No Longer Slippery When Wet

The front and back porches are getting a new traffic coating to help them shed water - preventing it from leaking into the basement of the Study - and seal and unify all the small cracks in the stone.

The gray sticky stuff was the first layer to go down, and then workers mixed in sand which gives it a pebbly appearance. There is another top layer that should make it look more like the Indiana limestone that make up the porches.

Grab Your Shades

The first panel of new copper is on the roof! Workers are braving the wind to install the new roof on the east side of the building. As predicted, it's bright and shiny, so if you can make it out to see the progress, make sure you bring your sunglasses!

To see a video of the workers placing the copper, click the title to this post!

Southern Exposure

Workers removed the copper from the south side of the Study earlier this week. That leaves two sides without copper and two sides still covered. You can see the wooden decking and battens, just like what they found on the east side, before they installed the weatherproof barrier. From their investigation inside the dome, the workers report additional interior steel supports for the wood and copper that make up the roof.

They covered the wooden structure with the rain and snow shield until they get the new copper on (ETA for new copper: next week!). Today they worked near the cupola to remove sealant and other material from around the windows and the joints between the cupola and roof. Even though they're complying with safety regulations, I am glad they still steady themselves on stable parts of the building while they're up there!

Click on the post title for a video of the final stages of removing the south side copper.

Could It Be?

It’s been a week of tantalizing research leads. One of the more interesting leads walked in the door on Thursday morning. Mr. Johns from Tennessee came for a visit at the Museum and told us that during the Civil War, General Wallace was in Lavergne, Tennessee near Murphfreesboro when he was slightly injured. Mr. Johns’ great grandmother, Mary Neal King, doctored him in their home. It probably wasn’t a serious wound, but the care he received must have touched his heart. Shortly after Wallace was bandaged and left the area, Union troops came through and burned the King home to the ground, dismantled the barns, destroyed the crops and took the livestock. The family left Lavergne and moved to nearby Smyrna where they purchased the home in which Mr. Johns was born.

And now, as they say, for the rest of the story. I remembered a poem that Wallace wrote that may corroborate the Johns family story. No names are mentioned, but the parallel is intriguing.

LINES ADDRESSED TO THE LADY WHO BANDAGED
MY CUT FINGER – AN AFTERTHOUGHT

By Lew Wallace

‘ Twas a little thing, a simple kindness,
Yet I cannot pass it by;
The blood drop from the wound you answered
With a tear-drop in your eye.

O lady dear! “Twas worth a world of thanks –
Not the thanks which wait on words,
The blund’ring syllables that too often
Fly amiss like blinded birds.

No; but those best told in ling’ring kisses;
And so I would have spoken,
But that another’s wedding seal upon
Your lips remains unbroken.

Ah! The pang of the lazy after-thought,
Laggard of the next day’s calm!
What if I had snatched your hand, and left
A kiss in the pearl-red palm;

Then clasped the fingers close the while the kiss,
Warm as fire and pure as dew,
Thrilled your heart and all its restful heaven?
Say if he had cared – would you?

Lew Wallace

(Published by Harper’s Monthly, January 1888)

Closing the Gap

The front steps of the Study got reset today after their "vacation" on the lawn. Construction workers relaid support underneath the steps - instead of the piles of loose bricks - and then moved the steps back in place. Years ago, a previous crew apparently patched a sizable gap between the brick building and the steps, so this time, in an effort to make the work more stable and less prone to water damage, the crew poured cement to make a better fit.

Workers also repaired the crack in the bottom step and poured new cement in front of the steps. They still have to seal smaller gaps between the steps themselves as well as the attachments to the building, but they look sturdier already!

Wabash Men Help Museum

wabashvolunteers 011, originally uploaded by WallaceStudy.

Athlete volunteers from Wabash College move picnic tables on the grounds of the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum as part of their Wabash Day community assistance activities.

Wabash Men Help Museum

wabashvolunteers 014, originally uploaded by WallaceStudy.

Athlete volunteers from Wabash College help scrape paint from the 1875 Carriage House on the grounds of the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum as part of their Wabash Day community assistance activities.