but we are slowly getting down to the good stuff and will soon have our lovely old wood floors back!

Stay tuned for more pictures as we make progress.

As promised... The newly exposed floor sultrily peeks out from beneath its veil, whispering, "I was buried alive! What took you so long?"

Green Technology Conference

Historic Buildings & Green Energy

June 20 – 23, 2007

Howard Hall Farm is pleased to bring you our Green Technology Conference 2007. This is an AIA Certified Course, which gives a detailed overview of the considerations of planning and using alternative energy in the historic home or building. Our mission is to educate practitioners so that we may both honor the past and protect the future.

The conference will be headed up by a panel of experts including Randolph Horner, who has recently been featured in newspapers around the world for his groundbreaking plan to take Woodstock, NY to zero carbon.

Two different segments are offered, the first being geared toward the Historic Site Manager, Architect, Engineer, and Design Professional, which takes place over three days. The second segment is a weekend-long abbreviated version tailored towards the homeowner.

This promises to be a dynamic discussion and one that will allow for audience participation, as well as address the goals of attendees.

AIA Certificates of Completion will be distributed to attendees at the conclusion of the workshop.

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Course Outline

Part I. Finance

I. Policy Trends

• Congress, New York Sate, & Public Sector

II. National & New York State Incentives

• NYSERDA & Green Lending

III. Community Engagement/Financing

• Capitol Campaigns, donations, & banks

Part II. Technology

I. Ground Exchange Heating or Ground Coupled/Source Heating & Cooling

• Energy Costs: Fuel & Electric
• How they are derived?
• What to do about it?
• Why it is cost effective?

II. RE + EE or Renewable Energy plus Energy Efficiency

• Ground Source Systems: photovoltaic, solar, & on-site generation
• Symbiotic relationship with the grid
• Companion Technology
• Looking Ahead: anticipating energy costs

Part III. Design Considerations

I. Energy Integrity & the Historic Building

• Envelope improvement without sacrifice: striking a balance
• Cultural: what is the overall mission of historic site?
• Energy containment: foundation, walls, & windows
• Aesthetics: pipes, ducts, & wiring

Articles on Randolph Horner's Zero Carbon Intiative:

New York Times

CNN

Telegraph UK

New Arrivals!

Reggie's been telling me for weeks of a sneaking suspicion that baby lambs would be arriving any day. Indeed, I had noted the fluffiness of certain ewe's, but wasn't sure it was anything but winter wool in need of good sheering. Though a few of them did seem to be swaggering around a little more slowly as of late.

Well, I've definitely learned my lesson... always trust the instincts of a Pennsylvania farmboy when it comes to these things! There was (for now) at least one ready to bring us some springtime joy in the form of twins! These photos were taken when they were just 1 hour old . . .

Behold the latest Howard Hall Farm additions...

More to come? We'll keep ewe posted.

Chimneys cleared, stairs scraped, floors found, and alliteration abounds!

So even though I posted that Ralph was about to begin demo in the blue room, now, just a couple hours later it's finished and he's in the attic tearing up the nasty floor of the bathroom to reveal large old boards beneath. I've never seen anyone work so fast.
**The room went from this:**

**To this:**

**To these:**



**Can you believe this guy?**
It's insane...you can look at the blue album below to see the before and after pictures of the demo. You won't believe this all happened in the small part of the afternoon in one day! And he didn't just do the demo and clean up in that time. He also neatly stacked hundreds of old bricks...crazy.

Blossom is lonely today. Reggie's not in the office, and I don't have time to play with her. I tried to have her sit quietly in my lap but she kept eating my sleeve.

Ralph found an old photo album in the attic wall. If you recognize any of these people, send an email to howardhall.farm@gmail.com to claim it.

Meanwhile, out in the yard, Harry's preparing the gigantic beams to be hoisted into the attic.

And Lorena is scraping years of accumulated lead paint from the Victorian staircase:

**Look at the lovely rose-colored wood under there! I can't believe people painted over it!**

The hero of the day is Ralph, who is now officially dubbed Speedy Gonzales:

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On his way out today, I was telling Ralph that it's scary how much work he got done, and his reply was,
"Well don't go into the attic then, because I also ripped out the bathroom floor..."

Just Around the Corner

Although we aren't seeing buds on the trees out on the property, we can feel it... Springtime is just around the corner! Nobody is happier about this than Reggie, who braved 99% of the season here at the farm with the wind howling all around.

Through the last bit of Winter we have plenty of indoor projects keeping us busy. This week we are in the process of getting some fresh plaster up on the hallway walls:
We are finally making progress on some 2nd floor rooms so Reggie and Nora can finally get off the 3rd floor. Also, finishing up some scheduling for our Spring and Summer Series of Classes! Stay tuned, as things are about to start bloomin'!

Animal News

This weekend, Reggie was away, and I got to watch Blossom figure out what was different about the house. With all the sudden spare time she had that normally would have been filled with blindly following and adoring her loving master, some strange things came to her attention:

Our Little Blossom about to Discover the Minimalist Horror of An Empty Room.
This is the price puppies pay for living in a restoration project.

Blossom in Ye Olde Offyce

...wondering where all the familiar smells have gone...

What's going on here?

Lambchop, one of the two Great Pyrenees who guard the sheep from coyotes.

Good thing they have nice warm coats, huh?

Lamb baby!

Winter retreat!

Sheep Shearing

As the sheep bleat in the background, and awfully loud breed these Shetlands, I am reminded of the worming we are about to do and the end of fly season coming up soon. We sheared a couple weeks ago and that was fantastic to watch and learn. Mark has been shearing his entire life and really has it down. More than the shearing where his stories about al the local shepherds and the things he has experienced and seen in the sheep world. Check out the video in our video section and see the way this guy moves, really amazing.

This fall we will butcher our first crop of lambs, mostly the ram lambs that we can't breed. We will be having lots of lamb stew as the snow flies and the wind howls up on our hill. That basement kitchen and fireplace will save us from the Wuthering Heights aspect of the place for many months. God knows how we get to a tropical Island for a break with the sheep, guard dogs, and chickens that are about to arrive. The dogs last night where doing their thing as the coyotes circled and where howling up a storm. When that happens, the dogs click i to their breeding of a couple thousand years and circle the perimeters of the pasture, and bark like mad to warn those little devils not to eat our flock. The whole thing is fascinating to watch and would be very amusing if it wasn't so loud, it makes the sound of all that breaking glass in the city seem almost welcome sometimes. We're looking for a ram to breed our gals this winter, we'll let you know from where he comes when we find him.

An ongoing correspondence 6 ...

When I found the wills, I also discovered in the Groom file, correspondence from another seeker of Joseph Groom information, a lovely man named Michael, whom I have had several conversations with and hope to actually meet sometime. He was researching his own family roots and this led him to the marriage of his ancestor, Barnet Gay to Magdeline Groom daughter of Joseph. He was searching for the Groom Burial plot and his correspondence to a local historian from the Vedders research library gave every indication that he knew a lot already about the Groom family. His notes and the subsequent conversations have been part of piecing together the puzzle pieces and he has since informed me that he has boxes of information on not only the Groom family, but clues to the history of Greene county in general, at the time they were living in the house. I have been anxious to have him come to Howard Hall with his “box” of clippings and plan a moment to do that. He has also unearthed and restored other historic burial grounds and is most anxious to try to find the Grooms. Well, us, too!

We have to plan a moment this summer, and maybe your foot will behave and you can tromp around the property along with Michael and his grave finding machine. (Yeah, he has unearthed other historic grave sites, and says he has a machine that can tell if earth has been turned over, even if it is many years ago. He said they use the machine to locate mass graves, and that grizzly idea aside, I am totally intrigued with this possibility.

An ongoing correspondence 5 ...

So that is a legitimate question; how did farmers in 1780’s make enough money to build grand houses? You also thought it would have been a little house that had additions as the family grew, and we are sure it was built as one big sort of manor house with out buildings. Of course, we may find out all sorts of things when we poke around. But back to your questions. Not sure really, and want to ask the local historian at the research library as she is a “social historian” and has wonderful insight into not just what happened at a given time, but why people did the things they did, what motivated the culture. Sort of an anthropologist, I guess, and I hope to get some insight from her.

While we don’t know fully about the finances or income sources of the family, we can assume the Groom family was prosperous enough to not only build a rather grand house for a farm, but were able to acquire other land holdings as well as the farm. At some point prior to 1801, William purchased 2 farm lots in Schoharry County, (mentioned in his will) and Joseph purchased another 100 acre lot, listed as Expense lot 27 from the Catskill patent, land sold as further partitioning of the Loonenburg patent. By the time of William’s death in 1812, a home in the Village of Athens had been purchased (no, don’t have record of that either) as William is listed as being a resident of the Village, and Joseph who sells the property within months of the father’s death, also then resides in the Village, where he becomes active in it’s formation into a town 3 years hence.

That the Groom family held an emotional attachment to the farm could be assumed because the family burial grounds were there and Joseph made sure the burial plot was exempted from the sale in 1812 and future sales. In his will of 1831, he gave it to the custody of the Dutch Reformed Church. (another thing to research) Sarah, wife of William was the first of 4 family members to be buried there. The other 3 being William, Joseph and his wife Rachael. Even though both William and Joseph remarried after the deaths of Sarah and Rachael, neither second wife seems to be part of the family plot. A footnote in Beers History of Greene County states: “Upon this farm is the burying ground of the Groom Family, overgrown with weeds. A headstone almost level with the ground bears the following inscription: ‘To the memory of Joseph Groom, who died August 15, 1832, age 85. this marks the resting place of the man who was president of the village and one of its most influential citizens. William Groom died April 18, 1812, age 93; Sarah, wife of William Groom died March 11 1788, aged 40; Rachael, wife of Joseph Groom died August 20,, 1795, aged 47.” There is also no mention of Edward and his family, who by the time William died were living in Schoharry County.

An ongoing correspondence 4 ...

Beers in the History of Greene County mentions that the Dutch settlers were mostly farmers who kept their lives simple,” they married wives, planted, they ‘builded’ but know little of life beyond their narrow limits” (farms). He compares the Dutch to the English, citing the Dutch as having lives lacking in “excitement and enterprise” while the English were actively engaged in community and civic life.

The Grooms however, were active enough in the growing communities of the future Greene County. It is assumed the Groom family resided in what was then the district of Coxsackie which included all the land that would later become Catskill and Athens. Both William and Edward were signers of the Coxsackie (Dutch) Declaration of Independence (from the British) in 1775, a year prior to the 1776 Declaration in Philadelphia. (Had you known there was such a thing? I didn’t.) While the War for independence never really touched Greene County (at this time it was still Albany County) Joseph and many of his neighbors joined the Albany County Militia as enlisted men. The names of all the neighborhood folk appear over and over in deeds and records of marriage.

The Howard Hall Farm site was considered part of Coxsackie until the formation of Catskill in 1789, and in 1787, William was assessed by the town for $16 in owed taxes.

We can assume that Joseph Groom had an interest in community politics as we know that Joseph, then age 41, was present at the first town meeting when Catskill was formed and he was listed as “collector”. A copy of the Catskill packet (the original still exists in the Vedders library) contains a copy of an advertisement taken out by Joseph to prompt the citizens to pay owed tax moneys. I am going to try to get a digital image of the original newspaper ad, if they will let me. Better that than Xerox.

While I have yet to find out from exactly where the Groom family resided prior to building the stone house, or from whom they purchased the property, (those records may be in the Albany County Court house or State library), it is possible William purchased the land directly from the one of the original families that owned parts of the Loonenburtg patent, as the patent was broken into smaller partitions or lots. Most of the landowners were Dutch farmers and their names repeat throughout the records of marriages, wills, deed descriptions and the like. Joesph Groom married a Van Loon, the property was bounded by Hallenbeck, Van Hoesen and Brandow, (Aaron) whose brother William was the son in law of Joseph (a guess, not verified). In other words, their lives were quite intertwined. The History of Greene County gives a fairly detailed description of the Loonenburg patent and how it was divided, mapped and divided into lots numbered from 1 to 146, although all original maps have been lost. Just an aside, in 1796, Aaron Brandow sells his brother, William, lot number one, lying on the patent line. This could very well be the son-in-law of William Groom, or grandson, as is referred to in his will. In a description of the lots and their owners, Beers mentions lots 71 and 72 as the Sprague farm (this was in 1881), previously owned by Joseph Groom,. The earliest deed I have copies of is of the sale of the Groom farm after William’s death in 1812. The deed transferring lot 71, 72 and 127 from Joseph Groom to a Benjamin Haxton of New York City and the deed refers to the land being in the Loonenburg patent, The boundaries of the property sold are vagtue; certain trees, piles of stones, but does mention bordering the land of William Brandow, son in law and John Van Hoesan. This son-in-law could very well be the owner of lot #1, The deed of transfer from Groom to Haxton lists sale of 210 1/16th acres, selling for $8000, and refers to a survey and map attached to the deed made by John D. Spoor. (we do not have a copy of that; another thing to research!)

An ongoing correspondence 3...

The house, it seems was built to be sort of grand at a time, 1780, when there were very few families living in Loonenburg, or what would become first Catskill in 1787, then eventually part of the town of Athens in 1815. Beers (History of Greene County guy) lists the number of families that were known to be living there (Loonenburg) in 1780 at only 46, and the William Groom family is one of them. And let’s not forget times were “iffy” in terms of political stability for the colonies…wasn’t there a war lurking? And the Hudson River Valley a strategic part of the war campaign’s?

I found a copy of the 1790 census, another tingle moment as it is a copy of the original hand signed one. William Groom is listed as head of the household in Katts Kill (Catskill) with 3 white males over 16, 1 white male under 16; 8 White females and children, and from other sources I know there were at least 1, maybe 3 slaves. (slaves were listed on the census, but the old records are missing that part of the page next to Groom) I also know that William, the “head of the family” was born Wilem Groen in 1719, of Dutch parents, Edmond and Antje Groen, making him in his early 60’s when the house was built. He married a Sara Cottington, also born in Albany County in 1720, and between them, they had 4 children, the first, Edward in 1744.

Joseph was the younger son, born in 1748. He married a Rachael Van Loon in 1770, and by 1780 had produced a brood of children, having at that time probably 5 of either 7 or 9 children, depending on which records you are looking at. A guess would be that the 3 white males over 16 were William, Edward and Joseph, as Joseph had no sons at that time. The 8 females could have been the 2 wives, and 6 children. The only problem with that theory is that Edward Groom is also listed separately as a head of household with 3 white males over the age of 16, one male under 16, 7 females and children and 3 slaves.

Assuming it was Joseph’s family who filled the house, when that census was taken, 3 of the children would have been under 10 years of age, the youngest being 3. When Rachael Groom, the mother, died in 1795, Joseph quickly took a new wife, Hannah, Schermerhorn, (married in 1796) and probably with obvious need and reason.

Regardless, they could easily have filled up a house without Edwards’ family, if he did indeed live elsewhere. Joseph’s name does not appear separately on the census, so my guess is he, at age 42 with 7-8 children makes up the inhabitants of the stone house.

I know this is a lot of math, but I really needed to figure out why they would build such a big house unless they either had a lot of people or money. So, I have a head count, but don’t know anything more about them.

An Ongoing Correspondence 2...

So here is where I am about the history: we know someone prominent had to have built this grand old stone manner house, but Joseph Groom the one? Well, last week, sure that was easy to find out, I would marched off to the Greene County Court House to just get copies of all the deeds. I had no idea how to do that, and that New York Times Article warned that it was not as straight-forward as one imagined, but surely, the court house had a hot paper trail to the truth!

Well, sort of. The start of the search quickly proved my inability to navigate most library and or official computer systems that require the user to remember and use a series of commands like F5 followed by…. Annoying the staff soon materialized the information I needed: that each deed referred to the previous deed transfer by actual book number, and the actual books were there, all lined up and yes, there were Xerox machines! A Snap! Well, until I realized the books were huge, the machines giving only 8.5x11 sheets and at some point back in time, the books stopped being there! And that point for me, was around 1881 (I am sure that is not the actual date, but the last deed in my chain to be there) and at that time, they were of course all hand written! A certain charm to that, but somewhat difficult to decipher, at least to me, without a lot of work, and I was still convinced this process was a snap.

And then, what about before the last deed I found there? The deed I was scrutinizing was the sale of the property by George Griffin’s widow to a Samuel Sprague. It referred to 5 deeds that made up the land being sold and they were about purchases made between 1835 and 1849. They were all logged by book number and page, but the books I needed were nowhere in the courthouse that I could see. Those old books, I was told, were up the street in a sort of Annex and I could access them there. Up the street I scurried, only to find myself in a sort of warehouse of old brown-paper wrapped record book, and was told, if I was lucky, the books I wanted had not been destroyed when the new courthouse was built and the older records moved to storage. Destroyed? Yes, it seemed the “guys” moving stuff sort of got tired of it all and….? Oops!

I did manage to find 4 of the 5 documents of the land sales to George, but the one that probably would have been the most significant is the deed transfer between Reverend Joseph Prentiss to George Griffin. Prentiss, it seemed had been an incredibly popular guy in Athens and Catskill, being the first Episcopal Rector in the newly formed church in Athens. And he, I knew was the link to that prominent man, Joseph Groom. Without the deed, I could not really trace with certainty (at least not by court house record method) the line of ownership back to Groom.

But Groom it has to be, at least in my mind. So now, on to find the kernels of information about the Groom family.

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.