Montpelier Restoration Update - 12/26/2007 through 1/2/2008

Plastering

The masons have applied the scratch coat to the walls and ceiling of M-104 (Mr. Madison’s Room) and are currently putting the brown coat onto the ceiling. They also continue to plaster in M-103 and are preparing the Dining Room (M-105) and the South Cellar Passage (M-00 for plastering.

 

M-112 (Old Dining Room)

Gene Lyman has finished installing the cap for the wainscot and has started to install the baseboards in the closet under the period I (circa 1765) south stair.

 

M-108 (Drawing Room)

Ed Gomez has started to install the chair rail and restore the missing pieces of baseboard in this room.

 

M-111 (Back Chamber)

Mac Ward has almost finished re-installing the door frame that leads into M-110 (South Stair). This door frame was also re-used by the duPonts and was recovered during the restoration’s deconstruction phase.

 

M-116 (South Wing Passage)

Keith Forry has finished trimming the doors and is installing baseboards. Since this room does not have a chair rail, the space will be completely trimmed once he is finished.

 

M-002 (North Cellar Passage)

Olivier Dupont-Huin continues to install the north cellar stair enclosure. All of the boards have been fitted and primed and he should be installing them this week.

 

M-003 (1797 Cellar)

Les Lamois and Thomas Tyler have finished installing the wooden floor in the cellar. They have also installed the studs for the partitions that will divide the space into approximately four separate rooms. The studs were placed in the original 1797 lap mortises and are made out of heart pine. To give the new material a period appropriate finish, an adze was worked up and down the face of each stud.

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M-008 (South Cellar Passage)

The masons are preparing this room for plastering by removing a gypsum plaster finish coat that was applied over a layer of circa 1850 stucco in the 1880s or 1900s. The 1850s stucco, which once covered all of the Mansion’s exterior walls, was painted to look like granite blocks. This is one of the few places that the circa 1850s stucco survives and it gives great insight into how the Mansion appeared after it was sold out of the Madison family.

 

West (Front) Yard

The two holly trees that once flanked the portico have been removed. They were planted in circa 1950 by Marion duPont and were not part of the original Madison landscape. With the trees gone, we are now able to restore the west yard’s grade back to its circa 1820 level and begin to work on reconstructing the historic roads and paths.