EXCITING PROGRESS!!!

We are proud to announce that all, yes ALL, of the main house brick work is now completed!

Front of the house brick work completed and new lintels installed.

East wall

West wall

Your donations made this possible. Thank you!

Bricks, Bricks and More Bricks!

This 2009 photo of the front doorway, taken by Thompson House Friend Camille Jacobsen, shows the damage in the brick above the door frame.

Below, fast forward to Dec 2011, workers have removed the bricks 

and the wood frame to repair this portion of the south wall.

I can only imagine the work it took to remove and stack all of these bricks!

Here you can see the completed portion of the south wall as well as the work in progress.

Brick Removal and Lintel Installation

Our milder winter this year and generous donations are making it possible for work to continue on restoring the Thompson House. Here are pictures of brick removal and a newly installed lintel. Thank you for your contributions, EVERY amount helps move this forward.

In the photo above you can see how a new cement lintel, at the top of the photo, helps support the structure.

Seen on the right is a picture of a wooden frame built by Thompson House Friend, Gary Dolan which is used to pour cement lintels. Gary further donated his skills by welding rebar frames for each of these cement lintels also in this photo.

North Wall and Medical Room

If you are a big Thompson House friend you may enjoy this early black and white photo of the north side. Although the windows are broken the roof is still intact.

This next photo was taken about 2009 before restoration began on the north wall. 

And here is the most recent photo of the north wall taken 29 Dec 2011

You can see the roof outline on the left side of the wall of Dr. Thompson's "Medical Room". 

While doing research on William Preston Thompson we found a description of this part of the house including that it was used for his medical practice. Although all of the walls on this side of the house are now repaired including the new lintels being poured and installed the Medical Room is yet to be rebuilt. 

Re-Setting the Foundation

Workers needed to remove this wall to access the damaged foundation which was initially set about the fall of 1833.

















Here the foundation stones are being re-set and checked to make sure they are level.
On the right side of this photo you can see the stacked bricks which were removed to access the stone foundation.

West Wall Before and After

Sometimes we forget how hard we have worked to progress forward until we take a look back.

West wall before...

                             

 after foilage removal...

west wall  repaired ! 

(photo taken Dec 2011)

Your contributions make a difference. Thank you!

The work continues

One of the major obstacles to getting to the Thompson House has now been removed. The deep creek stopped many a vehicle, or at least my truck which got hung up on a rock. The steepness of the slopes of the creek bank have now been lessened.

 


And the house is looking good too. Look no falling down walls! Well at least not on this side of the house.

I love progress!

Part 4 of the restoration video series

Part 3 of the restoration video series

Part 2 of the restoration video series