January 2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MARTHA CHOITZ: The decorations shall be retained or replaced by replicas of the same design or by a design more in keeping with the historic period of the structure. We investigated that very thoroughly and realized that it could be a possibility, because there's no proof that those were original to the house. JOANN SPORLEDER: The capital on the right was seriously damaged and the center capital was not in good shape, so they needed to be replaced. In order to make all three match; all three would have needed to be replaced. The one capital on the left had been replaced in 2000 because of a storm. There were problems associated apparently with replacing the other two or then all three with Scamozzi column capitals that were then available, because of if I am understanding what was said with the size, and the style, and the structure; if you will look in one of those photographs apparently the structure of this thing is such that there is a column inside that is the structural column that holds up the whole thing and all of this is put around it on the outside of that. So in order to do what was then available apparently in the Scamozzi style, as I understand it, they would have had to completely undo the entire structure and start all over again because the capitals came as a piece instead of in halves which could accommodate the structure itself. You can see that quite plainly in the photograph which was passed around. They apparently had tried to get Scamozzi capitals, and there have been some indications of this, which was in your packet. In 2004 they had investigated trying to get Scamozzi in other places. The difficulty of doing that led them to try something simpler which was also in keeping with that particular Queen Ann style. In fact, in my professional opinion the Doric is more commonly used in the Queen Anne than the Scamozzi. That doesn't mean the Scamozzi was never used; but, the Doric was the normal way of going. So what they have done was chosen to do something that needed to be done because those tops had to be fixed - they had obviously disintegrated. I think that's where I came down on this and I thought that is what they had done over a long period of time of starting this whole process in 2001, I believe. It just seemed to make the most sense to do what they in fact did. CATHERINE HOSTETLER: But, then how do you explain the Scamozzis on the Queen Anne Inn? JOANN SPORLEDER: I can't explain that because that's not in the same district. CATHERINE HOSTETLER: It was. We moved that house. That was in Chapin Park right across on Lafayette. Those are wooden columns with terra cotta. One of your arguments was about shingle style Queen Anne's not having Scamozzis; but, ----- JOANN SPORLEDER: No, I didn't say they didn't have it; what I was saying was Doric is appropriate. There is a difference. CATHERINE HOSTETLER: But, that wasn't what was there. JOANN SPORLEDER: The truth of the matter is we don't know what was there. We only know what was destroyed. CATHERINE HOSTETLER: The terra cotta industry collapsed in the 1930's so they had to have been at least seventy years old. JOANN SPORLEDER: I don't really want to get into how old they are. All I know is that they were deteriorated and needed to be replaced. An effort was made to replace them with Scamozzi and apparently that was unsuccessful structurally. So I can't address anything more beyond that. 4