Today's DAR
As you know, after over a century of serving the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, beautiful Memorial Continental Hall is undergoing restoration to bring it back to its original grandeur. This enormous undertaking is part of the President General's Project, Celebrate Stars & Stripes Forever through DAR Service and Friendship. The National Society has engaged Worcester Eisenbrandt, Inc (WEI) of Baltimore, Maryland, a firm specializing in historic restoration, to work on both the interior and exterior of the building. Following careful research about the construction of the building, traditional restoration methods combine with modern technology to ensure treatments are appropriate for the age and materials in the building.
Memorial Continental Hall Gets a Polish
The exterior work began on the front or 17th Street side this spring. Architectural conservator Amy Hollis of WEI carefully examines each stone on Memorial Continental Hall’s exterior and when she finds damage she electronically notes the location and desired treatment. Much of the damage is pollution-related such as erosion from acid rain. Other types of damage include cracked or broken stones. Depending upon the type of damage, stones will be repaired or replaced in kind.
This is also a great opportunity to observe carved details up close. Masons clean the marble with a light pressure washing of warm water remove pollution and grime, returning the stones to their natural greyish white color. Once the particularly dirty, top of the building is cleaned, masons remove the old mortar with special tools and new mortar, matching the original formula is prepared and troweled into the joints. The paint on the wood windows had mostly worn away and although it looked deteriorated, the wood is still in good condition requiring only epoxy filler and two base coats of primer. Painters will then apply two coats of semi-gloss paint in an historic off-white color.
Inside Memorial Continental Hall, the public hallways and monumental staircases had not seen attention since the 1960s. At that time decorators applied faux gold paint to many of the decorative plaster features. This paint scheme obscured architectural details. The goal of this interior restoration is to restore the original 1910 paint colors. To accomplish this, Amy Hollis performed microscopic analysis of the paint layers revealing a subtle decorative scheme of white, cream and gray. Based on her findings, she drew up a plan for paint placement. The analysis also indicated that some of the architectural features were gilded, a detail that is also being restored. As the restoration work progressed, plasterers found many areas of deteriorated plaster. The walls outside the New Hampshire and West Virginia period rooms proved to be in the worst condition which required replacing all the plaster in those areas.
The monumental staircases with cut glass pinecone finials, mahogany railings and iron banisters also required restoration treatment. Molding profiles were used to recreate damaged sections of the newel posts. Painters returned the banisters to their historic colors and all the mahogany parts of the railings were carefully stripped of the old finish and a new finish reapplied following the original staining formula. To finish the job, craftsmen washed the staircase marble cladding and all the baseboards.
This restoration project is being carried according to the highest level of standards as set out by the United States Department of Interior. We hope you agree that the results so far are truly stunning.
Many are planning to travel to Washington, D.C. for DAR’s Continental Congress at the end of June. We hope you will plan to visit Memorial Continental Hall while you are here to see this restoration in person. Thank you for all of the support for this important historic preservation project!
