Thompson House Renovation Nearly Complete

Thompson House Music Building

‘They definitely don’t make them like this today.’

The Thompson House Music Building received a complete exterior makeover this summer as well as some interior updates.

The work on the 101-year-old Tudor Revival style building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, began June 6 and should be completed mid-August.

“The purpose of the project was to restore the exterior deterioration through repairs, preserve the history of the building, extend the future life and use of the building and help improve energy efficiency and comfort,” says Steve Strang, senior project manager, Office of the Provost.

Strang says the most challenging part of the job was doing the work without interfering with the other activities happening on campus this summer, such as Opera Theater picnics and the Jazz Camp.

Steps to completing the renovation included: tuck pointing brick walls; sanding layers of paint; patching and painting walls; repairing and replacing wood trim and carved decorations; replacing damaged roof tiles; installing a new copper porch roof; adding insulation in the walls and attic and more.

Strang says one of the goals was to make the building more energy efficient and help maintain the temperature and humidity for the new Steinway pianos and other musical instruments. Interior storm windows were used to preserve the historic look of the building.

“My office is noticeably cooler, even in this heat, thanks to the new storm windows,” says Music chair Jeffrey Carter. Check out several posts at Carter’s blog www.musicchair.wordpress.com to see a “summer full of photos and updates.”

Strang points to one of the restored architectural details – the rake (sloping edge of the steep roof) of the largest south facing gable decorated with hand-cut wood overlay, known as a barge board, in such bad shape it had to be removed.

“We were able to restore the barge board with a new overlay cut by today’s method – a computerized controlled laser,” says Strang. “The results are the same, but the methods have definitely changed. We also restored the original hand-forged iron lamp that sat on top of the entrance gate pillar along Big Bend, which had been in storage a long time.

“They definitely don’t make them like this today.”