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LEE COUNTY LOCAL/FAMILY HISTORY DEPT. * DONNELLSON PUBLIC LIBRARY * 500 PARK AVE. * DONNELLSON, IA * 52625 |
Lee County Schools _ Dover Restoration
Historical
Restoration
May 2009
As of 7 May 2008, the restoration project on the Dover schoolhouse has come to life. Last year the Iowa State Historical Society of Iowa awarded Kevin and Cindy Frueh a $5,000 matching grant to begin the first phase of renovation The Iowa weather has finally cooperated and our local Lee County stonemason, Mike Jarvis, has started the process of repairing the crack in the northwest wall.
Mike said that the old school has stood firm for all its 100 plus years. It has not been warped by settling, and all the angles in the building are still true, indicating that considerable care went into its construction. The walls were of two layers of limestone block, fitted and mortared into place. Mike said the two layers allowed the walls to adjust to having considerable cold on the outside while the inside was heated. Although a few of the blocks, especially at the base, are so large he has had difficulty moving them, most are easily moved by one man. At this time, he has had to remove the entire northwest corner of the building, foundation to roof, and re-mortar all of it. All large stones have been numbered and will be placed back in their original order. The smaller stones will be inserted to fill in spaces and smaller cracks will be repaired later. Mike expects to be done by 16 May if Iowa weather cooperates.
Two segments of the blackboard which ran the length of the north wall were carefully removed to work on the inside repairs. It was discovered that the blackboard, mounted on a wooden frame, was not actually attached to the stones but nailed and secured into wooden pegs inserted in the mortar between the stones. The name of Mr. Ben Neff, La Crew, IA was written on the back of both segments. If anyone has information on Mr. Neff and his family, the department would like to have it on file for reference purposes.
Since the appearance of the building is constantly changing, progress reports will be placed in upcoming issues and pictures will be available in the Genealogy Department and eventually on the library web site. ~ Written and submitted by Aaron and Diane Kruse
June 2009
The large crack in the
northwest corner wall of the Dover schoolhouse has been completed. Although
the rest of the project will take years to complete, the walls and the other
three corners are the primary concerns.
Because the walls were continuously exposed to the elements over more than 100 years, restoration is necessary to help maintain the integrity of the walls. Because concrete, which was harder than the stone used to build the school, was used to patch many areas probably in the 1940s, Mike will have to grind and remove mortar to at least one-half inch and replace it with mortar that’s softer than the material he is working with, in this case limestone.
Tuckpointing is the term most often used to describe the process of cutting out deteriorated mortar joints in masonry walls to a uniform depth and filling in those joints with fresh mortar.
Smaller projects may be on the list for completion during the ongoing tuck pointing project and will be reported on when work is started and completed.
A photo journal of this on-going project is in the process of being assembled in the Genealogy Department of the Donnellson Library.
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