Matthewis Persen House

Ancestry is important to any restoration project. For the pre-Revolutionary stone Matthewis Persen House, tucked away in Kingston, N.Y., the return to its Dutch roots was vital.

The jury said that as a historic restoration evoking the history of New York State, it was essential that the project team paid close attention to the ancestry of the building and respect the original Dutch techniques and materials used to erect the 1890 structure.

After a structural inspection revealed that the Persen House was close to collapse, the project team had to replace a large section of the south wall as part of this $1.8 million project. To regain structural soundness, the team had to pour new foundation footings and replace the original stone wall.

As each stone was removed, it was numbered so that after the footings were poured it could be reassembled numerically, ensuring that each stone was replaced precisely from where it was removed.

New interior walls also had to be built to replace some that had been torn down during one of the building's remodelings. Limestone used in the new wall erections had to match the original limestone, so the project team located a limestone source to match the native limestone for both the walls and for replacing the 1890 exterior carriage stoops.

In repairing the wood beam design on the interior of the house, the project team doubted that wood floor beams would provide the necessary support but had to find a way to create a structural design that was still historically authentic. The solution was a composite beam consisting of steel "c's" and a structural wood box beam.

To disguise the steel beams, the team wrapped them with re-sawn salvaged wood and installed the beams from below, keeping the original historical floor intact and minimizing the floor damage. Weaving steel members with existing wood structural supports also helped make the house structurally sound without an invasive modern material.

A similar "illusion" was used to create a wood roof gutter, which historically required a solid white cedar log. The white cedar log was unavailable-so the project team fabricated the gutter in three pieces, with the exterior dressed to replicate the look of a solid hand-hewn beam and the interior sealed with a clear epoxy to strengthen the gutter to withstand the elements.

Ultimately, this project recalls a historically significant period in time and was done with the utmost respect for authenticity.