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PRESERVATION TRADES WORKSHOP HISTORIC DOOR RESTORATION STATE PARK

Executive Summary:

Beginning on February 18, 2020, and continuing for three consecutive weeks, five students and their instructor from the carpentry class at the Job Corps participated in a hands-on workshop, learning techniques appropriate for the restoration of historic wood doors. The workshop was a unique collaboration between History , the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission, the Pine Ridge Job Corps and Berggren Architects.

Since 1956, Nebraska Game & Parks Commission (G & P) has been responsible for the majority of the structures at Fort Robinson State Park. For nearly 150 years, those structures have been in use and for the last 64 years in use as one of Nebraska’s most popular tourist destinations. The original doors have required more and more maintenance before each tourist season. Following State Law, G & P submitted to the SHPO a plan to replace the original doors with modern doors to curb the amount of required maintenance. Over the course of nearly a year, the two agencies negotiated and establish a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), with the SHPO taking responsibility for restoration of the front doors of six historic cabins.

Deputy SHPO Jill Dolberg contacted preservation architect, Jerry Berggren, seeking advice about restoring the doors in early October of 2019. Because the cabins needed to be available for occupancy by April 1st, Berggren speculated that there would not be enough time to create bidding documents, advertise for, select craftsmen, and complete the restoration within that time frame. As an alternative, he suggested working with a nationally recognized craftsman/educator to demonstrate proper restoration techniques for historic wood doors as an educational opportunity. John Leeke of Historic HomeWorks from Portland Maine was contacted as a potential candidate for this demonstration project.

John Leeke’s credentials are significant. He has been a master craftsman his entire adult life, author of several books on wood restoration, spoken at numerous preservation gatherings and has led numerous workshops on the subject of wood restoration. Weekly conference calls between Dolberg, Leeke and Berggren occurred from mid-October until late January of 2020. The demonstration project evolved into a hands-on workshop. Details of the workshop and potential budget were established. By late January, numerous issues made it unworkable for Mr. Leeke to lead the workshop.

During the planning effort led by Mr. Leeke, the fourth principal member of the team was identified. David Jones, of the Pine Ridge Job Corps Civil Conservation Center operated by the Department of Agriculture, Forest Service in partnership with the US Department of Labor (Employment and Training Administration), was instrumental in

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Page 2 of 23 identifying participants for the workshop. The Pine Ridge Job Corps, a Division of the National Forest Service, provides training near Fort Robinson at Chadron, Nebraska. Five members of the carpentry class, led by Mike Carroll, agreed to be the hands-on participants.

By late January and with the departure of Mr. Leeke, Berggren turned to local master craftsmen, Randal Weber and Jakeb Geisert, to become instructors for the Job Corps students. In addition to Weber’s woodworking experience, he was trained to be an instructor during his time in the Air Force. He was picked as the lead instructor and was on site for the first week of training. Geisert was on site the second week during which time, Berggren visited the Fort to assess the progress and to interview the students. Charley McWilliams and Lee Lawson, carpenters, were available during the third week of the students’ involvement.

Mr. Weber returned to Fort Robinson on March 16th to complete any final touch ups and present the doors for final approval by Park Superintendent Jim Miller. All doors were approved.

The evolution of the discussion between Nebraska Game & Parks Commission and History Nebraska led to unexpected rewards for more than just those two state agencies. History Nebraska’s SHPO was able to demonstrate preservation of original doors as a viable and more historic alternative to door replacement. Game & Parks have six historic doors refurbished at no cost. Pine Ridge Job Corps was able to offer preservation of historic doors as a supplement to classes for their carpentry students. By involving Pine Ridge Job Corps, History Nebraska was able to demonstrate preservation techniques to a greater audience than just Game & Parks.

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Introduction:

Fort Robinson State Park is one of Nebraska Game & Parks Commission’s most popular parks. Located in northwestern Nebraska, it is the site of the military camp established at the Red Cloud Agency in 1873. In 1960, the fort was declared a National Historic Landmark and is part of the Fort Robinson and Red Cloud Agency historic district. At the time of its Landmark listing, there were 49 buildings constructed between 1874 and 1912, and 22 buildings constructed between 1919 and 1948. All 71 buildings still exist today.

This 22,000-acre recreational facility is operated by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (G&P) and consistently enjoys full occupancy by tourists, hunters, and historians from mid- April to mid-November. Fort Robinson is also home to the University of Nebraska’s Trailside Museum of Natural History and Chadron State College’s Post Playhouse theater. History Nebraska is responsible for nine of the 71 structures noted in the Landmark Nomination. Among Nebraska attractions, Fort Robinson State Park is exemplary in its successful operation by multiple state agencies, each achieving their unique missions while being respectful and supportive of each other. It is no wonder that Fort Robinson State Park is listed among the Nation’s most popular family destinations.

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Maintaining a park of this magnitude requires an enormous effort on the part of G&P. It also requires a significant portion of their annual budget. In November of 2018, Bob Hanover, Assistant Division Administrator with G&P submitted to SHPO for review, a request to replace exterior doors throughout the lodging facilities at Fort Robinson. For G&P, replacement of doors, in many cases nearly 150 years old, seemed like a prudent idea.

Original doors in these facilities are historic artifacts depict the character of the Fort at its inception. History Nebraska’s (HN) State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), while understanding of the maintenance issues, was opposed to the wholesale replacement of the historic doors.

An exchange of correspondence took place through the winter months and by March, SHPO had committed to send staff to Fort Robinson to document the condition of the doors in question. In all, 123 doors in 22 buildings were assessed and their condition noted in a report filed by SHPO’s Shelley McCafferty and Ryan Reed in September of 2019.

This 154-page report documented the location of each door, direction it faced, dimensions, and swing. The condition of the door leaf, jamb, hardware, finish and screen door was evaluated and the presence of a door stop, door light, transom, sidelight and hardware was noted. Each door was photographed to document the condition of its surfaces. The information was collected in the field using a standardized form.

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A compromise was reached between these two State Agencies resulting in History Nebraska taking responsibility for the restoration of the front entry doors of six of the oldest cabins on site. These cabins are identified by G&P as cabins number C42, C43, C44, C45, C46 and C47.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was reached and signed on January 31, 2020 and February 3, 2020 by History Nebraska and G&P respectively. The MOU spelled out History Nebraska’s responsibilities and set a deadline of March 20, 2020, for the completion of the restoration of the six doors.

In early October, 2019, while the MOU was still being negotiated, Jerry Berggren, of Berggren Architects was contacted for advice and guidance to ensure the restoration would be accomplished within the window of opportunity. Based on his experience bidding historic public projects, he felt that there was not sufficient time to restore the doors as a competitive bid project. Numerous reasons for his speculation were noted.

To ensure the quality of the restoration these historic artifacts, pre-qualifying the prospective bidders would be essential. Advertising and reviewing the credentials of the prospective bidders would take not less than a month. Given the remote nature of the site, there was concern whether qualified craftsmen would be interested in bidding on such a relatively small project.

Before bids could be received, the work needed to be described in bidding documents. While the assessment of the doors by the SHPO’s office seemed extensive, it lacked vital information necessary for the bidding documents. The report did not document what was necessary to make each door function properly. For instance, was the door warped, and if so, to what extent? Did the doors bind with the door frames making operation difficult? If so, what caused the doors to bind? To add this much needed information to bidding documents would require a trip to the site to complete the investigation.

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In lieu of competitively bidding the project, Berggren recommended selecting a nationally known wood craftsman with experience leading workshops designed to train local, less experienced wood workers.

John C. Leeke, a preservation consultant from Portland, Maine was recommended by Berggren. Mr. Leeke has been a master craftsman his entire adult life. He has been instrumental in sharing his knowledge in the form of workshops and publications. His Practical Restoration Reports Compendium, published in 2005, includes numerous reports written by him, the earliest Exterior Wood Columns originally published in 1991.

In addition to numerous other books and reports, he was a co-author with Aleca Sullivan for the 2006 National Park Service Preservation Brief 45 Preserving Historic Wood Porches. His credentials were sufficient to qualify him for this event, and he had personal ties to Nebraska having grown up in Lincoln.

Following a conversation with Deputy Jill Dolberg, Berggren emailed Mr. Leeke on October 11, of 2019. Three days later, and following a phone conversation, Mr. Leeke replied; “What a great phone conversation! I’m looking forward to seeing more details on the Fort Robinson doors.”

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Planning a Workshop:

Mr. Leeke, Ms. Dolberg, and Mr. Berggren were all in agreement that a workshop could create the end result anticipated by the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission. Of the three, only Mr. Leeke had significant experience planning workshops. As a founding member of the Window Preservation Alliance, he had been hosting regular events since 2015.

The SHPO’s assessment of the doors was shared with Mr. Leeke. Then after a few quick emails, the first conference call was set for the morning of October 15th. Planning efforts were divided up between the three individuals with Mr. Leeke developing a course syllabus, Ms. Dolberg locating resources already available within SHPO, and Mr. Berggren laying out a budget.

Mr. Leeke’s concept for the workshop was influenced by several existing factors. He explained the process to restore the doors and door frames had to include cure times for epoxies and dry times for paint. There would be additional time necessary to build protective enclosures for the door frames to provide cold weather protection during the workshop. Considering the time to remove the door and transom so they could be restored in the shop, build the weather protection, literally do the work and allow for curing and paint drying time, Mr. Leeke estimated, if only one person worked on a door, the process would take 8 to 10 days.

Mr. Leeke proposed to have more experienced carpenters actually work on the doors under his supervision so that he could have time available to teach less experience attendees. By utilizing carpenters to assist in the process, restoration of more than one door could be underway at the same time.

To ensure the quality of the end result, Mr. Leeke proposed that he would work with only the more experienced carpenters during the first week on site. This would allow him ample time to provide direct supervision and guidance as these individuals honed their skills in restoration of wood doors. By the start of the second week, the experienced carpenters could work more independently and he would then have time to teach those who would come to observe.

He also proposed to stagger the beginning process of each door’s restoration. By staggering the beginning process and delaying arrival of observers until the second week, they would be able to see each step of the process all at one time.

Initially, the concept was to have registration by the observer provide the majority of the funding to make the workshop financially feasible. Thus, maximizing the number of observers was an important consideration. Having examples of the stages of door restoration could allow for observers to have a worthwhile experience in one or two days on site. However, shop space was limited. It was determined that a maximum number of observers at any one time should be limited to five.

Mr. Leeke had suggested that the overall time on site from beginning the restoration of the first door to the completion of the last door and frame should be four weeks. The first week was

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Page 8 of 23 already dedicated to guiding the experienced carpenters and Mr. Leeke proposed the last week would be reserved for final touch-ups and making sure the finished product met Game and Park’s satisfaction. Together, all three agreed on hosting observers during the second and third week, with each observer spending two days on site was the goal for attendance.

As Mr. Leeke was putting the syllabus together, Mr. Berggren was working on the budget. Utilizing an Excel spread sheet, creation of the budget began by listing as many anticipated expenses as possible. The spread sheet was designed so that as more expenses became obvious, the document could be expanded.

As all possible expenses were listed, the budget also began serving as a planning outline. Known expenses were listed in black, green indicates expenses which may or may not impact the workshop.

The initial financing concept for the workshop was for expenses to be paid primarily by registration fees with additional support from donations by interested benefactors.

When Mr. Leeke suggested bringing in experienced carpenters to assist with the project, there was much discussion if these individuals should pay a registration fee, or receive a stipend for helping.

From the budget, Mr. Berggren began working on the workshop outline with the intended result being a piece of promotional literature. With the budget, outline and other documents being developed in three different offices, shortly before Thanksgiving the concept of merging

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Page 9 of 23 the documents and placing them on a Google drive folder was proposed. Sharing all documents, and merging them into one, at a location where all three parties could access and edit the document was adopted. The basis of the document on Google drive was Mr. Berggren’s outline for the workshop which included the following categories;

1. Preservation Trades Workshop, a description of the intended workshop attendees. 2. Training and Education, a description of learning goals. 3. Potential Workshop Outcome, a description of expected results of the workshop. 4. Door Work Description, a description of the work necessary to restore the doors. 5. Labor Resource, a description of the number of people necessary on site to accomplish the goals, as well as the potential for a rotation of people who could not spend the entire amount of time on site for the entire workshop. 6. Historical Investigation, a description of research to verify the authenticity of the “historic doors.” 7. Trainee Qualification, a description of who would be eligible to serve as “trainers” and who would be eligible to attend as “observers.” 8. Workshop Facility, a description of the venue to be used for the workshop.

While Mr. Berggren’s list seemed extensive, the work of the other collaborators quickly expanded the list adding the following topics:

1. Observer Opportunities, a description of unique opportunities of this hands-on workshop with limited attendees. 2. Material Resources and Costs, a description of materials readily available as well as materials which would have to be acquired and at what cost. 3. Lead-Safe Work, a description of legal requirements to be followed because of the assumption that original paint would be lead-based paint. 4. Cabin Facilities, a description of historic cabins where the doors and frames would be restored. In particular, heating and power for restoring material in situ. 5. Trainee & Observer Amenities, a description of the support facilities in or adjacent to the workshop venue, notably restrooms and drinking water. 6. Contacts, a list of collaborators and support personnel from the various agencies. 7. Marketing, a description of considerations for attracting attendees to the workshop.

The document, entitled Historic Wood Door Preservation Workshop, Fort Robinson, Nebraska, February 15 – March 25, 2020, in combination with the weekly conference calls, became an essential planning tool. To verify the source of edits to the working document, texts were color coded, or highlighted indicating which of the three collaborators authored the comment and when. The document evolved to eleven pages with answers to the majority of the issues raised. The entire document is attached in the Appendix of this report. It provided an event-saving foundation when it was no longer possible to utilize Mr. Leeke as the lead instructor. It may also serve as the beginning foundation for future workshops to be held at Fort Robinson and/or addressing similar restoration craftsmanship.

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While the three primary planners were working on details of the workshop, Mr. Greyson McCown, Media Designer for Berggren Architects, was busy developing an advertising campaign. Literature would be sent to organizations such as Job Corps, Restoration Exchange Omaha, the Central Plains chapter and the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Association for Preservation Technology International, the State Historic Preservation Offices of Colorado, South Dakota and Wyoming, the Regional office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Nebraska Department of Administrative Service – Building Division and the Nebraska Association of County Officials. Generally speaking, all the preservation related organizations within Nebraska and the surrounding states.

The initial flyer had been designed and awaited confirmation of the actual dates for observers to attend.

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Time Ran Out:

Mr. Leeke had provided a profound amount of support building the platform for a successful workshop. However, on January 24, 2020, with less than a month before the workshop was to begin, Ms. Dolberg and Mr. Berggren received an email from Mr. Leeke stating; “…There is no longer enough time to do the effective preparation required to assure a successful workshop. I have decided to withdraw my offer to do this workshop…..” Sadly, his comments were painfully obvious. However, there was still the issue of the MOU between HN & G&P, and the need to restore the six historic cabin doors before April 1st.

During the planning stage of the workshop, several individuals were suggested to become trainers under Mr. Leeke’s supervision. Among them were Mr. Randal Weber and Mr. Jake Geisert. Both master woodworking craftsmen. During Mr. Weber’s service in the Air Force, he was trained in the Academic Instructor School and for three years taught as an OTS Instructor. His teaching experience would prove to be quite valuable in preparation of the syllabus and delivery of the content to young adults of similar age to his students in the military.

Given the timing of Mr. Leeke’s withdrawal, Mr. Weber’s and Mr. Geisert’s work commitments to other projects posed another challenge. Mr. Weber could not be present for the entire four weeks of the workshop. During the short negotiations, the solution for the workshop would be a sequence of instructors/leaders beginning with Mr. Weber. Mr. Geisert would be on site for the second week. The third week, neither Mr. Weber or Mr. Geisert were available. Mr. Charley McWilliams, chief of facilities maintenance of History Nebraska would be available for the third week. Mr. Lee Lawton, a History Nebraska maintenance employee assigned to Fort Robinson, would be available for all four weeks and could provide some coordination between the instructors/leaders. It was agreed that Mr. Weber would return to Fort Robinson for the fourth week of the workshop to ensure the project would be completed to the satisfaction of Game and Parks Superintendent, Jim Miller.

Numerous phone calls, emails and texts were exchanged during the final weeks before the start of the workshop to assure the instructors/leaders that all necessary materials would be on hand and that the participants would have proper personal protection gear and tools. Sunday March 16th, Mr. Weber loaded his trailer with power tools and unique woodworking hand tools anticipating those items would not be among the tools in the existing shop, nor would they be tools expected to be brought by the participants.

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The Workshop Attendees:

David Jones of the Pine Ridge Job Corps Civil Conservation Center run by the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service in partnership with the US Department of Labor (Employment and Training Administration). worked with Carpentry Instructor Mike

Mike Carroll, Carpentry Instructor Mathew Connelly, 22 Alexander ‘José’ Cazares, 22 Pine Ridge Job Corps Carpentry Student Carpentry Student Chadron, Nebraska Columbus, Nebraska Omaha, Nebraska

Keith Patton, 20 Cora Gilpin, 20 Andrew Rodriquez, 19 Carpentry Student Carpentry Student Carpentry Student Omaha, Nebraska Omaha, Nebraska Rushville, Nebraska Carroll selecting five students from his class who had an interest in restoration woodworking. Mathew Connelly, Keith Patton, Alexander Cazares, Andrew Rodriquez and Cora Gilpin were selected. The students had come to the workshop from all over Nebraska. Their reasons for attending, all had something to do with construction, carpentry more specially and the baseline for all of the students was taking advantage of Job Corps to improve themselves and their potential to become responsible, self-sufficient citizens.

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Mr. Carroll provided transportation for the students from Chadron to the Fort each morning and worked side-by-side with the students during the entire workshop. Much of the work was delegated and accomplished by individual effort. Yet, when the tasks required extra hands, the students were quick to support each other.

The Job Corps carpentry program is expected to continue for 18 months or longer. The students attending the workshop were all at different points in their educational experience. They recognized and respected each other’s experience and ability. Mathew Connelly was the designated “shop foreman” for the students. As such he was responsible for assigning tasks and ensuring the tasks were completed. While this workshop was designed to train the young people the craftsmanship of door restoration, the Job Corps’ program was teaching them leadership and responsibility. This was most evident during the interviews. Keith Patton shared his observations of Mathew’s leadership and offered some constructive criticism. Andrew Rodriquez shared his appreciation for the opportunity to learn, experience and practice leadership skills. Mathew Connelly defended his actions but acknowledged that constructive criticism is beneficial in the workplace. Cora Gilpin summed it up by saying; “Job Corps is not for everyone, you know, but for others it was the right thing – it was the perfect thing (for me).”

The workshop was beneficial in many ways. Keith commented; “I think restoring and fine woodworking is a thing that is coming back, especially with the hand tools.” José Cazares; “I’m thinking about going into finish carpentry.” Andrew Rodriquez; “I want to learn more about framework and get better at it.” Cora Gilpin; “I’m looking forward to working outside and making a house come up out of the ground.” Mathew Connelly; “I want to try to learn finish work, try to install cabinets (and) learn how to use hand tools. They all “definitely” agreed they would like to see the workshop continue in the future.

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The students were complimentary of Mr. Weber as an instructor.

Keith Patton; “He is a really good instructor. He taught us well and some of the stuff, the hand tools, how to use them (and) the moulding planes – that was pretty cool, I knew nothing about that. He showed us how to use it.”

Cora Gilpin; “Everything that he talked about, he gave an example. So, instead of just talking about it when you see the visualization its more burned into your brain.”

The Instructor & Instructions:

Mr. Weber is a woodworker with a passion for history and architecture. He produces projects one at a time, ranging from furniture to cabinetry to musical instruments. His focus is at least half on older structures and restoration, especially doors, windows, and millwork. He arrived prepared, pulling a trailer with 8,000 pounds of tools and equipment for use by the students during the week. He developed a lesson plan for the first week of the workshop. He also organized special topics to be covered and sought opportunities within the lesson schedule to cover those topics.

Core to Mr. Weber’s approach was basic explanations of tools; different planes, moulding planes, chisels, marking gauges, and how and when all those would be used. To ensure the students understood, he took every opportunity to demonstrate the use of hand tools. He explained the importance of becoming versatile with hand tools because so much restoration work relies heavily on patience and careful hand work rather than mechanized processing. He spent time with each student explaining various steps of the process, and demonstrating techniques to achieve the desired results. Mr. Weber said; “The students seemed to take to this, asking a volume of questions about various tools they saw in his toolbox that they had never encountered before, which turned into a little dissertation on how everything got done before tape measures and electricity.”

Taking time, not worrying about rushing through the schedule was an important lesson. Some of the details he taught included more difficult things. For instance, extracting a panel from a door that's assembled, and the repair that goes with it. Methods of removing paint; heat, steam, chemicals, and safe practices when removing lead paint were all discussed, and demonstrated.

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Methods of proper glazing was an essential topic as most doors and all transoms had existing glass. There was a mini sharpening class, which one of the students took to excess, but his tools were sharp!

Mr. Weber’s reflection upon the students and Job Corps; “I appreciated their desire to learn and dedication to task. Not knowing who I was going to get, and knowing the age, I had apprehensions. But they were interested, focused, I never heard a single whimper, I never saw a cell phone. Most asked a litany of questions. Mike (Carroll) is doing something right. They were AOK in my book.”

The Venue:

The workshop venue is the existing shop space used by History Nebraska’s maintenance and carpentry personnel. It is a generous space for one or two workers and has heating, power, good work surfaces and is well lit. It has a loading dock along the northeast side of the structure. In addition, a small apartment has been constructed adjacent to the shop space which was available as lodging for the instructors.

The venue easily accommodated five doors at a time, with adequate work space around each. Work could be underway on a sixth door outside, which was good at the onset because paint removal required positive ventilation which was not available within the shop space.

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The Doors: Mr. Weber informed the students that: "we have 100 years of ‘good enough for now’ to undo.” A look at all six doors, knowing they were supposed to have been originally of the same design and installed at essentially the same time, Mr. Weber’s statement is obviously true. Seen below, the front doors of Cabins 42 and 44 are nearly identical except that 42 has two glass lites in the door and 44 does not. It appears that the original doors have all been modified to one degree or another. The case of Cabin 45, the front door is a replacement. The front door to Cabin 46 is unique with its intermediate horizontal muntin creating four lites in this door.

After review of the Door Assessment conducted by the SHPO’s office, the direction was clear that all doors would be stripped of existing paint. This then allowed for the more significant repairs necessary for the doors. The doors were originally assembled with pegs at the mortised joints. Over time, fluctuation of temperature and humidity loosened many of the joints and essentially, all doors exhibited some amount of sagging. Sagging is the primary contributor to poorly fitting doors and frequently binding, making them difficult to open easily and close tightly. Long term exposure to fluctuating temperature and humidity, plus the additional strain of sagging stiles and rails contributed cracking of some of the solid wood recessed panels.

Cabin 42 Cabin 43 Cabin 44 Original door with two lites Original door with two lites Original door without lites Original rim lock Old mortise lock Old mortise lock Original porcelain knobs Old porcelain knobs Old brass knobs Original door bell Electric door bell Original door bell Original hinges Old hinges Old hinges

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Cabin 45 Cabin 46 Cabin 47 Old door with one lite Original door with four lites Original door without lites Old mortise lock Old mortise lock Unknown lock Old tin knobs Old tin knobs Old tin knobs No door bell Original door bell No door bell Old hinges Original hinges Original hinges

The students arrived on March 18th and set to work immediately. Doors were removed from the cabins and each was marked in the hinge recess to ensure it would be returned to the proper cabin. Hardware was moved before the paint stripping process began.

Cabin 45 Marked front door.

The openings, at the cabins were secured at all locations.

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Two by four blocking was attached to the tops and bottoms of each door so that, if necessary, the doors could be turn over while paint stripper, joint filler or even finish paint was still wet.

Most joints had partially separated. Many rails had warped over time. Two- part liquid epoxy filler was used in the majority of the joints.

The pegs of the mortise and tendon joints between the style and rails of each door were easily seen when the paint was stripped away.

Several members of the wood components had serious rot and Dutchman patches were necessary to restore the wood to a solid condition

It was necessary to use epoxy wood filler paste at locations which required a lot of material.

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In many cases, new wood stops were fabricated and installed to secure the glass in the doors. When the wood of the doors was being restored, the glass was protected by blue painter’s tape. The image below is also a good illustration where both liquid epoxy (darker wood) and epoxy

putty (white surface areas) have both been used to fill joints and restore a level surface to the door.

While only two doors had the original door bells intact, when the paint was stripped away, the ghost of door bell locations could be seen on all of the original doors.

The cooperative spirit and teamwork to get the project completed was evident throughout the time of the workshop. Scenes like the image above where several students and instructors were all working on the same door were common. Pictured are; Mathew Connelly and Mr. Geisert. Mr. Carroll is hidden behind Connelly.

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By the end of the third week all of the original doors were reinstalled. New locksets were furnished by Game & Parks. Mr. Weber completed a few minor touchups on his return visit.

Cabin 42 Cabin 43 Cabin 44 Restored front door. Restored front door. Restored front door.

Cabin 45 Cabin 46 Cabin 47 Restored front door. Restored front door. Restored front door.

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Hardware:

Only a few pieces of original hardware had survived over the nearly 150-year life of these buildings. The few original hinges were badly worn and fragile. Modern replacement hinges were installed in lieu of the broken hinges. All original hardware which was not reused, was turned over to History Nebraska to be kept at the Fort.

The two original door bells were among the hardware pieces turned over to History Nebraska. While the focus of the workshop was on restoration of the doors, it is highly recommended that a future workshop be designed specifically about restoration and/or replication of original hardware. As can be seen below, a restored door bell could be an attractive greeting at each front door.

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Lessons Learned:

The experience of the workshop was positive on virtually all accounts. The early planning guidance by Mr. Leeke was incredibly valuable in the end. However, without an opportunity for Mr. Leeke to visit the venue personally, his plan for the observers was substantially over estimated. In the end, the shop space available was utilized to its maximum and served the purpose well. The attendees gained valuable experience and were provided certificates of completion signed by SHPO and Mr. Weber. It was the unanimous suggestion by the students that this workshop should be repeated for future Job Corps students.

This workshop was a tremendous learning experience for both the Job Corps students and for the organizers of the workshop. The workshop was created with the initial goal being restoration of the original doors at Fort Robinson. While the workshop was successful, a more effective method of planning a workshop would have education of attendees as the initial goal. How can we educate people about proper methods of restoration? Rather than, how can we restore these doors? Adopting this fundamental premise will result in an immediate prioritization of organizers’ efforts.

Starting out with the doors as the issue lead the organizers to use the only venue available rather than searching for the most appropriate venue. Fort Robinson, in and of itself, has multiple venues to consider. However, time did not permit considering those other possible venues. Or, had the organizers started with education as the goal, considering relocating to Chadron for the convenience of the attendees might have been an option to consider.

Organizers did not have the option of considering the optimum time of year for the workshop. While, the February/March time frame was doable, a warmer time of year would have eliminated concern for cold weather protection for restoring the door frames in situ.

Time was the biggest problem of all as the organizers could only consider wood restoration. For complete restoration of original doors, restoration or replication of hardware should have been part of the workshop.

The number of doors was a fixed quantity. Using the number of hands-on attendees as the basis to determine the number of doors to restore would offer the benefit of each attendee being responsible for the complete restoration of one door. By doing so, it would ensure that each attendee experience each aspect of door restoration.

Planning future workshops will be easier and more effective by virtue of the experience of planning this workshop.

ERGGREN 1201 “O” Street, Suite 302 B Lincoln, NE 68508 402-475-0597 ARCHITECTS

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Acknowledgements:

Nebraska Game & Parks Commission and the staff at Fort Robinson. Bob Hanover, Assistant Division Administrator Jim Miller, Fort Robinson Park Superintendent Neal Serres, Fort Robinson Facilities Maintenance

History Nebraska, State Historic Preservation Office Trevor Jones, State Historic Preservation Officer Jill Dolberg, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Charley McWilliam, Facilities Manager, History Nebraska Lee Lawton, Facilities Manager, Fort Robinson Museum

Pine Ridge Job Corps Civil Conservation Center run by the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service in partnership with the US Department of Labor (Employment and Training Administration). David Jones, Work Program Officer Mike Carroll, Instructor The Students: Alexander Cazares, Mathew Connelly, Cora Gilpin, Keith Patton, Andrew Rodriquez.

Historic HomeWorks of Portland Maine John Leeke

On site instructors: Randal Weber, Custom Woodworking (Lead Instructor) Jakeb Geisert, Carriage House Design Works, LLC. (Instructor)

Berggren Architects Jerry Berggren, Preservation Architect, Workshop Developer Greyson McCown, Media Designer, Videographer

Photos of completed doors courtesy of Lee Lawton.

Door Assessment written by Shelley McCafferty and Ryan Reed

ERGGREN 1201 “O” Street, Suite 302 B Lincoln, NE 68508 402-475-0597 ARCHITECTS