O'Malley Gives a Sneak Peek into the Old Senate Chamber

On a press tour this Friday, Governor Martin O’Malley gave the media their first look at the Old Senate Chamber since the room’s doors were closed to the public nearly two years ago as part of the restoration.

Governor Martin O'Malley talks to the press about the restoration of the Old Senate Chamber. Image taken 16 January 2015.

“This room has to be the most significant...in this State House,” the governor, whose term will end next week, told reporters, “How do you walk into this room without thinking of those men and women who made this country...at such a pivotal time?”

Get a Sneak Peek of Washington Resigning!

At this point in the Old Senate Chamber restoration project, many of the state’s paintings that will be on display as part of the Old Senate Chamber exhibit are now in the midst of conservation. Recently, MSA staff were able to visit conservators working on the canvas of Edwin White’s Washington Resigning His Commission, which was removed last November from the grand staircase of the State House to undergo its first major conservation since 1981. During the visit, we were able to capture some of the cleaning on camera to give blog readers a special look at what it takes to clean a masterpiece.

Washington Resigning's canvas is currently under conservation at Artex Fine Art Services. To understand the scope of the surface cleaning process, take note that the videos included for this week's blog post all focus on a small part of the table cloth near the attendees. Maryland State Archives, 24 July 2014.

"All Eyes Being Fixed on Washington:" Washington Resigning Leaves the State House

This past Monday, a team of conservators and professional art handlers from Artex Fine Art Services worked with the Department of General Services and the Maryland State Archives to remove Edwin White's Washington Resigning His Commission from the State House. The painting, part of the state-owned art collection managed by the Maryland Commission on Artistic Property and completed in 1859, will undergo major conservation over the course of the next year, and will return to the State House in conjunction with the completion of the restoration of the Old Senate Chamber. This masterpiece has hung above the grand staircase of the Maryland State House since 1904, when it had been moved from its original home in the Old Senate Chamber.

Artex staff works to remove Washington Resigning from its place on the grand staircase. Maryland State Archives, 4 November 2013.

An army of art handlers from Artex worked carefully for several hours to first remove the painting from the wall and lower it to the floor. The canvas was then removed from the frame, and the disassembled frame was carried piece by piece downstairs where it was wrapped for safe transport. The canvas, meanwhile, was secured in cardboard and plastic, and carried out of the State House through a window in the original part of the State House. A specialty contractor removed the window to accommodate the painting; they reinstalled it immediately after the painting was out of the building. Once outside, the canvas and the frame components were loaded into a truck for transportation to the conservators’ studios.

Union Card Found in OSC Chimney Breast

On October 4, 2013, the construction workers made an exciting discovery in the chimney of the Old Senate Chamber. Lodged between the bricks was an old piece of paper that turned out to be a union card from the Bricklayer's Union of Maryland #5 dated April 1904. On the back of the card was a handwritten note that said, "Built by C. H. Obery Jr., Jos. Holland, July 29, 1906."

This card is almost certainly a remnant of the 1905 renovations of the State House under architects Baldwin and Pennington, which notably included the addition of the New Annex. The State House Building Commission also worked on the restoration of the Old Senate Chamber. Among the extensive renovations to take place in the chamber in 1905, the fireplace, which had been torn out in 1858, was rebuilt.

Workers uncovered a piece of paper in the chimney breast of the Old Senate Chamber, 4 October 2013.

Vicki Lee, Senior Conservator of the Maryland State Archives, inspects the union card in the chimney breast, 4 October 2013.

Recent Press

Below is the most recent video from MPT's State Circle, which documented the deconstruction of the gallery in the Old Senate Chamber. Many of the pieces of the 1905 gallery have been salvaged and cataloged and both of the original 18th century columns will be reused in restoration. A big thanks goes out to Lou Davis and MPT for continuing to document the progress of the project. You can view their first video here.

The full episode of State Circle will air January 11th at 7:30pm on
Maryland Public Television.

Progress Uptdate: Measuring the OSC

 From left: Project architects, Mark Wenger and John Mesick, and
Sasha Lourie, Curator, Maryland Commission on Artistic Property

Last week, architects John Mesick, Mark Wenger, and their team from Mesick, Cohen, Wilson, Baker, LLP were in the Old Senate Chamber documenting and measuring the space in preparation for the demolition and design phases of this project.  During their week-long stay, the architects also visited historic Annapolis houses in order to have a better understanding of the local architectural vocabulary and to identify the relationship between the architects and craftsmen documented to have been working in the city during the construction of the State House.

Below: Members of Mesick, Cohen, Wilson, Baker, LLP team
drafting and measuring the space.

Old Senate Chamber Architectural Advisory Committee

Yesterday, September 13th, was the second meeting of the Old Senate Chamber Architectural Advisory Committee held in the Chamber. The basis for this meeting was an introduction to John Mesick and Mark Wenger, from the firm Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects, who have been been selected as the lead architects for the upcoming restoration. Offering a fresh perspective and new insight into this historic space, coupled with years of experience working with comparable buildings, we are thrilled to have the Mesick and Wenger team on board and are looking forward to working with them. 

From left: Marcia Miller, Md. Historical Trust; Mark Wenger, Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects; John Larson, Vice President for Restoration Old Salem, Inc.; Peter Pearre, Trostel & Pearre, Architects. 

Investigation Update: Photogrammetric survey of the OSC

Yesterday, Peter Aaslestad of Aaslestad Preservation Consulting LLC visited the Old Senate Chamber to survey the space using architectural photogrammetry, the practice of obtaining information about physical objects through the process of recording, measuring, and interpreting photographic images. 

Peter Aaslestad performing photogrammetry in the OSC, August 2012.