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The White House Hotel Restoration |
Maintaining The Historical Integrity
While Salvaging an Historical Landmark
The owner of this fine landmark has assumed the full historical legacy of The White House Hotel and has vested this solemn responsibility to the reliable company that will carry out the actual restoration work, the Roy Anderson Corperation. The first part of the two essential phases of the work focuses on the restoration of the buildings already exant that were to remain. This means for the most part the old, original West Wing (built before 1920), and the Southwest annex, which replaced the original White houses in the 1940s. Whatever could be spared would be restored, and even sections which by necessity had to be demolished would become part of the restored structure, thus helping to maintain its historical integrity. Let's briefly demonstrate just one of the procedures....
Most of the Southwest Annex (pictured here) had collapsed or was useless when the project began. Alot of it had to be removed, and in this view in August, 2000, all that remains is sections of the front fascade. The columns and capitals have been removed for restoration and new concrete footings have just been poured. Likewise, the West Wing (visible in the background) is nothing but a shell and has been retro-fitted with an I-Beam steel superstructure. Only the old copper-plated roof and attic were allowed to remain. What happened to all the wood and walls, then??
Is this a garbage pile? It looks that way at first, but actually it is a 'salvage pile'. This is where every single yard of wood goes to when it is removed from the wings. From here, every piece is gone over, old nails and fittings are removed, the wood itself is reviewed for its strength. After being handled thus, the wood is made available and assign for new duty....
....Back to its original structure! Frames two stories high and twenty feet in length are built out of the old wood and then used to reform the walls of the old wing. Nearly all the wood was just as strong as when it was first used eighty years ago! Also in this scene, along the west side of the wing, is the crane used to hoist the cement into the structure to form new foundation supports and footings.