Title
Weekly News November 4, 2013Description
The Second Floor of the Carriage House at Auburn Heights: Since early in 2006, the second floor of the Carriage House has been used for the F.A.H.P. Office. Our first part-time Executive Director, Bob Reilly, also used about half of it for living quarters when he and his wife, Barb, were in residence. Since early in 2008, however, the whole area, nearly 1,500 square feet, has served as much-needed office space, where our Board of Directors meetings are also held.
In the original Carriage House built in 1902, all construction inside the stone walls was frame. Although I don’t know, I assume there was a loft above the stable and carriage house, accessed by a ladder. When the interior was destroyed by fire in 1914, the rebuild contained no wood except in the rafters for the high-pitched roof. Heavy steel I-beams supported on the stone walls with a concrete-and-steel deck about 12 feet above the floor allowed for a first floor without posts and a solid structure for a second floor. With this improvement, the floor on the ground level was probably concreted for the first time.
The post-1914 second floor was still only an open loft but may have had a stairway from the ground level instead of a ladder. Sometime during the next 10 years, nearly 2/3 of the area was made into an apartment, presumably to be occupied by a cook or housekeeper for Auburn Heights. Shallow sleepers with a hard wood floor covered the area of this apartment, which contained a large living room, two small bedrooms, and an old-fashioned bathroom (no shower, of course). There was no kitchen, as meals by the tenant would be taken in the kitchen of the big house. The bedrooms were on the end toward the present museum building with two small windows in each, and the bath, now the room with washer and dryer, was entered from the big room; no hallway had been partitioned off. The end toward the present restroom building, about 1/3 of the total area, was still an open loft with a concrete floor, one-half step lower than the wooden floor of the apartment. Access to the apartment was only through this loft, however, and an inside frame stairway hugged the stone wall on the end of the building. Access to this stairway was through the garage, and it was not enclosed.
The apartment section had a ceiling about eight feet high; the loft was open to the roof high above. My father stored lumber above the ceiling, which could be moved in and out from the open loft. A large cedar water tank about six feet in diameter was also in this loft. It’s my impression that this was needed for our water supply before the line from the spring was constructed in 1928. The tank remained long after that, but it was not used, and I think it was finally taken apart and removed at the start of World War II. In this loft area, my father also had a heavy piece of machinery called a “mechanical carpenter” or something like that, on which he made the original circular “O”-gauge Lionel railway in 1931. This is how I remember the second floor of the Carriage House when I was growing up. Ida Murray (Cliffey’s mother) lived here from 1928 until 1933; after that there were several cooks and butlers in succession.
The passage of time changed the apartment gradually. When the shop was built on the “museum end” in 1937, one of the small bedroom windows was turned into a narrow door to access a new deck with a clothes line over the shop (where the present screened porch exists). There was no way to get to the ground from this end, however. At the start of World War II, the apartment was rented to Arnold Huss and his daughter Mary, and one of the five small windows on the end near the old stairway was made into an outside door, so the tenants would not have to enter through the garage. The loft was still open, but it was not long before a makeshift kitchen, long and narrow, was attached to the enclosed apartment on the loft end. The Husses were tenants for over 10 years, and Mary had an upright piano on which she attempted to play, to the dismay of my father. David Sliney, a young executive with Monsanto, lived there briefly in the early 1960s, followed by Mrs. Spencer, a nursing home administrator who drove a Corvair, and finally Mary Hollingsworth until the late 1970s. In 1981, the apartment was completely changed and upgraded.
The deck over the shop, still with no roof or screening, was accessed by a new stairway from the parking lot, the partition was removed between the tiny bedrooms to make a kitchen-dining area, the hallway to the other end was partitioned off from the big room, and the open loft area was enclosed to make two bedrooms and a full bath. The old bath was turned into a powder room with washer and dryer. While the old inside stairway was still there, it didn’t go anywhere except to access the new HVAC equipment above the apartment’s ceiling. All wiring was brought up to code, and a lot of insulation was installed. The large window at the end of the building could not be seen from the apartment. The new tenants in this improved facility were a man who worked for me and his daughter, but it didn’t work out. In 1984, Paul and Kathy Gamble moved in, had two daughters born during their stay, and left in 1992 after building a new home. In 1993, the elevator was installed, the old inside stairway was closed off and partly removed, a roof and screened porch was built over the old open deck, the room now used by Susan Randolph as her office was enlarged to include the large end window (the other bedroom became smaller), and in 1994, Mark and Beth Parker-Miller moved in (they were recommended by Dan Muir), and they also had two daughters born during their 11-year stay. In February 2006, it became FAHP’s office.
Work Report: On Tuesday, October 29, 13 volunteers were on hand as follows: Jerry Novak (in charge),
Gary Green, Jerry Lucas, Tim Nolan, Ted Kamen, Jay Williams, Mac Taylor, Steve Bryce,
Paul Kratunis, Bob Jordan, Rose Ann Hoover, Dennis Dragon, and Bob Stransky.
The inner controls of the switch box on the 607 were sorted out, and further progress was made in hooking up the dash light. Also on this car, the speedometer cable housing was strapped to the perch pole, and paint on adjusted parts was touched up. The boilers were filled on the Models 71 and 820 (Mtn. Wagon), and the museum was worked on in preparation for the Steamin’ Sunday on November 3. The extra spare, suitable for either our 725 or 735, was removed from its rim, and a hole was detected in the tube. This was patched and the tire remounted, only to find it still leaked. The electric trains were prepped for their busy day coming up on November 3.
On Thursday, October 31, the following 14 were in attendance: Tim Ward (in charge), Eugene Maute, Gerhard Maute, Steve Bryce, Bill Schwoebel, Jerry Koss, Kelly Williams, Richard Bernard, Gary Green, Tim Nolan, Bob Jordan, Anne Cleary, Rose Ann Hoover, and Tom Marshall.
On the Mountain Wagon, the main fuel shut-off valve was repacked, and the pump packings snugged up. New nylon balls replaced the old ones in the two water pumps. Fuel levels were checked for this car’s use on November 3. One of the new heavy-duty stanchions was sanded and repainted. With a new inner tube, the illusive spare mentioned above was being mounted, but unfortunately the flap could not be properly aligned, so this project was not finished. After grinding the sides to fit, a new grate was installed in Locomotive 401, replacing the old one that had developed several cracks. On the Model 607, the fuel filter was cleaned, the parts in the switch box were refined, and a new wire was run from this box to the dash light. Work continued in our library. On Friday, with help from Dan Citron and a better flap, the spare tire mentioned above was successfully mounted.
An e-mail was received from Art Wallace, telling us how well he is adapting to his new home in Florida. He has joined a men’s club in the complex where he lives and has already given talks on Stanleys and his experiences with them. Having been requested for more, he plans to illustrate these talks soon. We were pleased to welcome back Ted Kamen, who helped at our special Halloween event on October 26 and also attended the work session last Tuesday. His hand is bandaged, but he is making good progress toward full use of his hand and fingers in the near future.
