APPENDIX D

Theodate Pope, How the Buildings of the Farm Corner, Avon College, were Built, 1923

Before starting this work all trades were advised that inasmuch as the effectiveness of these buildings would depend to a very great extent upon the way the various surfaces were finished, it was most important that the workmen dispense with all mechanical methods and wherever possible, use old tools and processes in carrying out the work. They were instructed to work by rule of thumb and to gauge all verticals by eye; as a natural variation in line and surface was far more desirable in this work than accuracy.

Except in the case of the Water Tower, where care was taken to obtain the proper entasis, all workmen were especially cautioned against using methods or doing anything at all merely to achieve effects of surface and all work done was based on the logical need for same and carried out so that the actual construction was always expressed in the surface.

The foundations for the Forge, Carpenter Shop and Wheelwright Shop are of Field Stone, taken from old walls and fields on the property; and laid in the usual manner.

The foundation of the Water Tower was built of concrete in accordance with the best modern methods. The walls are of stone and brick. The stone being the local red sandstone, procured and roughly split on the site. The brick measures 2" x 9 1/2" x 4" and is dark red in color. Local red sand was used in the pointing mortar and the joints were brushed with a whisk broom. The interior of the Tower is roughly covered with mortar. The outer walls of the Carpenter and Wheelwright Shops are of brick and timber.

The timber frames were erected first and the panels later filled in with a single thickness of brick. This brick was backed up in the Carpenter Shop by split oak saplings, which were in turn rough plastered so that the general surface of the plastering is the same as that of the inside face of the timbers. The walls of the Wheelwright Shop are hollow; the exterior of over-size brick and the interior of local clinker brick, plastered.

The roofs of the Forge, Carpenter Shop and Wheelwright Shop were framed in accordance with methods in use in England during the early sixteenth century. All roofs were framed with principals and raters, without ridge timbers, and all the members pinned together with oak pins. The oak used throughout the entire group was cut in the forests of the school property and axed at the site of the buildings. Over the roof members were laid split oak saplings to receive the actual roof covering. The Forge roof is of rough red slate, laid in cement mortar. Hand-made flat tiles with molded hips and ridges laid in hair mortar make the roofs of the Carpenter and Wheelwright Shops most effective. The under sides of the roofs of all three of these buildings were torched with hair mortar.

The Water Tower is circular in plan, with a masonry core at its center. This core is of reinforced concrete surrounded by a spiral flight of stone steps leading up to the second floor. This floor of hand planed oak planks is pinned to the supporting timbers with handmade oak pins.

The brick panels of the exterior of the Carpenter Shop were water proofed by the hot paraffine method. The joints between the oak timbers and the brick walls were caulked with oakum after the surfaces of the sides of the caulked space had been protected by a heavy coat of paraffine. After caulking, the joints were pointed up with cement mortar. Exterior joints between timbers were also carefully caulked.

The framing of the Wheelwright Shop follows the old cruck construction very closely, the roof principals extending from the ground to the ridge. Each one is cut from a large curved tree and these members are set with the convex side out. The eaves of the roof are carried by the side walls of the shop, and the rafters rest on a plate on the side walls and the purlins carried by the crucks.

The window sash used in the group are of white oak, hand-made and glazed with convex glass. This glass is set in bee's wax which provides a level bed for the glass stops to rest against, thus preventing a strain on the curved edge of the glass. The doors of hand dressed planks are pinned and mortised together; and the hardware was made by the blacksmith on the site.

December 7, 1923.

Avon Old Farms School Archives