Welcome to the Stevens & Smith Historic Site Blog
CONSTRUCTION UPDATE - SEVEN
Friday, March 06, 2009
As the new rafters were installed, spaces were left for the building of the three dormers the roof originally had. Over several days, as weather permitted, the last of the dormers was framed out. The roof and dormers were closed in and the new attic space made weather-tight.
read moreCONSTRUCTION UPDATE – SIX
Friday, March 06, 2009
Creating the Past
With the removal of the third floor and the preservation of elements of the historic structure it was time to recreate Stevens home and law offices... with some liberties taken for modern use. The back pitch of the roof was known from ghost images on adjoining walls. There was, however, a need to accommodate water run-off issues between the roofs of Stevens and the…read moreCONSTRUCTION UPDATE – FIVE
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Visions of the Past
This is a common enough building practice in Lancaster County barns even today but it can also be found in many of Lancaster's earliest remaining homes.
We belive that these rafters were first installed in the roof that Thaddeus Stevens commissioned with the renovations to his house on South Queen Street in about 1858. It is likely they were then re-used when the roof…read moreCONSTRUCTION UPDATE - FOUR
Monday, February 23, 2009
Visions of the Past
A spell of cold but clear weather toward the end of February made an act of destruction a gateway for viewing the past. For several days the walls and roof of the late 19th c., third floor addition of the Stevens house were brought down brick by brick, plaster and lath. What remained was the building's wooden frame; its skeleton.
It was clear that…read moreConstruction Update Three
Friday, February 20, 2009
Over the last week, the third story of Thaddeus Stevens home and law office was removed, returning the building to its mid 19th c. appearance. Workmen from Caldwell Heckles and Egan (http://www.cheinc.com) undertook the labor intensive job of removing the walls brick by brick.
No sooner was the roof off and side and front walls removed and the reframing of the upper story began. The front…read moreConstruction Update Two - How We Know What We Know
Friday, February 13, 2009
One of the elements of the Stevens and Smith Historic Site Project is the re-creation of Stevens parlors and law offices. What exactly does that mean to ‘re-create’ and on what is that re-creation based? In the case of Thaddeus Stevens home and law office it’s a combination of library research and a little Indiana Jones.
Research in the Lancaster County Historical Society (http://www.lancasterhistory.org) provided mid-…read moreConstruction Update One
Friday, February 06, 2009
Engaging the future takes on a whole new meaning as construction proceeds in the historic buildings at the corner of S. Queen Street and E. Vine Street in Lancaster City. Phase I plans are moving forward to complete the historic facades to coincide with the opening of the Convention Center later this spring. Those historic buildings – Thaddeus Stevens' home and law office, the Kleiss Tavern and Lydia Hamilton Smith's…read more
Inauguration Day - Equality of Man
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
When Thaddeus Stevens died in 1868, he wrote an epitaph to explain the driving force in his life: “…But finding other cemeteries limited by charter rules as to race, I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death, the principals I advocated through a long life, Equality of man before his Creator.” Today, January 20, 2009, we move one step closer to realizing Steven’s driving principle in a…read more
