Masonry Conservation Case Studies: LSU Law School 1936, St Alban's Chapel LSU 1929, and the Theta Xi Fraternity House LSU 1
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 2003 Masonry conservation case studies: LSU Law School 1936, St Alban's Chapel LSU 1929, and the Theta Xi Fraternity House LSU 1939 Richmond Gardner Savoy Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the Architecture Commons Recommended Citation Savoy, Richmond Gardner, "Masonry conservation case studies: LSU Law School 1936, St Alban's Chapel LSU 1929, and the Theta Xi Fraternity House LSU 1939" (2003). LSU Master's Theses. 489. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/489 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MASONRY CONSERVATION CASE STUDIES: LSU LAW SCHOOL 1936 ST. ALBAN’S CHAPEL LSU 1929 AND THE THETA XI FRATERNITY HOUSE LSU 1939 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Architecture in The School of Architecture By Richmond Gardner Savoy B.S. Louisiana State University, 1977 December 2003 For My Children: Sarah Savoy and Richmond Hill Savoy & My Father: The Reverend James Edward Savoy, B.A., B.D. D.D. University of the South 1939 and In Loving Memory of My Mother Susan Montgomery Williams Savoy, A.S.L.A. B.F.A. University of Georgia, 1939 “A Drop of Ink, May Make A Million Think” – Lord Byron ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For re-kindling the enthusiasm required of an older graduate student, for his kind attention to irritating and incessant questions in the middle of class or a field trip, for his special way of instilling the confidence and intellectual curiosity necessary to sally forth in the face of adversity, notwithstanding one’s deficiencies, I wish to thank my Committee Chairman, William R. Brockway, F.A.I.A., a most patient gentleman, artist, craftsman, consummate professional, and true mentor. In addition, I wish to express my gratitude to the other members of my committee: C. Barrett Kennedy, PhD., Associate Dean of the College of Design, who gave me the incentive to overcome the fear of the digital world, and for his patient skill and guidance in the art of academic research; and J. Michael Desmond, PhD., Professor of Architecture for his considered criticism and insight. For support, patience, coaching, and guidance in negotiating the high hurdles of this process, I wish to express my thanks to Professor David Cronrath, AIA, Director, and Professor Chris Theis, Graduate Advisor, of the LSU School of Architecture, and the Dean and Staff of the LSU Graduate School, especially Ms. Pamela A. Monroe, Associate Dean, Ms. Mary Adcock, Records Officer, and Ms. Susanna C. Dixon, Editor, Graduate Records. I wish also to express my thanks to the following individuals that have done much to encourage me in this work, both knowingly and unknowingly by teaching me at one time or another and who have, thereby, made it possible for me or cursed me, depending on one’s perspective, to view and approach architecture, buildings, and historic preservation issues from multiple perspectives and disciplines: William J. Cooper, PhD and the late T. Harry Williams, PhD, Boyd Professors, and the late Professor Mark Carleton, PhD, of the LSU History Department, and the late William Haag, Jr., PhD, Alumni Professor Emeritus of the LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology; the late Professor Darrell Addison Posey, PhD., Founder and Director of the Working Group on Traditional Resource Rights at the Oxford Center for the Environment, Ethics & Society, Mansfield College, University of Oxford, UK; Professor Jay D. Edwards, PhD, Director of American Colonial & Post Colonial Cultures, Vernacular Architecture, Oral Literature & The Fred B. Kniffen Cultural Resources Laboratory at the LSU Department of Geography and Anthropology; The faculty of RESTORE, Inc. including: Professor Frank G. Matero, Director of the Architectural Conservation Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania; Professor Emeritus Stephen Clement, PhD, Department of Geology, College of William and Mary; Norman R. Weiss, PhD, Analytical Chemist and Adjunct Professor, Colombia University; Dennis G. Rude, Master Stonemason; Deborah Slaton, MA, M Arch, Sr. Architectural Conservator WJE Assoc., Inc.; Craig K. Haney, FCSI; William E. Crawford, LL.B, Bailey Professor and Director of the Louisiana State Law Institute, LSU Law School; Professor Howard W. L’Enfant, LL.B., LSU Law School; Robert A. Pascal, Milton M. Harrison, and the late Lee Hargrave, Professors Emeriti of the LSU Law School. I am especially thankful for the wise counsel, loyal friendship and patience of my brother and true friend, Markham Robin McKnight. There are few persons of his caliber in this world; iii coincidentally, it was he that gave me my first paying construction job working on a renovation of Thomas Boyd Hall in the early 1970s. He has been there for most of the important events of my life since 1968. For his kindness and courtesy in providing copies of his drawings for Additions to St. Alban’s Chapel and Parish Hall, answering many questions, showing me his work and giving me a wonderful tour of his home, I wish to thank A. Hays Town, AIA; a consummate gentleman. I am also indebted to Joey Furr, ASLA, for the valuable information he provided about the landscape additions to St. Albans; and for standing with me when I spoke truth to the building committee about the condition of their building. For their creativity and support in helping me find the means and shelter to begin and continue this project: Dan Mahaffey, AIA, Steve Losavio, AIA and The Capitol Architect; the Theta Xi House Corporation, Leslie Sammonds, C.P.A., President; the Reverend Patrick Smith and the Reverend Charles Wood, Chaplains, of St. Alban’s Episcopal Chapel and Student Center, LSU; the Right Reverend James Barrow Brown and the Right Reverend Charles Jenkins, Bishops of Louisiana; and Charles Rourk of Crowley, Louisiana. For creative financial assistance: Roger Magendie, former Director, William Morrison, AIA, Assistant Director, Patrick Tomeny, AIA, former Project Manager, and Anthony Palotta, P.E., Project Manager of the Louisiana Department of Facility Planning & Control; The LSU Tiger Athletic Foundation; Dr. Alan Copping, President and Charlie Martin, AIA, Vice-President of LSU Systems; and Terry Martin, Assistant Director, LSU Office of Student Aid & Scholarship. I wish to thank Joe Kelly, P.E., Executive Director of LSU Facility Services and his staff for assistance in gaining vertical access to study and photograph normally inaccessible points on the exterior of the subject buildings, Rod LeNoir, Design Specialist, LSU Office of Facility Services for providing copies of historic blue prints of the subject buildings; and Richard Humphries, ASLA, of LSU Facility Services for assistance in assessing the condition of existing landscape features at the subject sites. I wish to express my appreciation to Louise and Addison Burt, Barry and Burt Goolsby of Burt Lumber Company, Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia who taught me so much about what it takes today to get southern yellow pine lumber from the logging truck through the mill and to the retail lumber yard, while granting me the privilege of earning a living first “kicking” logs and then operating the only remaining non-computerized skragg mill at their lumber mill, and Paul Peeler, USMC, of Burt Lumber who taught me how to center a log, calculate the set points, run the saws and produce fine No. 1 SYP. I now know first hand how and what made many of the marks we see on finished lumber, if we look close enough. I also want to express my thanks to Charlie Broome, of Broome Lumber Co., Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia, who granted me the privilege of working for wages at his pallet mill while making ends meet in the wilderness. I wish to express my appreciation to Frank P. Powers, Jr., Owner, Powers’ Store (founded 1896) and President , Powers’ Sand and Gravel for all he taught me about the lore of iv logging, cruising timber, and what it takes to extract from the earth the aggregate we use for concrete, asphalt and mason sand, and what it takes to get it from the pit to the redi-mix or asphalt plant, while allowing me the privilege, from time to time, of earning a living operating his dredge barges, articulated front end loaders, bull dozers and truck scales. Also, he taught me much about the real world stewardship of 19th century wood frame buildings and those all too common actions, inactions and attitudes that clearly demonstrate the need for professional historic preservation consultants to serve in the wilderness1. For the kindness, generosity, encouragement and patience of my cousin Charles Edgar Irvin, MLS of Washington, Georgia, who has celebrated 84 years of gentile living; for that of my first cousins Juliann Rhind Schmidt Hansen, Christoph Roland Schmidt, Milton Schmidt, Eugene Schmidt, especially for allowing me the use of my ancestral home Cherry Cottage (circa 1790) when there was no other place for me to call home; for the assistance of my first cousin Milton Wells Williams, III in getting home; and the kind emotional support of my Washington, Georgia cousins William Pope, Edward Barnett Pope, Jr., M. Pembroke Pope, the Honorable Frank W. Thomas, Mayor of Washington, Vivian Ficklen Barnett, Marion Barnett, and Robert M. “Skeet” Willingham. For their creative interest and fair business dealing I wish to thank Frank O. Walsh, III, President of Yesteryear Book Shop, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia; Gary Hendershott, President, Hendershott Museum Consultants, of Little Rock, Arkansas, and Jack Harvey, Jr., Executive Vice-President, Farmers and Merchant’s Bank, Washington, Georgia.