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Preserving a piece of history By Tom Calarco for Northeast As I pulled onto the dirt road I came upon an old house wrapped in plastic - like a body on its way to the morgue. This old house, however, was not about to be buried. It was destined to be raised from the dead, brought back to life by a master of his trade, a man who restores old houses for a living – Michael Kelley of Niskayuna. Kelley was documenting dissected parts when I walked inside and saw the skeletal frame that remained. He was numbering, describing, and cataloguing them for future restoration with the help of contractor Dave Snook, who works with him on all his projects. They were joking about the many rat carcasses they had found in the basement along with two pieces of the characteristic Dutch blue delft tile. This was no ordinary job. |
"There's
nothing like taking a building apart from its tiny component pieces
to learn how it's built," says Kelley, who's been fascinated with
old houses since he helped restore an 18th century farmhouse when he
was 16.
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This rare structure, known as the Daniel Peter Winne house, was not merely being taken apart and boxed up for a move to another location. It was being moved to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to be reassembled and take its place as one of the showpieces in its new American Wing, which should be completed sometime within the next three years. The Winne house had remained anonymous because of the renovations that had taken place over the years. Slingerlands attorney John Breeze was the first to realize that it might be important and contacted Kelley. Among the clues that revealed its true identity were the roofline that been lowered from its original high-pitched Dutch style to Greek Revival style, causing it to lose its classic Dutch look. Changes to the windows and addition of siding had masked it from those would be able to recognize its true origin. Other clues Kelley found were the moved anchor beam used to support the roof and evidence of a jambless fireplace that was used in such houses prior to 1750. This medieval style did not use jambs but had a huge, thick masonry hood suspended above on timbers that expelled the hot air into the ceiling. Also of interest was its unique construction, which had been dictated by the builder's personal sensibility of the world. It was a great discovery to find such a house, Kelley said, because not much is written about them, and it provided an opportunity for him to learn about it first hand. Peter Kenny, curator of the Met's American Decorative Arts and administrator of its American wing, said he learned of the Winne house from a friend who knew about a 1709 house in New Paltz that Kelley had restored. The Met was interested because it doesn't have a house in this distinctive early Dutch style with its more open and higher ceiling. The only concern was bringing its 23-foot beams up to the third floor where the house will be exhibited, but that was quickly solved by the museum’s architects. Kenny also was intrigued by the original approach to its design and aesthetic, and its "extremely pleasing and wonderful patina of aging," some of whose parts were never painted. At present, the Met plans to exhibit the house's groote (great) chamber with the big fireplace and preserve its back, bedchamber for possible future exhibition. Though the Met doesn't have such an old Dutch house at present, they are relatively prevalent in the Hudson and Mohawk Valley because of 17th Century Dutch settlement of the region, and are well known to Kelley, a native of this area. He's been to Holland to study architecture and has restored a number of 18th century Dutch houses and barns. He credits his meeting with Don Carpentier, the historic preservationist who developed the renowned Eastfield Village in Rensselaer County, as the turning point of his career. Used as a training center for people serious about learning the arcane crafts, Eastfield attracts instructors in historical preservation from around the world. At the time of their meeting, Kelley was working for the phone company as a manager and restoring houses in his space time. He began taking classes at Eastfield, and along with trips to study architecture in Europe, began collecting a huge reference library. Reading about historical preservation and taking classes in it is good, Kelley says, but they don’t take the place of working in the field. "It's like a surgeon reading about how to perform an operation." He also began working with Carpentier, who encouraged him to go into the field full-time, and also helped him move a number of his historic houses to Eastfield. |
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