HOWARD HALL FARM RESTORATION

Howard Hall Farm is both an historic restoration project and a vehicle for educating people in sustainable, environmentally conscious restoration techniques. The site of our learning laboratory is a 1780's stone manor in the heart of the Hudson River Valley. This Federal-style home presents a number of restoration challenges specific to this region of the country and is an ideal platform for a grass-roots look at how to ease a deteriorating home into the future as a modern, functioning dwelling with minimal impact to the house and the environment. As preservation architect Carl Elefante says, "The greenest building is the one you don't build." In our restoration we are focused on dovetailing an acute attention to historic detail with the newest green technology, and providing a forum for other interested homeowners and craftspeople to learn to do the same. In an effort to educate ourselves, we enlisting the best preservation and restoration experts from all over the country to train us and everyone attending our workshops in green technologies to preserve and restore our homes out of the cobwebs and into the green. Welcome to Howard Hall Farm.

Howard Hall Farm, the beginning…

Howard Hall was built in 1780, and is one of the earlier major Federal houses in New York’s Hudson Valley. The builders, the affluent William Groom family, were prominent in the Dutch colonial community. According to The History of Greene County, four of the original Groom family are buried on the property in a now-hidden graveyard bearing this inscription : "To the memory of Joseph Groom. This marks the resting place of the man who was president of the village and one of the most influential citizens." Joseph was also the first tax collector in the local community, then Catskill, but did become President of Athens after it’s incorporation in 1815.

The Groom family was followed by a succession of other prominent citizens. The third owner, Reverend Joseph Prentiss was the first rector of the Episcopal Church in the area, followed by the George Griffin family who were responsible for significant improvements to the house, such as the sweeping Victorian stairway and raised third floor. These remain so much a part of the house’s feeling to this day and are signs of the affluence and seriousness of the Griffin family to update and improve the house by the standards of their day.  In the late 1800’s, the house was transformed into “The Woodburne”, a guest house facing the scenic Catskill Mountains for urban refugees from the summer heat. It remained a boarding house until 1970. Many alterations occurred during this period including a vinyl clad addition for a large kitchen, and another to cover the original entry with the Federal style windows on either side. Almost every room was divided into 3 or 4 more to accommodate the maximum number of guests.

When the property changed hands again, it suffered considerable damage from lack of repair. The third floor was turned into an apartment during this time and all original details as to what this floor would have looked like in it’s original form were lost. One of the chimneys crashed during this period, and was never repaired. The porch began to fall off the house. Improper mortar repairs seriously compromised the integrity of the stone walls and to disguise the number of cracks and filling, the entire stone house was painted an unmistakably peculiar shade of dark pink.

About the restoration:

And now…

The process of restoration begins, painfully so, by seemingly endless demolition. The burning piles grow; the red truck makes endless trips to the dump and bit by bit, the original bones and the beauty emerge and the house begins to breathe and come to life. We had the good fortune of buying a house complete with several original photographs from the 1800s and mid 1900s. This has enabled us to make some decisions about where to begin to restore details which are not apparent after many alterations and disfigurement. We have also been fortunate to have in perfect shape the 2 matching original Italian marble fireplaces on the main floor, and many of the original windows, in some cases with the original cylinder glass. Recently, while rebuilding the south chimney, we discovered the remains of the old bee-hive oven, inspiring dreams of hearth-cooked dinners in our soon-to-be kitchen, situated in the lower level where the original cooking fireplace was.

Restoration means making constant decisions about how to honor the history of the house while creating a viable, comfortable home. Restoring green is at the forefront of the decision making process; replacing Portland cement with traditional lime mortar, lime plaster and lime washes on the interior to allow the house to breathe, and most recently, the purchase of our new Free-Watt energy-saving furnace which will generate electricity as it produces our heat.

The Proprietors of Howard Hall Farm

Reggie Young was raised on a Pennsylvania farm, then lived in New York City for many years where he studied design and architecture. He gained valuable insight into the restaurant business working as a Maitre ‘D in many infamous New York “hot spots” before opening his own in New York, and eventually another in Connecticut. He taught restaurant development and management at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School for over a decade, produced all the events at the James Beard Foundation in its first years, and has consulted on many restaurant and food related businesses. His current life in Athens brings him full circle back to his roots of farming and historic preservation. He consults on historic properties as a design and concept consultant and project manager. He is committed to the mission of promoting preservation by providing classes and training at Howard Hall Farm in Athens. He thinks of himself as the lime evangelist of Greene County.

For more about Reggie Young's Work: http://www.projectmanagementstudio.com/

Nora Johnson: received a BFA in Fine Art from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, PA with post-graduate studies at Les Beaux Arts in Paris and New York University in New York. An accomplished painter and sculptor, her professional life has included more than 85 commissions for the public, corporate, and private sectors in 4 continents. They include works for Bank of America, Sun Oil, E.I. DuPont, AT&T, The Peoria Civic Center, McDonald's Corporation, and The Hyatt Regency.

In addition, Nora has expanded her focus to include mural painting and decorative finishes. This arena has presented many opportunities to research and explore historic interior painted decoration and to restore some superb examples of 19^th century stencils and folk graining. She also shares in the training classes, focusing on traditional finishes, materials and techniques, and collaborates with some of the top decorative paint and plaster technicians in the country.

Nora Johnson's Art: http://norahutchinsonjohnson.com/

Before	After

How We Work

199 Inc. is the Design and Project Management Studio of Howard Hall Farm. It is a highly specialized interior design and restoration firm. We encompass a cross-disciplinary group of creative, detail-oriented individuals with professional backgrounds ranging from restoration, construction, architecture to fine and decorative art, interior design and historically based landscape design. We act as project managers through all phases of development from architectural concept and engineering, to designing custom interior environments and specialty finishes. Each team is hand-picked from our diverse pool of specialists to ensure that every detail of the Client's vision is fully realized from conception to completion.

Backgrounds of a Selection of our Teachers and Consultants in Various Fields:

Historic Lime Plaster: Our head lime plasterer specializes in the re-creation and restoration of lime plasters and gypsum ornamentation while preserving the historical integrity of what is still in existence. Current projects are This Old House, Charlestown, MA, and the reconstruction of the Peyton-Randolph Kitchen for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Past projects have included numerous government buildings, historic houses, churches and museums.

Historic Terne Tin: Expert in the rare art of Terne Tin, a lost craft that was commonly used for the roofs of many historic homes. He is personally and physically involved, as official restorer, in the ongoing restoration of the Statue of Liberty and the the Ellis Island facility.

Architectural Preservation: Senior conservator for the National Park Service, Architectural Preservation Division. A graduate of Columbia University School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation with an MS in Historic Preservation, she is a specialist in marble, masonry and historic mortar. Her numerous and prestigious conservation projects include the Washington Monument; The Statue of Liberty; General Grant’s tomb; El Morro and San Cristobal, San Juan National Historic Site; Cemetary at St. Paul’s Church National Historic Site, Mt. Vernon; and Oratory of Santa Silvia, Rome, Italy.

Architectural History Consultant:  Historian and author, he has been engaged in research and writing on the history, architecture, and arts of New York State for over 30 years. His books include: A Visible Heritage, Columbia County, New York A History in Art and Architecture. Ruth Piwonka and Roderic H. Blackburn; Dutch Colonial Homes in America, Roderic H. Blackburn & Geoffrey Gross, photographer; Remembrance of Patria, Dutch Arts and Culture in Colonial America, 1609-1776. Roderic H. Blackburn and Ruth Piwonka

Conservation: A master conservation consultant-practitioner for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her most recent work is the conservation of the Pompeiian frescoes at the Metropolitan Museum. She studied conservation at Wurtembergisches Landesmuseum in Stuttgart, Germany and Oberlin College. In addition, she has worked as a conservator for the Stuffgart Museum, as well as the Cairo Museum in Egypt, where she prepared the Tutankamen Exhibition for traveling.

Historic Paint Analysis: An expert in historic paint analysis and methodologies with a graduate degree in Historic Preservation from Columbia University, her projects have included comprehensive paint studies, documentation, sampling and color matching for the Redcliffe Plantation, Beech Island, SC; Merchant’s House Museum, New York; Bringhurst House, Phildelphia, PA; and Litchfield Villa, Prospect Park, NY.

Historic Paint Materials and Techniques: New York city based conservator and specialty painter with a focus on history of painting, materials and techniques. She has written for journals and catalogs, been the Director of three not-for-profit art galleries in the USA and UK, and has taught in universities and art schools in the UK and USA. She is a graduate of the University of Newcastle on Tyne in England, and recently consulted for the restoration of a Guston mural in Morelia, Mexico.

Traditional and Contemporary Paint and Plaster: Originally from Mexico City, now based in the New York area, he has mastered an extensive range of traditional and contemporary materials and techniques for decorative paint and plaster surfaces. In addition, he is expert at training and managing on-site crews in these skills and handling project management in a timely and cost effective manner with the highest industry standards.

Historic Landscape Architecture: Project manager for over 40 historic preservation construction projects in addition to extensive experience in landscape architecture and urban planning. She has worked for the National Park Service and New York State Parks developing innovative master plans, design guidelines and treatment recommendations for cultural resources.

The Modern: Specializing in commercial and residential design, the leader of our modern design team has a background in European design and innovation. His projects include freestanding structures, interior spaces, retail design, landscape design, and distinctive objects. He approaches every project as an opportunity to create the unique.

Renewable energy: One of our consultants is a leading renewable energy developer and the driving force behind a Zero Carbon initiative to change the town of Woodstock’s energy use policy. His groundbreaking plan, the first in the Hudson Valley, will reduce Woodstock’s net carbon dioxide emissions to Zero by 2017.

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