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The Huron Expositor, 1975-02-13, Page 13• . • • Photo story by Susan White llt SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1975 — SECOND SECTION• PAGES 1—'8A Work crew restores Van. Egmond house to 8 There is a hum of activity coming from the Van Egmond House lately as a group of workmen do some' basic restoration to the house under a Local Initiatives Program grant that was awarded this,year to the Van Egmond Foundation. The whole house has been jacked up about two inches in one corner and six new vertical supporting posts have been •,, installed in the basement. Eight or nine floor joists have been replaced. Plaster has been removed and completely•replaced in, som , downstairs room and repaired in others. The three fireplace in the main part of the house are being brought back to their original condition. An archway between the living room and the kitchen of the house which was made sometime long after the house's original construction has been filled in and will be plastered over. New wiring that will allow for discreet lighting over the doors -in the , downstairs rooms has been added and a provision has been made for extending the wiring to the second floor. No switches will be in the rooms to spoil the period atmosphere and electrical outlets 'on the ground floor will be under a removable panel in the floor. • In other words, work is well advanced on the first phase of the Foundation's plan to restore the Itouse.At a Van Egmond Foundation general _meeting on Friday night memberi picked 1867 as theterroinal date for the restoration job. This means that when the house is completed everything in it will be pre-1867. The Foundation felt that the date would focus on the period when Egmondville was at its most thriving, before decline set in when the railroad went through Seaforth. The workmen at the house hope to replace missing woodwork in the main part of the house. Samples of woodwork from the house are being examined at the Royal Ontario Museum so that the Foundation can determine wha t type of finish would have been on the wood in a pre-1867 house. The Foundation's Int erior Committee has started cataloguing all the old furniture and artifacts which have been donated or purchased and is going to determine exactly what furnishings the house 'needs and seek further donations. An attempt is being made. to trace original furniture from the house which belonged to the Van Egmond family when they lived there before 1867. Foundation workmen Walter Armes,Gerald Martene and . Peter Mitchell toured three historic sites in Toronto last week in an attempt to sec how they ' " handled the challenges of restoration. Peter Mitchell said that the trip was valuable and that he was most impressed with the care that had been taken in restoring and conserving the artifacts in the three sites, Colbourne Lodge. Gibson House and Old Fort York. The first two houses have storerooms of donated furniture and period articles so that the things on di4ilay can be changed periodically, Mr. Mitchell said. At the general meeting a program_ committee was formed to organize the craft programs which the foundation hopes to run at the house when restoration is nearer completion,o,Members of the Committee are •Mr. Mitchell, Lloyd 1Hoggarth, DorothSr Williams, Gladys VanEgmond, Rodger Whitman,Robert Newnham and David Ring. Foundation treasurer D. Ring reported receipts of $2,728.45 and expenses of $1782.56, and a bank balance of $1883.06. The Foundation's total capital at the end of January amounted, to $8415.89, Museums' Advisor Dorothy Duncan, from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities in Toronto has written- the group that she is amazed with the speed of progress at the house and at the proper attention to restoration procedure shown b , the Foundation workiffen. The LIP grant can be extended to cover a maximum of 25 weeks of work, since the Foundation has not'employed its full allowance of workers at the house at any one time and spokesmen expect work to continue well into the Spring. The interior walls of the house are constructed of brick, workmen learned as they peeled off plaster at the house. The Foundation will leave a section of this brick work and a section of the split lath on both sides of ' the basement stairwell, that the original plaster was applied to, exposed so that it can be studied by future generations. NEW BASEMENT JOISTS — Robert Newnham, left, chairmdn of the Van Egmond Foundation, looks-over some of the basic restoration work done in the basement of the 128 year old house with Peter MitChell, one of ,the workmen on the LIP financed restoration job. Six support posts like the one behind Mr. Newnham's arm have, been put in to correct a sag in the first floor. - (Staff Photo) PLASTERING THE FRONT HALL — Gerald martene, one of the craftsmen who is working at the restortation of the Van Egmond House applies the first coat of new plaster to an area around the front door. Wire lath was applied to the house's brick interior walls. (Staff Photo) ARCH CLOSED IN — Peter Mitchell, who is working on the Van Egmond House restoration , holds a scale to an archway between the kitchen an living room of the house which has been closed in by workmen. The arch was con tructed much later than 1867, the date to which the Foundation has decided to rest re the house, once the home of Important Tifickersmith citizen, Constant Van Eg nd. (Staff Photo) SPLIT LATH UNCOVERED — Ervin Ward, employed at the Van Egmond house under the LIP grant watches as plasterer Gerald Martene applies new plaster to the area around the front hall stairs at the house. The split lath applied to the wall at right ikir interesting pattern was cut from one piece of wood and hold the original plaster when the house was plastered sometime in the early 1850'S. A secion of split lath and of. interior brick wail construction will be left exrsosed after the restoration. Is completed so that the public can study early construction methods. (Staff Photo) 41.