Recent restoration of Tallman House making Janesville’s jewel shine again
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Jeff Lynch with SRS Roofing & Sheetmetal of Waterford, carries a steel roofing piece while installing a steel roof on the Lincoln-Tallman House.
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John Stroinski with SRS Roofing & Sheetmetal of Waterford, installs steel roofing on the back of the Lincoln-Tallman House.
JANESVILLE — Restoring a historic structure such as the Tallman House isn’t like fixing up a three-bedroom ranch.
You can’t buy many of the parts at the hardware store, and you can’t hire just anyone to make the repairs.
“Knowing whom to work with is an extra element involved with historic preservation,” said Gary Gilbank of Gilbank Construction, Clinton.
Gilbank has enlisted a group with special skills for restoration work under way at the Tallman House.
Work is projected to cost about $750,000. The city of Janesville is paying all but $81,000, which is being covered by the Rock County Historical Society. Work started in June and should be done this month, said Joel Van Haaften, Rock County Historical Society executive director.
The project involves redoing everything above the brick walls, including the roof, frieze, soffits, gutters, cupola and chimneys.
The city of Janesville owns the house that the historical society operates it as a museum.
“There are sizable repairs needed to the Tallman House, most of which has been neglected over the years because restoration costs are very expensive,’’ Van Haaften said.
Janesville restoration specialist Ron Sutterlin, Milwaukee architect Kevin Donahue, and iron sculptor and UW-Whitewater graduate Carol Herzig of Janesville shared insight about their restoration work.
Ron Sutterlin
Sutterlin said the coolest aspect for him was replicating the finial on top of the cupola. He used old growth timber—400-year-old wood he had salvaged from other projects through the years—to create a replica that is within one-quarter inch of the original.
Sutterlin enlisted:
-- Janesville native Jim Ramsdell to carve architectural leaves from duck decoy white wood to encircle the mid-section of the finial.
-- Janesville resident Don Hess to turn the spire and other “curvy stuff” at the base of the spire.
-- Ralph McNeil, Janesville, to hammer and solder a lead sheet around the cone-shaped midsection of the finial.
Sutterlin removed and restored 35 wooden brackets—each with six appliquéd cast metal ornamental designs—while Gilbank carpenters rebuilt three of the brackets with whatever original wood they could use.
“It was fun to create a nice, clean crisp look because over the years paint had built up on them,” he said.
Even after 30 years of restoration experience, Sutterlin marvels at the craftsmanship of the Tallman House.
“We have something very unique here. This is a time capsule and probably one of the finest examples in the entire Midwest of this Italianate style,” he said.
Kevin Donahue
Donahue said the masonry of the five-story Italian villa-style mansion is superb, showing quality and aesthetic perfection beyond the manufacturing processes of the time.
“Someone knew what they were doing when they built this, and it’s very unusual for the Midwest to have all these different factors—gauged bricks, tuck-pointing and colored mortar—together,” Donahue said.
Donahue was fascinated by what he found on a 2-by-3-foot piece of the house’s 156-year-old tin-coated iron roof that has been repaired through the years but never replaced until now.
“When you flip it over and look at the underside, you’d swear it was made yesterday,” he said.
That’s because builders at the time understood how the material worked and built a roof system that allowed the roof to dry and breathe on the top and bottom, Donahue said.
The new roof is made of finished steel with the appearance of the original roof and it’s barn red color, he said.
Carol Herzig
Herzig volunteered 50 hours to make sand molds of iron flourishes from the home’s windows and brackets so new ones could be cast at Baker Manufacturing in Evansville.
“Getting back in the sculpture lab was a lot of fun, but I’m scraped, scratched and bruised,” she said.
Each half of the largest mold contained 150 pounds of sand and resin.
“When you put the molds together, they weigh 300 pounds,” Herzig said.
Jenny Weishar, a sculpture major at UW-Whitewater, helped Herzig lift and mix 100-pound bags of sand.
Herzig duplicated three original pieces—a tulip shape, a pineapple and long string of leaves. A piece from the pineapple was broken, so she had to repair it before she could make its mold.
“When you spend that many hours making the molds and have them poured, when you unmold them—if everything has taken and poured properly—it’s like childbirth,” she said.
“Even though the process is the same for each mold, sometimes there’s just something that doesn’t work,” Herzig said. “But when it all works, it’s incredible.”
Van Haaften said the Tallman House is one of the most important historic sites in Janesville.
“We are trying to make it shine again,’’ he said.
Nov 29, 2011 at 6:14 a.m.
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TJRockcounty
Have you done anything yet your ego problem?
Have you done anything yet about your "drama Queen" problem?
Have you contributed mine or anyone elses share to the Restoration fund?
LOL. I thought not.
Nov 21, 2011 at 7:18 p.m.
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Oldvet: Sticks and Stones my friend, Sticks and Stones...
Nov 21, 2011 at 6:20 p.m.
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Better fixing this than a tunnel for people who cannot look both ways and cross when it is SAFE to cross.
It is a gem and wouldn't be in as much disrepair if was properly taken care of long ago!
You cannot let things in an old home just sit there if they need to be fixed. The problems multiply along with the costs of fixing more than just the original problem.
For those who haven't been there- GO ALREADY!
It is very neat and maybe you may even LEARN somegthing!
Nov 21, 2011 at 3:57 p.m.
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And they also said this city would be a ghost town after G.M. left, I just dont see it. If you have a problem with it move to another town and spend youre tax dollars on something else to whine about.
Nov 21, 2011 at 12:05 p.m.
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It is sad to see all of the comments here supporting the 750,000 dollars to the Tallman House. If it needs maintnance then by all means do that but 750,000 and 300,000 of that on a roof? This is as good as the Ice rink. News flash there are a lot of things on the chopping block and if the Janesville city council did approve that as part of the 2011 budget great. They could not afford it then and certainly not now. The truth is that the council could have brought that project back up for a postponement. Janesville will become a ghost town with its mismanagement. Talking about layoffs of teachers and etc. yet there are still some supporting the Tallman House? Yeah that house is worth more than a police officer or teacher. This town will never change. I am glad to be gone. As if Walker wasn't bad enough.
Nov 21, 2011 at 5:44 a.m.
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rexkramer, the wheel tax applies to the 2012 budget, not the 2011 budget under which these repairs are paid, and I believe the contracts predate any knowledge by the city of a loss of shared revenue in the Scott Walker state budget. Among other limitations on their powers, the city council lacks a time machine to change past budgets to suit current revenue pressures.
Nov 21, 2011 at 5:39 a.m.
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"< I > was born and raised in Janesville, it is < my > history and < my > heritage. The Tallman House is a landmark in < my > life from < my > childhood through today. < I > want the city to preserve this historic site because so many others have been lost through the years. The historic sites and the documented information about them help < me > to understand where < I > came from, who <I > am and what < my > purpose is. < I > am a humble, middle class, Janesville citizen but< I> feel richer having enjoyed the tour of that magnificent home. Yes, it cost me a few of my tax dollars to maintain, money well spent when < I > consider the wealth of knowledge < I > and others have gained from learning our past."
How very overly dramatic, How very touching
but < I > think she/he has an < I > problem and < I > think she needs to consider what others want, need and can afford.
Nov 21, 2011 at 4:08 a.m.
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Maybe he/she should have stated that then rex. Is Anti for or against the repairs? No one can tell from his/her post. Maybe he/she learned to copy and paste and was just practicing. Your first two words make my point for me. "My guess...."
Nov 20, 2011 at 11:21 p.m.
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@rex ..... Go enjoy some other citys heritage then. WE DONT NEED SOUR PUSSES LIKE YOU , or any other neysayer for that matter. I agree wholeheartedly with TJRockCounty. And to Janesvillean, some of these people can never be educated, there to bullheaded.
Nov 20, 2011 at 10:45 p.m.
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"Yup. Says that in the article. Your point?"
>
My guess would be that the point is that for a city that can't seem to find enough ways to fee and tax it's residents in the name of being broke (see wheel tax) we sure seem to have money when it takes $670K to fix a delapetated "landmark". It's called priorities folks, if you're going to start charging me for the privilege of having a licensed vehicle parked on my own property because we can't afford to maintain the roads, which is what my taxes should be used for, then I probably shouldn't be reading about that same city whizzing nearly $700,000 down the drain so that a few people can embrace the city's heritage.
Nov 20, 2011 at 6:41 p.m.
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Pat114, I was born and raised in Janesville, it is my history and my heritage. The Tallman House is a landmark in my life from my childhood through today. I want the city to preserve this historic site because so many others have been lost through the years. The historic sites and the documented information about them help me to understand where I came from, who I am and what my purpose is. I am a humble, middle class, Janesville citizen but I feel richer having enjoyed the tour of that magnificent home. Yes, it cost me a few of my tax dollars to maintain, money well spent when I consider the wealth of knowledge I and others have gained from learning our past.
Nov 20, 2011 at 5:02 p.m.
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Glad to see this treasure is being preserved properly. It would be a crime to do it any other way.
Nov 20, 2011 at 12:09 p.m.
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Glad to see that an important part of Janesville's past is being taken care of.
Nov 20, 2011 at 11:29 a.m.
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Pat114, I'm sorry you weren't paying attention a couple of years ago when the city had engineering and rehabilitation experts review the entire structure and determine what needed to be done before it reached an unrepairable state. The roof was many years past its lifetime and now will be expected to need only basic maintenance for many years to come. With an historic landmark, you can't just get what's on sale at Menard's. You need to match materials and preserve the historic integrity of the structure. That then means that your contractor must be of the highest quality and experienced in this unusual material. Yes, this is more expensive than it would be for a normal residence even of the same size, but then Tallman House is larger than almost any home that would be built today.
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As to the cupola, Sutterlin Restorations put in many months of work restoring the original materials on the finial, only to see that work literally dashed to pieces by a storm. This time, they needed to actually fabricate replicas. Here is a video from JATV that showed the work done the first time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v3SVSQZ5...
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This is the post-storm condition of what that video shows:
http://gazettextra.com/photos/2011/jun/1...
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The taxpayers are footing the bill because the house was given to the city by the Tallman family with the stipulation that it be run as a museum. We own it. The RCHS only operates it, essentially as a contractor.
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While the tourist income from the Tallman House continues to be limited, it would fall even further if we were to let this jewel fall apart from neglect.
Nov 20, 2011 at 11:04 a.m.
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You never know, fixing up the Tallman House (spending $669,000 of taxpayer's money) may just be what Janesville needs to attract new industry and maybe even lure GM back to Janesville! Yeah I doubt it to, but I said you never know.... Pat114, you must live on a relatively large block for it to cost $300K, that or it's an expensive roofing company you would use, just like the city of Janesville did.
Nov 20, 2011 at 9:32 a.m.
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How can you sell something that is not even a reality at this time. Skate park has been shot down for 9 yrs and will continue to be on the very bottom of projects Janesville want to fund. So don't give me the story of selling the skate park. People like you have already sent the park down the tube. There is nothing left to sell.
Nov 20, 2011 at 7:57 a.m.
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Good for Janesville to operate yet another unprofitable business. 750K for repairs this year? How much of that was to rehire the same contractor who screwed up the cupola last time he tried to rebuild it? And 300K for just the roof? 300K could hire a company to roof every house on my block.
I like old homes as much as anybody in Janesville, but why the heck are the taxpayers footing 90% of the bill? And why do we have the same people making the business decisions that have a proven track record of knowing very little about running a business? Are they the same people that want the city to buy foreclosures and use their business knowledge to try and turn a profit while putting more of our tax dollars at risk?
Here's an idea... Let's sell the Tallman House, the Ice Arena, Dawson's field, future skate park, and any other business projects that have caused my tax bill to go up 120% over the last 8 years.
Nov 19, 2011 at 5:33 p.m.
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Yup. Says that in the article. Your point?
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