Ford restoration

[mgambuzza]

(08-28-2013 07:00 PM)L Verge Wrote:  This reminds me of a story that Rick Smith told me the other day about a visitor to Surratt House who was so happy when he (serving as the guide) found one of the square cut nails that had popped loose from the weatherboarding and was laying in the French drain that encircles the structure in lieu of gutters. Rick picked it up and presented it to her as a token of her visit.

Rick suggested to me that we go to the hardware store, buy up all the square cut nails we can find, paint the heads red like the weatherboarding at Surratt House, and pile them all in a large bowl at Surratt House's gift shop for sale as souvenirs. Let's just say that I have grave reservations with the idea.

On the same subject, however, for years the participants on our Booth Tours would dig in the dirt at Garrett's farm in search of pieces of brick from the "deceased" home's chimney. Lore had it that Col. Julian Raymond, who had commanded both Fort McNair and Fort AP Hill during his career and was well-versed in the history, would send soldiers over to the site to pepper the soil with fragments of bricks for the thrill of souvenir hunters. Modern commanders at AP Hill are not that generous. There are now large signs warning against such activity.

For years, the Dr. Mudd House sold pieces of wood and nails that they had acquired during restoration. If you have visited the site, you know that the downstairs floors are all beautiful new wood. Supposedly, the old floors were taken up and stacked outside during the restoration, and trespassers walked off with the boards. On one of our tours, a few people speculated that those small blocks of wood for sale in the gift shop were really the old downstairs floorboards that were seeing better service as money-makers!

Laurie:

So the piece of brick I picked up at Garret's while I was on the tour may be fake! I'm outraged!

Mike

[LincolnMan]

Ford's is currently closed due to the situation in the Government.

[L Verge]

(10-09-2013 11:40 AM)mgambuzza Wrote:  

(08-28-2013 07:00 PM)L Verge Wrote:  This reminds me of a story that Rick Smith told me the other day about a visitor to Surratt House who was so happy when he (serving as the guide) found one of the square cut nails that had popped loose from the weatherboarding and was laying in the French drain that encircles the structure in lieu of gutters. Rick picked it up and presented it to her as a token of her visit.

Rick suggested to me that we go to the hardware store, buy up all the square cut nails we can find, paint the heads red like the weatherboarding at Surratt House, and pile them all in a large bowl at Surratt House's gift shop for sale as souvenirs. Let's just say that I have grave reservations with the idea.

On the same subject, however, for years the participants on our Booth Tours would dig in the dirt at Garrett's farm in search of pieces of brick from the "deceased" home's chimney. Lore had it that Col. Julian Raymond, who had commanded both Fort McNair and Fort AP Hill during his career and was well-versed in the history, would send soldiers over to the site to pepper the soil with fragments of bricks for the thrill of souvenir hunters. Modern commanders at AP Hill are not that generous. There are now large signs warning against such activity.

For years, the Dr. Mudd House sold pieces of wood and nails that they had acquired during restoration. If you have visited the site, you know that the downstairs floors are all beautiful new wood. Supposedly, the old floors were taken up and stacked outside during the restoration, and trespassers walked off with the boards. On one of our tours, a few people speculated that those small blocks of wood for sale in the gift shop were really the old downstairs floorboards that were seeing better service as money-makers!

Laurie:

So the piece of brick I picked up at Garret's while I was on the tour may be fake! I'm outraged!

Mike

Sorry about that, Mike. And no, we will not refund your tour money because of fake artifacts...

[Gene C]

Mike, would you like a couple of pieces of the gravel from the road Booth's horse slipped on and caused/aggravated his broken leg injury?

[L Verge]

(10-09-2013 12:29 PM)LincolnMan Wrote:  Ford's is currently closed due to the situation in the Government.

Yes, it is - and we have had some unhappy out-of-towners at Surratt House this past ten days! I am a bit perturbed myself because we are taking a tour bus from Pennsylvania over the Booth escape route on Saturday, and it appears that Stop #1 at Ford's will have to be eliminated.

We will be able to get into the new Education Center because it is run by the Ford's Theatre Society, not the NPS. However, they will not open early for us as the rangers at Ford's are nice enough to do. That means we will be at least an hour behind schedule the entire day. When you are dealing with a twelve-hour tour, that hurts. But heck, it took Booth and Herold twelve days, so what are we complaining about!?

[Jim Garrett]

(10-09-2013 02:08 PM)L Verge Wrote:  

(10-09-2013 12:29 PM)LincolnMan Wrote:  Ford's is currently closed due to the situation in the Government.

Yes, it is - and we have had some unhappy out-of-towners at Surratt House this past ten days! I am a bit perturbed myself because we are taking a tour bus from Pennsylvania over the Booth escape route on Saturday, and it appears that Stop #1 at Ford's will have to be eliminated.

We will be able to get into the new Education Center because it is run by the Ford's Theatre Society, not the NPS. However, they will not open early for us as the rangers at Ford's are nice enough to do. That means we will be at least an hour behind schedule the entire day. When you are dealing with a twelve-hour tour, that hurts. But heck, it took Booth and Herold twelve days, so what are we complaining about!?

Laurie:

You may want to consider arriving at 8:30 to 8:45 and just do a quick tour of the alley. I have not seen any urban bald-tailed squirrels in many years back there. Also the Atlantic Building on F St dates to about the mid 1880s, but the prior Atlantic Building was the home of Harvey and Marr, undertakers. St. Patrick's, one block up from Ford's on 10th. The current building dates to the 1879s, but that is where Mary Surratt attended mass. On G St. the second floor window with diamond panes is the room where Father Jacob Walters died.

[L Verge]

Thanks, Jim. I'll pass this on to Lindsey, who will be chaperoning the trip. However, I believe that the tour company has already adjusted their timing.

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(10-09-2013 02:05 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Mike, would you like a couple of pieces of the gravel from the road Booth's horse slipped on and caused/aggravated his broken leg injury?

Unfortunately, Mike and Gene, there was not even gravel on the roads at that time down here -- just hard-packed dirt from what I can tell.

[Jim Garrett]

(10-09-2013 02:05 PM)Gene C Wrote:  Mike, would you like a couple of pieces of the gravel from the road Booth's horse slipped on and caused/aggravated his broken leg injury?

I have a small bottle that contains some of the exhaled air from John Wilkes Booth last breath. I will part with it for the right price.

[DKEast]

AND if I recall reading the box was opened up - meaning that there were TWO separate boxes with TWO separate doors. So imagine how small each box would be with the moveable partition! In fact, somewhere I read that they used the partition to put Lincoln on eventually in the crossing of 10th Street?