Historic Surfaces LLC has begun the initial phase of the restoration project. Come to the Ceremony Hall on Sunday May 20, 1:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M. and see the progress. Printer Friendly Flyer here        About the restoration project

 

 

Anthony Kartsonas (on left), founder of Historic Surfaces LLC, and Andy Bultas, vice-president of Friends of Bohemian National Cemetery.

photo by Chuck Michalek

 

 

 

 

The area outlined in red shows the size of the test area. Photo by Tony Kartsonas

 

 

It was not uncommon for interior decoration to be a progression of changes and additions. This is certainly the case for the Ceremony Hall in the crematorium/columbarium building. After the original design was completed, later modifications were commonly done, often (but not always) by the original artist. John Mallin received his first contract to decorate the Ceremony Hall in 1918. He received subsequent contracts from the cemetery association for additional painting of the hall in the decades to follow, with the last painting being done in the late 1940s.

Tony Kartsonas, our architectural conservator and historic finishes specialist carrying out the restoration project, says that the Ceremony Hall is in basically good condition except for areas of water damage. It is fortunate that the Ceremony Hall had no previous, poorly done restoration attempts.

The scaffolding provides the workers thorough access to the area being studied.
Photo by Tony Kartsonas

Photos by Tony Kartsonas

The gilt decoration on the plaster ornamentation appears to be in pretty good condition. There is not much loss, and the gold leaf has not been abraded by previous cleanings.

Closer inspection shows significant areas of unstable plaster and paint.

Photos by Tony Kartsonas

Some areas of paint and plaster flake off when touched. This condition is seen in both plain-painted areas (above left) and in some of the decorative elements (above center and right). Some sections are so deteriorated that they will need to be repainted completely. Other areas just need to be “inpainted” or “infilled.”

This art restoration technique of inpainting, also called retouching, re-establishes color and detail to losses in the paint layer, using a brush to apply a pigment mixed with an appropriate binding material. The flat and one-color areas cannot be infilled. Those surfaces have to be replastered and prepared as needed, and then completely repainted.

The columns in the Ceremony Hall are excellent examples of marezzo scagliola, a hand-crafted marbling technique widely used in the United States from the mid-1800s to 1930s. This particular scagliola was made by splashing a paint and glue mixture on oil cloth and wrapping the cloth around the columns and smoothing the canvas. The paint was allowed to partly dry and, at just the right time, the canvas was peeled away, leaving a surface that had to be rubbed, sanded, and polished resulting in a lustrous marble look. At some later date, varnish was applied to the columns. The marezzo scagliola decoration of the columns probably dates to the 1920s.

The gold leaf on the columns was put on over an earlier layer of aluminum leaf. Tony found a pot stuffed with aluminum leaf paper and other trash high up in the dome. Tony thinks it dates from the 1918 original decoration.

 

Conditions can be better assessed once the areas are cleaned.

Photos by Tony Kartsonas

Next steps will include:

• Stabilization of loose paint
• Infill of losses in decoration to match the existing design
• Repainting of all flat and one color areas including all necessary surface preparation
• Restoration of scagliola columns, including removing the varnish and repolishing the surface