Restoration & Preservation
After acquiring the home in 1994, Dr. Rogers slowly began the restoration process. The house was in need of much love. Over the years much work has been done including complete restoration and modernization of five fireplace flues and chimneys, the massive job of replacing the the rotten beam supporting the two floors on the west addition of the house.
Notes from Dr. Rogers:
I started looking after Brickhouse at the end of 1993. The last of my Lassotovitch cousins living in the house had passed away, and the house was uninhabited, though not empty.
As I have seen it do to others many times since, the house offered a kind of magic invitation and inspiration. For all the flaking plaster and detritus of a half dozen generations living, dying, and being born there, it conveyed a nobility of permanence, a presence that I will admit I needed, probably more than the house needed me.
What a privilege to respect the vision and craftsmanship of people who invested themselves in creating this presence over two hundred summers ago. I hope some of these pictures and commentary convey the manifest pleasure I have been given in honoring them, my family, and our successors.
Notes from Dr. Rogers:
I started looking after Brickhouse at the end of 1993. The last of my Lassotovitch cousins living in the house had passed away, and the house was uninhabited, though not empty.
As I have seen it do to others many times since, the house offered a kind of magic invitation and inspiration. For all the flaking plaster and detritus of a half dozen generations living, dying, and being born there, it conveyed a nobility of permanence, a presence that I will admit I needed, probably more than the house needed me.
What a privilege to respect the vision and craftsmanship of people who invested themselves in creating this presence over two hundred summers ago. I hope some of these pictures and commentary convey the manifest pleasure I have been given in honoring them, my family, and our successors.
My first act was to cut down the cedars in front of the porch. Not the most necessary, but symbolic of my understanding that the house wanted light and simplicity.
Brickhouse circa 1994.
The next step was to get water away from the house, The East roof was redone, gutters and downspouts installed, and the piers supporting the front porch rebuilt. Get a hat on, get your feet under you.
Photo taken approx. 2001
PLASTER
The entire interior is lath and plaster, much of it ‘horsehair’ often incorporating organic material from farm life to help consolidate the plaster. There are very sophisticated moldings on the first floor, and there were also large portions of wall and ceilings that had failed.
As with many aspects of the restoration, it was not always obvious or easy to find the appropriate, capable craftsmen to accomplish the work at hand. This crew was capable, cranky, and costly. And their work is indistinguishable from the original. Perfect, as plaster has to be.
In some areas I departed from tradition, covering plaster with 1/8th drywall, or building a lowered ceiling and simply parging over brick in the kitchen.
This will be an ongoing aspect of restoration, always some contemporary material, some from 1930, some original, and so on.
This will be an ongoing aspect of restoration, always some contemporary material, some from 1930, some original, and so on.
