Reconstruct: Historic Building Documentation Expedition
Our Historic Buildings Documentation Program was such a success in March, we are embarking on a second program in November!
In 1901 the duPont family of Delaware bought Montpelier, expanded the main house, and erected dozens of buildings across the property. These included multiple types of barns, other agricultural and horticultural buildings and workspaces, kennels, and —crucially —housing for the local African-American workers they hired for the skilled labor and knowledge necessary to make their vision of the property a reality.
In 1901 the duPont family of Delaware bought Montpelier, expanded the main house, and erected dozens of buildings across the property. These included multiple types of barns, other agricultural and horticultural buildings and workspaces, kennels, and —crucially —housing for the local African-American workers they hired for the skilled labor and knowledge necessary to make their vision of the property a reality.
Montpelier is slowly losing most of these historic buildings, nearly all built before 1908, to neglect. In total there are over 120 structures across the property, with only 27 monitored on a regular basis. Prior to further deterioration of these structures, the Montpelier Foundation will be conducting an intensive photographic campaign to allow for the recording of existing conditions, and to develop a photographic catalog that can be used for photogrammetry.
Participants in this one-week program will be trained to architecturally examine important examples of duPont tenant housing, and to record existing conditions. All interiors will be photographed, details recorded, floorplans created, rooms numbered, and threats to buildings assessed, along with recommendations for stabilization. All of this information will be compiled into albums digitally tagged for association with detailed 3D digital models of these structures for Montpelier’s ongoing GIS projects. The week will include specialized lectures and tours relating to historic architecture, including the Montpelier main house and the Gilmore Cabin, a 19th century freedman’s cabin. Participants will use equipment including drones and DSLR cameras, with the program ending with a reconstruction of the structure they documented.