The Exterior Restoration 1977-1980

During the 1940s the Beardsley-Cartwright House had been stripped of its ornament and two layers of siding were applied–the first insulbrick and the second asbestos shakes. By the time the eighth owners acquired it in 1976, the house was suffering from years of neglect and unseemly remodeling. The railing and fretwork on the front porch had been torn off and the deck boxed in. Instead of the steps going down to 27th Street, concrete steps led to a walkway straight to the Emerson Avenue sidewalk. The storm windows were dilapidated, some barely clinging to the casings. The garage was a wreck, its roof covered with moss.

The dilapidated garage, 1976.

The first tasks of the new owners were to update the electrical service, fix the plumbing, plug leaks in the windows, replace the worn roofing, and strip wallpaper from the rooms that had never been painted. Once the worst aspects of deferred maintenance were fixed, they turned their attention to the exterior. The siding was such a mess, they were hesitant to waste resources trying to spruce it up.

The house with green asbestos siding and boxed-in porch.

But to restore the exterior, they needed first to know what it originally had looked like, and second, to find craftspeople skilled enough to replicate missing parts. As it turned out, they were in luck on both counts. First, they tracked down the daughter of the Cartwrights, Helen Ruth Kinney, who had photos of the house and family dating back to the turn of the century.

Before her marriage, Helen Ruth Cartwright was a professional singer.
Helen and her husband (left) homesteaded in northern Alberta during the early years of their marriage. They were the only ones for many miles around that had a piano, and at Christmas people would gather at their cabin for a week-long party.

Mrs. Kinney visited the house in 1977–and was appalled by its shabby condition. She described how it was when her parents owned it: the polished floors, the handsome carvings and turnings, the intact exterior. More importantly, she showed them photos of the house and barn taken in 1915. These two photos revealed the buildings’ original appearance and provided a blueprint for restoring them.

Cartwright family photos of the house and barn from 1915. The little white dog was named Taxi.

After seeing the photos, the owners decided that the layers of siding had to go. But after that, then what? Who could reproduce the trim and ornamental elements that had been lost?

Enter master carpenter Doug Moore. As the siding came off, it became apparent that against all odds, spindles, balusters, and other wood trim pieces had been nailed against the old clapboard to provide a means to affix the insulbrick to the house. Moore examined the house and photo, measured the house and the pieces of trim, and drew up blueprints for the reproductions.

Moore’s drawing of the ornamental carpentry reproductions for front porch.

A couple of months later on a bright late spring day, Moore showed up with the new trim pieces in the back of his pickup. One by one, he fitted the railings, spandrels, sunburst corbels, and window trim pieces on the house. They fit perfectly.

For the rest of the summer, the owners, friends, relatives, and neighbors worked on the exterior, replacing rotten clapboard, stripping paint-clogged window casings, scraping off peeling paint, caulking, filling holes from siding nails, and priming. At last, they applied the top coats with colors chosen from DeVoe Paints’ Victorian collection: taupe trim, dark brown clapboard, dark green shingles, with accent colors of gold and scarlet. It was quite a transformation.

Photos of the exterior work

Taking down the first section of asbestos siding.
Facade with siding off.
The west side with the siding removed.
The south eyelid dormer without the eyelid. A neighborhood clock maker was recruited to figure out how to arrange the shingles in their original configuration over the window.

 

The south side in the winter of 1978-79 with the siding off, before restoration work began. The owners discovered that the original colors were pea green siding with butterscotch yellow trim. Before the siding was put on, the house was beige and dark brown.
Inside the front porch.
Repairing siding nail holes on porch.
Two brothers and their father priming the front.
Cleaning up the window frame with a heat gun. Members of the crew set the wood on fire twice, but it was quickly quenched.
Painting from the top down: scrape, prime, apply final coats.
Priming the south side.
Chimney sweep checking out the chimney.
The completed exterior restoration, front view.
The finished exterior paint job, with the lilacs planted c.1900 (still there).
Snowed in. The garage with its new paint job, winter 1980.
Horse tack from the 1920s, when the garage was a barn and Frank Cartwright ran a horse tack and livery business out of it.
The Fourth of July 1992. The bunting was one of the treasures found in the attic of the house. It is likely the Cartwrights’, as they were very politically active. There were also campaign posters from the 1930s found in the garage loft.
The roof from the west, with the former cooking chimney at left and main chimney with added chimney pots on top.
In the 1990s, the paint scheme was changed to seafoam green for the siding, light brown for the shingles, and taupe (same) for the trim boards. The reason is that the sun deteriorates dark paint more quickly than the lighter colors.

The Exterior Restoration Work Crew

Carpentry: Jon Carlson, Doug Moore, Don Ogren

Chimneys: John Cordes, Dan MacMillan

Painting: Tim Blackburn, Trilby Busch, Anders Christensen, C.H. Christensen, Donnan Christensen, Matthew Schwob, Barbara Weis