Architectural Preservation
"The house itself was almost as structurally sound as it is today, but it was separated and shuttered seemingly against all time. The things inside were left just as they were many years before. They were all in their familiar places, and for the moment you seem never to have left them. Under their veils of dust, these inanimate but well-remembered things seemed silently to call out to be touched and used again." -Weeks Hall Tape #11, April 30, 1953
In
1922, when Hall undertook the preservation of his ancestral home, he demonstrated
a respect for the historic integrity of the Shadows and for its documentation
that was in keeping with the standards being observed by the emerging
preservation profession. He meticulously recorded in both photographic
and narrative form the changes that he made to the Shadows to make it
habitable for modern living, and he had the foresight to transfer from
the trunks in the Shadows' attic to the archives at Louisiana State University
the thousands of letters, invoices, and receipts that make up the bulk
of the Weeks Family Papers.
In our restoration and preservation work since 1985, we have drawn not only from the Weeks Family Papers, but from a microscopic analysis of the paint layers throughout the structure that identifies original finishes, from an inventory (discovered in 1985) that lists the house's furnishings and contents when David Weeks' estate was settled in 1846, from architectural artifacts, from paintings and periodicals of the historical period, and from preservation technology that is being employed to analyze and combat physical threats to the structure.
The dining room restoration is an example of how information from all these avenues comes together to form the picture. The colors and finishes of all painted surfaces of this room are those that were revealed in the analysis of the nearly dozen layers of paint that had accumulated over 150 years. The first layer of paint on the wooden mantel and baseboards shows green veining over a green-black background to resemble marble. An artisan who specializes in these graining techniques re-created finishes resembling both wood and marble throughout the house in applications that match the original finishes as closely as possible. We have carefully matched the various shades on all the painted surfaces in the dining room to those that are shown on the analysis.
The
window treatments in this room are a wonderful example of how clues from
several kinds of evidence combine to create the picture. On a cypress
cornice tucked away in the attic eaves, we uncovered a Greek-key style
wallpaper border that a wallpaper conservator identified as a popular
pattern of the 1840s. After the conservator carefully removed the border,
we had a carpenter duplicate the wooden cornices in cypress and had the
wallpaper border reproduced, reaching after several tries a color match
that allowed for the original's fading over time. From a January 5, 1835,
invoice from Hyde and Gleises on Chartres Street in New Orleans, we know
that Mary C. Weeks purchased 38 yards of red drapery fabric for $29.25.
With all of the notions needed, the hooks and eyes, the thread, the linen
tape, the bill was still under $50.00. From Henry Sargent's The Dinner
Party, a painting done in the 1820s depicting an elegant dining room setting,
we drew together an appropriate curtain design. It is important to remember
that even though this plantation was located in a rural area, the steamboats
that plied the Bayou Teche and traveled to New Orleans made the styles
and markets of the world open to the family.
Throughout the Shadows, somewhat odd-looking wires peek out from the mortar joints on outside walls, from the columns at varying levels, and in the dining room from the baseboard area to the left of the mantel. These are wire leads attached to moisture sensors that have been inserted into dozens of spots throughout the structure (particularly the basement below the east end of the house). Over the years moisture has invaded the basement walls below grade and the first floor walls above. For the past century and a half ground water has wicked up into the brick courses in a sponge-like action due to a combination of factors: a relatively high water table, soil with a heavy clay content, inefficient drainage, and most of all, the fact that there is no damp course or water barrier to separate the brick foundation courses below grade from the walls that rise above. Daily moisture readings were taken for two years with a special meter that attaches to these wires so that we could correlate the moisture content with rainfall levels. With the data available through this technology, we have developed a set of corrective measures specifically suited to this unique situation that will minimize as much as possible the long-term effects of water intrusion. We are also able to share our experience in dealing with moisture-related problems with other historic sites around the country.
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