Preserving Camp Evans to enable
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Science-History Center to give Camp Evans a future in education.
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9001
The Marconi Hotel
Foyer
Preservation
Progress
at
InfoAge
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The Marconi
Hotel foyer is an inviting room today thanks to hard work by InfoAge
members.
Ray Chase enters the hotel
foyer as we wait for quests to arrive for our June 3, 2006 Board of
Trustee Fund Raising Event.
The Hotel foyer was once an excellent entry room in the
original 1914 floor plan.
To see the foyer in 1914 click
here.
As best we can guess from the type of wiring,
sheetrock and milled 2 x 4s the foyer was divided into an office and an
"L" shaped hall in the 1970s.
When the base
was closed in 1993 the hallway and the office had carpet, the rooms
were clean
and all painted surfaces were intact. The hotel was ready for
reuse.
During the winters of 2000 and 2001 the
electric power was turned off allowing the basement to
flood. We had to
raise our protests to Congressman Smith's office to compel the BRAC
office to restore the power.
The 18 months of no power and high moisture saturated the walls with
moisture and caused
mold to bloom. The paint peeled too.
The conditions in the foyer were so bad a
family of bats lived on the foyer firerplace.
Faced with the terrible condition of the hotel
we had no choice but to dry out the building masonry with dehumidifiers
over many months.
Then we removed all mold infested materials and washed all surfaces
with a
bleach solution, then a hydrogen peroxide solution.
The next step was to remove all loose and peeling paint for proper
disposal then repaint all surfaces with a latex sealer.
This caused InfoAge volunteers thousands of
hours of extra work and thousands of dollars unnecessary expense.
We removed the Walls that divided
the foyer and now it is nearly back to its original layout.
We left the back entrance alcove and four feet
of the front section of the new wall to save the work that would have
been needed to relocate a bank of eight light switches.
Due to the BRAC office - This is
what we started with....
This photo is taken from the foyer stairs.
We removed the mold stained sheetrock that created the office and
placed it in dumpsters.
To the left you can see the front room. To the right is the door
to the east hallway.
The fireplace mantle is in the right foreground.
This is an April 2004 view of the hall doorway in the photo above.
Note the large peels of paint and the mold stains.
This view shows the clerk's window on the
east wall of the foyer.
After multiple washing with bleach
solutions and a first coat of a sealer the room needs lots more work..
Thw wall to the right has been
removed.
This shows the front doors and the
office with the sheetrock removed from the 1970s new walls.
To the right is the clerk's window.
In this view from November 2004 one can see the part of the office wall
we left in place.
The original fireplace bricks were painted red. The bats are gone
and soon the old
light fixtures will be replaced.
The foyer on our WW2
Memorial Dedication Day - August 13, 2005 VJ Day + 60.
Another WW2 Memorial Dedication Day view of the fireplace and rear
alcove.
This is a March 2006 view of the foyer when we were using it for
history classes and fund raising talks.
Note new light fixtures.
Lots of wall damage to spackle and
spakle. Steve Goulert did most of the spackling in the
foyer.
The walls are ready for the first coat of the finish paint. Shaun
Orgill is helping.
Shaun Orgill and Frank O'Brien
work side by side. Frank is doing the window trim too....
Frank O'Brien smiles as the walls are rolled with the finish color by
Derek DiGioia.
The Walls and the trim are all done. A baby grand piano was
donated. Jim Ruane helps with
the cleanup in May of 2006 as we prepare for out June 3rd Board of
Trustees Fund Raising Dinner.
Page updated December 23,
2006
page created December
21,
2006
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