Heritage, Volume 5, Number 2, Summer 1987 Page: 36
49 p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Review
Respectful Rehabilitation
Respectful Rehabilitation: Answers to
Your Questions About Old Buildings. Edited
by Gretchen Smith. Washington, D.C.:
The Preservation Press, National Trust for
Historic Preservation, 1982. Expanded
reprint undated, 200 pages, illustrations,
paperback.
Reviewed by Jim Steely
Half of the questions received at the
Texas Historical Commission for assistance
with old buildings might be answered
by a referral to this questionand-answer
manual. For the perplexed
newcomer to historic preservation, the
standard questions are included: "What
are the pros and cons of sandblasting?"
The answer is firm: "There are no
pros . . . followed by specific reasons to
avoid abrasive cleaning methods.
For the more advanced preservationist
concerned with the environment and its
effects on historic artifacts, esoteric questions
are entertained as well. "What is
acid rain?" The answer is a general explanation,
including information about the
National Park Service and other agencies
that currently are assessing the effects of
acid rain on "cultural materials" such as
marble and limestone.
Respectful Rehabilitation consists of
some 150 inquiries with responses extracted
from a monthly column in the National
Trust's magazine Historic Preservation.
This column evidently has evolved
into the magazine's current Home Work
column, prepared each month by different
professionals in the field.
Questions reproduced in this book are
related to the general field of preservation
and were answered by staff members of
the National Park Service in its Technical
Preservation Services office. Both specific
repsonses and the general philosophy of
the answers are based consistently on the
U.S. Secretary of the Interior's Standards
for Rehabilitation. The standards are reproduced
as an appendix to this book.
Rehabilitation is defined in the standards
as "the process of returning a property to
a state of utility through repair or alteration that makes possible an efficient contemporary
use while preserving those portions
and features of the building that are
significant to its historical, architectural,
and cultural values."
36Rehabilitation is actually only one of
several approaches to old buildings. Rehab
differs somewhat from "preservation,"
which can specifically mean the
continued maintenance of a historic
property, and "restoration," which should
mean returning a building to a specific appearance
at a specific'time in its life. Rehab
is closer to the abused term adaptive
reuse (more comfortable grammatically as
adaptive use), which most often means
converting a building from its original,
now obsolete, use to a different, contemporary
use.
At the Historical Commission, and at
any other State Historic Preservation
Office outside of Texas that administers
federal programs, the term rehabilitation
is most often connected to tax-act
projects. But the investment tax credit
program for historic buildings is an everchanging
beast, unlike the secretary's
standards, and is understandably not covered
in this book.
Despite its title, Respectful Rehabilitation
does cover preservation and restoration
as well. Topics have been organized
in sections, beginning with "Getting
Started," and advancing through sites,
building materials, interiors, and mechanical
systems to "Safety and Code
Requirements."
Illustrations include photographs, both
historic and contemporary, introducing
each section. Pen-and-ink drawings interpret
many of the questions, some as general
artistic images and some as architectural
plans and details to emphasize the
situation and response.
One excellent figure graphically demonstrates
the effects of using mortar
harder than historic bricks or stone, a
common problem with uninformed contract
workers and workmen. Older masonry
was generally laid with lime mortar,
which expands and contracts with the adjacent
brick or stone. The development
of Portland cement produced a more
workable and durable material, but its
hardness will cause adjacent brick or
stone to crack and spall if its material
strength doesn't match that of the new
mortar.
Specific formulas are given in several
answers, such as practical lime-mortar
mixes, making this book a reference toolfor working on old buildings. Other formulas
include a mildew deterrent for
exterior painted surfaces, mixed with
trisodium phosphate, detergent, andbleach; and a test for determining the
lead content in existing paint.
The common impulse to replace original
windows in historic buildings is
addressed as firmly as the response to
sandblasting:
A basic rule of preservation is to retain as
much original building fabric as possibleincluding
windows. Original windows are an
integral part of the house and help shape its
style and appearance. Moreover, the quality of
the wood in older windows is often better than
that of new windows. And, finally, retaining
old windows can sometimes be less expensive
than purchasing and installing new ones.
But another unfortunate tendency of
less sensitive building owners, the application
of artificial siding, is not addressed
quite so emphatically. Only one sentence
in response to a general question about
siding notes that "incorrect installation
[of aluminum or vinyl siding] could lead
to moisture problems, which are in the
long run far more costly than planned
maintenance." Somehow this doesn't prepare
the owner for Sears' spring siding
sales pitch, the shock of the resulting
"new look' on the house, or the heartbreak
of years later discovering hidden
damage underneath.
Elsewhere the answers are surprisingly
educational. For an inquiry about Carrara
glass panels popular on commercial buildings
in the 1930s, the response notes that
Pittsburgh Plate Glass marketed its product
under the Carrara name, but similar
material was produced by Marietta Manufacturing
called Sani Onyx and by
Libbey-Owens-Ford as Vitrolite. Did you
know that marbleized slate fireplaces represent
a complicated process as old as the
Roman republic? Did you know that
linoleum was invented by Englishman
Frederick Walton in 1864?
Some questions smack of publisher
contrivance but are nonetheless instructive
on important issues. For instance, a
homeowner asked, "Would there be any
problem in adding a colonial-style broken
pediment over the front door of my current
house, which is a rough-stone row
house built about 1890?" The answer is
the comic relief deserved by an impulse to
create something that was never there:
Putting a colonial pediment on your 1890
house would be like painting over your grandfather's portrait, blotting out his handlebar
mustache and giving him a peruke.
In addition to the reprinted Secretary
of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation-produced
in a somewhat awkward
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, Volume 5, Number 2, Summer 1987, periodical, Summer 1987; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth45437/m1/36/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.