Sites and Structures Report September 13, 2017

SITES & STRUCTURES REPORT TO THE HPTBC BOARD OF DIRECTORS 091317 I. Morlatton Village Pathways Project: Attached is the “final” section-drawing of the paths and stone borders funded by Greenway and Shelley grants. This system will be used for the four paths to the Morlatton buildings and the 200-foot path from Old Phila. Pike to the Thun Trail behind the GDH privy [or smoke-house] remnants. This system has been presented to the SRG and has received their approval [attached]. Photo of the excavation and #3-stone base also attached. We are still in the archaeological and system-testing stage; yesterday morning and this morning we dug and rolled the 7-foot wide, one foot-deep trenches for the paths to Mouns Jones and Michael Fulp houses. We also spread and compacted on the site-wide clay bed the 4” base of clean #3 stones, spread on geo-fabric, and covered the 3s with another woven separation fabric which will underlay the leveled 2B course, bound with a geo-mineral stabilizer, to be spread after the retaining walls are mortared-in. We are hopeful and cautiously optimistic that these small-scale retaining walls will durably serve as a containment system for the base and top dressing, and a buffer against weed encroachment, without interfering with snow removal as necessary. Snow shoveling can be limited to the middle 3 feet of the 5 foot span of the pathways, avoiding the retaining walls, and not disturbing the surface dressing in the process. . Also attached is a photo of the border stones flanking the short ramp to the WH parking area, which we are using as a test for the pathways’ system. The red-sandstone 2B material shown in the photo and the exterior grade will both be roughly flush to the tops of the border stones and sloped to meet the roadside and parking grades. The roughly level and sloped ambient grades will allow mowers and other maintenance vehicles to cross the walled paths to the buildings and the Trail without interference from the boundary-walls. I. Mouns Jones wall reconstruction: The two one-story piers laid-up with lime mortar [no Portland cement or additive ingredients] during the past two years have not cured satisfactorily or to our structural standards. They will be re-constructed with American-source lime mortar having the same component proportions as lime [with respect to Calcium and Magnesium carbonates, and silica] available within a few miles of Mouns Jones house site, including limestone formations near the northern boundary of MJ’s original tract. The small test wall has completed the 28-day set-up time-cycle and has performed as well as or better than Portland-based mortar the Trust has used in the past. We will construct a small range of the southern pier and window-base this fall and monitor how it performs through the winter and next spring’s thaw. II. George Douglass House best parlor paint analysis: Last Wed I assisted Matthew Mosca in taking samples from numerous surviving wooden elements of the front and back parlors and the 2d story built-in schrank in the southern back bedroom. The Prussian blue and blue-gray finishes on the paneling and framing in the best parlor should be striking [and a little surprising]. There are enough intact elements and fragments to fully document and re-create the entire set of decorative woodwork in the room. III. Maintenance: A. Keim addition repainting almost complete with lead-white original color. A. DTH and Keim shop roof tiles will be replaced this month. B. MFH chimney cap is in October schedule. C. White Horse front windows in Lainhoff shop for consolidation and restoration. IV. Archaeology: root cellar details emerging every week; 1776 Spanish coin; vault mortar to be tested. V. Keim House 2017 Preservation PA award for Historic Preservation Stewardship, ceremony Oct 12 in Harrisburg. Larry Ward, for the Sites & Structures Committee