Pictures on Facebook

If you'd like to see more pictures of the restoration work than you ever imagined, check us out on Facebook! Our Facebook team is way ahead of the blogger team in getting the word (and image) out. If you are not on Facebook, here's your excuse to finally check it out.

The House itself will be closed to the public during the week of July 6-10 because the plasterers will be working in the hallways, and the doors won't be accessible. The rest of the site is open, but we won't charge admission on those days.

More Images

Here's the room to the left of the main door on the first floor of the House, painted in the verdigris color (it looks a little blue in this image; it's really more green in person). This room was previously presented as the Family Dining Room; when re-furnished, it will become the Farm Office. Why? The paint shows us that this was a room designed to impress - impress the people who came to Locust Grove with business on the farm or with the Croghans. Tenants would pay rent here, deliveries would be made, daily orders given, and Croghan's surveying clients would meet him here (until he built a separate office on the site sometime after Clark moved in). There's a separate door to the outside, and this is the only room that has that. And the stair? We're assuming that the Croghans slept in the room above, which has the same color scheme as this.

The room next to the Ballroom is now a lovely soft pink, with white woodwork. This was known until recently as the Withdrawing Room - it will now be presented as the best guestroom in the House. This is more a change of name than a re-interpretation, since this is about what we've always said.

The re-restoration gives us a chance to re-think the uses of the rooms and how we present life on the site. Docents will start training next week to learn the new interpretations and the stories that we want to emphasize now. It's hard work, but exciting, because we're getting closer to the people who lived here and the world they inhabited daily.

It's nearly July!

Yes, a blog is supposed to be timely. It got away from us. Things are happening fast here!

The electricians have done the rewiring, we have some new lights, and are awaiting more. The plasterers and painters are working, and some rooms are finished. The wallpaper is mostly chosen, some is still under discussion. The image here shows the verdigris paint sample that will be used in one of the rooms - there will be four rooms with this brilliant green glazed paint, with different undercoat paints (the gray shown here).

We Begin!

The Restoration Committee met, and made some decisions about the wallpaper. We're waiting for some additional samples before making it final and announcing the choices (everyone is asking!).

The work begins on Thursday, April 30, with electricians coming to upgrade the lighting controls and add lighting to stairways and the main hall. Re-plastering comes next, then painting, wallpaper, and some re-arrangement of the furniture so that the rooms tell different stories about life in the House from 1809-1822.

We will remain open throughout unless it becomes impossible to safely accommodate the public, so the docents and public will be stepping around workers for some time to come.

Wallpaper

Right now, it's all about the wallpaper. The Restoration committee has already decided about the paint colors, generally simply following the evidence, but several of the rooms were papered, and that's a harder decision.

All that we know about the Croghans' taste in wallpaper is that they chose a very expensive, figurative "arabesque" paper made by the French firm Reveillon for the "ballroom" - see the picture here. So we're looking at other Reveillon papers as well as similar papers made by other firms.

Everyone who has looked at the wallpaper samples that we've collected has an opinion! All different! Harmonizing, contrasting, large figures, latticework, small prints, blue, gold, green, rose. Borders are an option too.

The rooms that will be papered are the entrance hallway on the first floor, the first-floor northwest room (Clark's room), the first floor southeast and southwest rooms (Dining Room, Parlor), and the second floor southwest room (Ballroom).

The Restoration committee will meet next week to sort it all out. To see some of the papers under consideration, you can go to Adelphi Paper Hangings, which is one of the most authentic manufacturers of reproduction wallpaper. The texture of the paper is wonderful - it's hand-block printed, and has a velvet, matte surface that makes the colors very rich. We will also have our "ballroom" Reveillon paper replaced using the same process for a more authentic look than the reproduction that we currently use (which is now more than 40 years old).