Rosewell Gift Shop Features Books and More

The gift shop at the Rosewell Visitor Center offers a variety of books and other items related to Rosewell, the Page family, architecture, archaeology, and genealogy.

To mail-order an item, send your name, mailing address, and list of items ordered to The Rosewell Foundation, PO Box 1456, Gloucester, VA 23061. Please enclose your check payable to the Rosewell Foundation, including the shipping/handling fee for each item as indicated.

Here is a sampling of our current offerings:

"American Ruins" photography book by Arthur Drooker ($45 + $5 S/H)

"Images of America: Gloucester County" book by Sara E. Lewis ($21 + $3 S/H)

"In Search of This and That" book by Ivor Noel Hume ($16 + $4 S/H)

Sterling Silver Rosewell Pin (originally $45; now $39 + $4 S/H)

Rosewell Christmas ornament ($15 + $4 S/H)

Rosewell Poster ($5 + $4 S/H)

6-minute Rosewell video ($6 + $3 S/H)

"Genealogy of the Page Family," 1893 reprint ($35 + $3 S/H)

"Leonora and the Ghost," a Rosewell Christmas ghost story by Lucy Page Saunders ($4 + $2 S/H)

"The Pages and Rosewell" from the Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts ($10 + $3 S/H)

"Four Families of Rosewell" ($12 + $2.50 S/H)

"The Ruins of Rosewell" article from Colonial Williamsburg Journal ($2 + $2 S/H).

"Gloucester County in the Civil War" book by Ludwell Lee Montague ($26 + 2.50 S/H

For further information on any items, please email information@rosewell.org or call (804)-693-2585.

"Blueprint for Preservation" Yields Stabilization Plan for Rosewell

When the Rosewell Foundation received the final report from the Blueprint for Preservation team in June 2008, it represented the combined efforts of some of the top experts in the historic preservation field. The idea was first hatched at a Board of Directors retreat in 2002: to conduct a series of in-depth inspections and technical studies, and to create a long-term stabilization plan that takes into account all the stresses that the ruin currently faces. (Preservation efforts up until that time had been guided by an engineering study conducted back in 1980.) The ultimate goal of the Blueprint for Preservation project was to extend the lifespan of the ruin as far into the future as possible.

The reports from the team members fill two thick volumes, but the report with the most direct implications for Rosewell's future is the Stabilization Plan, written by preservation architect John Mesick and informed by the results of all the other studies. The Stabilization Plan identifies 12 priority areas where Rosewell runs the greatest risk of losing more brickwork. Mesick recommends rebuilding the fireplace openings to prevent further deterioration; repairing cracks along the chimneys by various methods; repairing the arches over existing window and side door openings; replacing the keystones over window openings (potentially using some ofthe original keystones now in storage); and repairing the front steps.

Next Mesick identifies 9 other problems that are typical of the ruin as a whole, and can contribute to its gradual disintegration. Each time scaffolding is set up to work on one of the 12 priority areas, those "typical" issues should be addressed on that side of the building. Many items in that category involve strategies to channel rainwater away from various masonry features. For example, Mesick recommends that the floor of each fireplace be fitted with a sloping cover with an overhanging edge, so that rainwater will not run from one fireplace directly down onto the face of the next.

In the final section of the Plan, Mesick proposes several options for selectively reconstructing segments of wall that would knit the weakened masonry back together. For example, two sections of brickwork on the north wall could be recreated to fill in the gaps between the northeast chimney and the two free-standing brick piers on either side of the front door opening. This selective apparoach stops short of building four complete walls; the integrity of the ruin as a ruin would still be preserved.

The Rosewell Foundation Board of Directors will now look at the options laid out in the Stabilization Plan. Fundraising will begin with applications for preservation grants from private and government sources in the 2009 granting cycle.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN: THE CAP STUDY

When the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and Heritage Preservation awarded a Conservation Assessment Program (CAP) grant to the Rosewell Foundation in 2003, Rosewell joined the more than 2,000 museums that have participated in CAP since the program began in 1990. CAP assists museums by providing federal funds for conservation and preservation consultants to identify the needs of artifact collections and historic buildings, and to recommend ways to improve their conditions.

The CAP grant provided $7,890 toward the $8,500 cost for a general conservation survey of the Rosewell ruin and its archaeological collection. Preservation architect John Mesick of Albany, NY, and collections conservator Nancy Davis of Laurel, MD, surveyed the site in March 2004 and wrote comprehensive reports identifying preservation and conservation priorities. Both consultants had impressive resumes. Mesick had overseen restoration projects at Monticello and at Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, while Davis had conserved archaeological artifacts in private practice, and was then on staff at the National Archives. Structural engineer John Addison of Edinburgh, Scotland, who specialized in the stabilization of ruins in Great Britain, also joined in the site survey as an adjunct member of the team.

RESULTS OF THE CAP STUDY: A NEW PRESERVATION APPROACH

"Selective reconstruction" of the areas surrounding Rosewell's window and door openings was one of the key recommendations made by John Mesick in his 2005 Conservation Assessment Program (CAP) report.

"There is widespread consensus among preservation professionals, that ruins should be left in an intact and untouched state with only consolidation and replacement of surviving fabric," wrote Mesick. While supporting this general principle, Mesick believed that in Rosewell's specific case, building back certain strategic areas "will probably be the most rational and sound means to achieve renewal strength and halt the acceleration of decay."

Addison agreed with Mesick on that point. "The degradation at the [window and door] openings is getting a little worrying with bricks falling out, mortars eroding and cracks climbing the walls above the openings. Reinstating architectural features seems to be the only overall answer here."

Mesick outlined several detailed studies to be completed before any preservation work could be undertaken, including a photogrammetric survey to record the ruin's present condition; an inspection by a team including a structural consultant, masons, and architect; a mortar analysis; and archaeological testing to better understand the condition of the basement (foundation) walls.

"I was surprised when John Mesick first started talking about rebuilding some sections of the walls," said executive director Hilarie Hicks. "But when you look at where the empty spaces are -- like the areas underneath the first-floor window openings -- and you realize how much weight is above those empty spaces, it just makes sense to shore it up. It would be a shame to eventually lose the upper parts of a wall because there wasn't enough to support it from below."

FUNDING THE BLUEPRINT STUDIES

While the information to be gained from the Blueprint for Preservation project was invaluable, the Blueprint studies had a real-world price tag of over $160,000. Two major grants provided significant funding: a legislative grant of $45,000 from the Commonwealth of Virginia, and a challenge grant of $50,000 from the Roller-Bottimore Foundation. The Roller-Bottimore grant was matched with a $10,000 challenge grant from the Putnam Foundation (which in turn was matched with over $10,000 in donations from descendants of Mann Page I); $5,000 from Dominion; $2,000 from the Fred Lee Brown Charitable Foundation; and additional donations from over 150 individuals and businesses. In June 2006, a long-time supporter of Rosewell donated the final $3,460 need to complete the Roller-Bottimore challenge.

Each donation counted, according to Hicks. "We had a number of large donations, but I'd say 80% of the gifts we received were in the $10 to $100 range. If any one of our donors had decided not to give, we would have lost out on the challenge grants offered to us by the Roller-Bottimore and Putnam Foundations."

PHOTOGRAMMETRY: A HIGH-TECH VIEW ON ROSEWELL

If a picture is worth a thousand words, Rosewell’s photogrammetry project was worth several volumes for its description of the present condition of the ruin.

Peter Aaslestad of Frazier Associates (Staunton, VA) conducted the photogrammetry project, a key component of Rosewell’s Blueprint for Preservation. Aaslestad pioneered ways to combine two different but complementary techniques for recording buildings — photography and measured drawings — to produce “hybrid” drawings in CAD (Computer Assisted Drawing) format.

Aaslestad began his work in December 2005 by taking measurements from fixed reference points around the ruin. He spent another day on a 60-foot boom lift taking high resolution photographs of the interior and exterior surfaces of each of Rosewell’s walls. (He returned later to measure and photograph the vaulted cellar.) Aaslestad then used a sophisticated software program to “rectify” the photographs, essentially eliminating the distortions caused by perspective. For example, a 9-inch brick at the top of a wall would not appear to be the same size as a 9-inch brick at the bottom of a wall in an ordinary photograph, because perspective makes the more distant brick look smaller. Once the photograph is rectified, the two bricks are shown to be the same size. This means that a researcher can use the scale of the photo to calculate the height or length of any feature on the ruin. The hybrid photo might be described as a picture of the ruin as it is, rather than as it appears.

The remarkable level of detail on the hybrid drawings provides an important benchmark for monitoring the condition of the ruin and making plans for further stabilization. “We can repeat this process in ten or fifteen years and be able to see very clearly what has changed,” said Hicks. “We’ll be able to see where we’ve made progress in stabilizing and shoring up certain areas, and if we were to lose any bricks from a storm or a falling tree, we’d see that too.”

The hybrid drawings would prove invaluable to the architect, structural engineer, and other experts who would study the ruin in the next phases of Blueprint for Preservation.

FIRST MEETING OF THE PRESERVATION "DREAM TEAM"

"How long would we like Rosewell to survive? Fifty years? Seventy-five years? Five hundred years?"

John Mesick posed this question to a remarkable group of preservation specialists assembled at Rosewell the week of January 22, 2007. Their discussions launched the next phase of technical studies in the Blueprint for Preservation project.

Each of the team members brought a perspective particularly suited to understanding Rosewell's needs. John Mesick had dealt with masonry restoration and stabilization at such significant buildings as Jefferson's Poplar Forest and Monticello, and Madison's Montpelier. Architectural historian Mark Wenger, now with Mesick's firm, also did extensive research on 18th-century buildings in his former position at Colonial Williamsburg. John Addison, a structural engineer from Edinburgh, Scotland, had devised innovative and respectful stabilization approaches for a number of ancient ruins in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including Rosslyn Chapel (of Da Vinci Code fame). Brickmasons Jack Peet and Lawrence "Cheetah" Waller had conducted every major stabilization project at Rosewell since the early 1980s. Archaeologists David Brown and Thane Harpole of DATA Investigations had conducted excavations at Rosewell, Fairfield, and other colonial sites. Historian Camille Wells had documented such structures as Menokin, the ruin of Francis Lightfoot Lee's home.

Lively roundtable discussion took place on Monday afternoon and Thursday morning, while Tuesday and Wednesday offered more quiet time for John Addison to study the ruin in greater depth.

Among the interesting options the group considered was the possible removal of some of the structural steel installed in 1980. "It does tie things together, but it may be corroding, as steel does that," Addison observed.

"If it's not helping, or is counter-productive, let's get rid of it," Wenger responded. He entertained the possibility of fitting wooden beams into the walls, recreating the pattern of flooring joists original to the building.

Coordination of the engineering and archaeology studies was a necessary part of the planning sessions. For the engineering report, Addison needed information about the condition of the foundations and the composition of the cellar rubble, which would be obtained through archaeology. Addison, Brown, and Harpole needed to collaborate to select a test unit location with the greatest potential to yield useful information. Addison pointed out that once the site was selected, but prior to excavation, the nearby chimney stacks should be inspected from a lift so that any loose bricks can be secured, to insure a safe working area for the archaeologists.

The roundtable sessions provided a forum for team members to identify many such areas where they would depend on each other's work. Architect Mesick expressed the need for a compendium of historic photographs of the building; this would be one of the tasks undertaken by historian Wells. Engineer Addison needed information about past masonry stabilization projects, which masons Peet and Waller could provide from their photos, as well as from memory.

All of the Blueprint team members were enthusiastic about the options for Rosewell's preservation, and were excited about the prospect of working together in the coming months. Camille Wells said how much she had enjoyed the meeting, "especially listening to John Addison talk about ruin conservation. How lucky we are to have him -- and John Mesick, Mark Wenger, Jack Peet ... well, just everybody!" The Rosewell Foundation couldn't agree more.

DIGGING UP THE PAST

Not since March 24, 1916, had anyone set foot on the northwest corner of Rosewell's cellar floor. It was early that morning that fire blazed through the interior of what had once been the grandest mansion in colonial Virginia. As the fire gutted the building, the roof collapsed, and the contents of three floors plunged to the cellar. While the owners may have retrieved a few possesions that were within easy reach, the cellar remained otherwise undisturbed, a time capsule of 1916.

On April 9, 2007, the time capsule began to offer up its secrets, as archaeologists from DATA Investigations excavated a 10'x15' unit in the northwest corner of the cellar. As a component of the Blueprint for Preservation study, the excavation was designed to expose the mansion's foundations and to determine what kinds of materials make up the cellar rubble. Not only did the excavation achieve these goals, but it also opened a window onto daily life at Rosewell in its last years.

Before the archaeologists could reach 1916, however, they had to remove three to six feet of brick rubble and post-fire artifacts. A 1978 Gloucester High School class ring, a Pentecostal Sunday school pin, and a number of beer bottles all provided evidence of the ruin's appeal to a wide spectrum of curiosity-seekers.

Below the brick layer was a thin layer of topsoil, and below the topsoil were pieces of Rosewell's metal roof. (The accumulated topsoil shows that a number of years had passed between 1916, when the roof fell in, and the time that the nearby wall section collapsed.) The final layer consisted of ash interspersed with whatever household articles had failed to completely burn. "It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'burnt to the ground" -- that three floors of a house could be reduced to just about a foot of ash," archaeologist Meredith Mahoney reflected. Below the ash layer were the remains of a brick floor.

A large number of the artifacts found in this corner of the cellar were related to cooking, including iron spoons, a cooking fork, a spatula, pots and pans, the raised seal of a glass olive oil bottle, half a tea strainer, and a muffin tin. These artifacts suggest that by the early 1900s, after the kitchen building disappeared, cooking tasks had moved to the northwest room of the mansion's cellar and/or first floor. (Wray Page, Rosewell's neighbor across the creek, said that his father recalled a kitchen in the northwest room of Rosewell's first floor from his visits there.) Also found were parts of two or three cast-iron stoves which could have been used for cooking or heating on different floors.

If the northwest room on the lower floor or floors contained a kitchen, other artifacts found in the cellar must have fallen in from bedrooms or storage rooms on upper floors. These include pieces of a metal bed frame with tiny coils of wire still attached, and a fragment of rose-decorated ceramic which could have been part of a dresser set.

After completing excavations in the northwest corner of the cellar, the archaeologists exposed the corresponding exterior side of the west foundation wall in the fall and winter of 2007-08. A trench was also dug over the top of the vaulted cellar room to evaluate its condition.

The excavations revealed that the foundation wall and the vaulted cellar were in excellent condition below ground level. This was good news to the Blueprint for Preservation team, which could focus on other critical action areas while developing the stabilization plan.

Aside from assessing condition, the project also revealed unexpected information about Rosewell's construction. "The builder's trench for Rosewell, at least in this corner, was massive," explained archaeologist Thane Harpole. "Rather than following the outline of the foundation, it appears that a huge hole was excavated stretching over six feet beyond the wall ... Presumably to simplify the excavation process, and perhaps extract more brick-making clay in the process, the workers dug a huge rectangle, and then laid the walls within this."

Another surprise was a section of brick wall leading away from the building. For decades architectural historians have wondered whether the main Rosewell building was connected to its two flanking outbuildings. It appeared that connecting "hyphens" had at least been planned, since a pattern of missing bricks (called "racking") on the sides of the mansion indicated where the walls of the hyphens would have been connected. But there was still no clear evidence as to whether the hyphens had been built -- until this excavation revealed a new possibility.

A small section of wall was found leading away from the main building. Mortar residue going up the mansion wall shows that this wall stood at least six feet high. Although it doesn't line up with the racking, this wall may represent a simplified "Plan B" -- to connect the mansion to the outbuildings with single curved walls, rather than with functional (and more expensive) walk-through hyphens.

As for the trench over the top of the cellar vault, this excavation revealed patches of the original mortar wash still in place, and also uncovered a collection of objects that had fallen from upper floors as the 1916 fire raged: a golf club, an iron bed frame, a hanging lamp or chandelier, and a cast-iron hat rack. The lamp and hat rack were found not far from their original positions as shown in a pre-1916 photograph of Rosewell's great hall.

Only a small area of the cellar and foundations have been excavated. Future projects will undoubtedly offer more glimpses of the history sealed inside Rosewell's rubble.