The author’s company, Building Heritage, was tasked with documenting, carefully dismantling, and storing the historic farmhouse for a later restoration on a new site. The restored General Stannard House is to serve as a key location on the newly-formed “Vermont in the Civil War Heritage Trail”. Here, author Eliot Lothrop (right) talks with project volunteer, Alex Fenton, (left) on site. Dan Lee of Building Heritage begins removing the home’s wide board sheathing from a personnel lift.
Last summer,I joined a team of local design professionals and volunteers tasked with salvaging and relocating a historic home in Milton, Vt. The small, unassuming farmhouse (built circa 1840) was once owned by Civil War hero and Vermont native George Jerrison Stannard.
Stannard, a general in the Union army, is renowned for helping to blunt Pickett’s Charge at the battle of Gettysburg. On July 3, 1863, he ordered a series of pivot maneuvers and provided withering flanking fire to repulse the Confederate assault. According to his biographer, George Maharay, “If Gettysburg provides the climax of the war, then the climax of the climax, the central moment of our history, must be Pickett’s Charge. Had Pickett’s Charge succeeded and the war ended, North and South might have become two nations. That didn’t happen and the Union was preserved.”
Later in the war, Stannard was wounded and had his right arm amputated. He resigned from the Army in 1866 and purchased the Milton farmhouse. Stannard later moved to Washington, D.C., where he became the Doorkeeper of the United States House of Representatives; a position he held until his death on June 6, 1886.
Left, public domain; Right top and Bottom, courtesy Milton Historical Society
Stannard, shown here (photo, left), is renowned for helping thwart Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Later in the war, he was wounded and lost his right arm in the Battle of Fort Harrison on September 30, 1864. Stannard’s home circa 1880s (photo, above right) and the late 1980s (photo, below right). The home sat vacant since 1988, its barn burned in a fire department training exercise the same year.
Despite years of neglect, much of the home was worth preserving. Starting last April, we began the process of salvaging as much of the original house as possible, which was tricky given that it had been heavily remodeled twice, once in the 1890s and again in the 1930s.
Tim Healey
Although the roof was covered by four layers of asphalt shingles, two tarps and two layers of underlayment paper, it still leaked, causing the bulk of the damage to the home’s structure. Here, the roof sheathing and shingles are removed in small sections from the lift.
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Photos by Tim Healey
Using a letter and number stamp set by C.H. Hanson Co (photo, le…
Using a letter and number stamp set by C.H. Hanson Co (photo, left), 2-inch diameter tin cap discs are hand-embossed with the steel stamps to organize major components of the home prior to dismantling it (photo, right).
Tim Healey
The home’s roof sheathing and shingles are removed in small se…
The home’s roof sheathing and shingles are removed in small sections from the lift (photo, left), then each rafter is tagged with its enumerated tin disc (photo, right).
Photo by Eliot Lothrop
The north gable-end wall assembly was removed in one piece (phot…
The north gable-end wall assembly was removed in one piece (photo, above) and later disassembled on the ground, its components were individually tagged and documented.
Tim Healey
With the west wall’s wide board sheathing removed, the home’…
With the west wall’s wide board sheathing removed, the home’s 4×4 studs and 4×8 posts were tagged (photo, left) and later removed. Here (photo, right), the tag denotes “stud B-4”, which serves as a king stud for the door opening on the home’s west wall — see documentation drawing on slide 10.
Tim Healey
Volunteers played a major role leading up to dismantling the hom…
Volunteers played a major role leading up to dismantling the home for future restoration; they removed interior plaster and lath, debris, and demoed an attached garage built in the 1950s, which had no historic value. Here (photo, left), volunteer Alex Fenton cleans up and stacks salvaged bricks on pallets, while Jeff Towne removes clapboard siding (photo, right). The existing clapboard was not original and was most likely installed during the home’s last major renovation in the 1930s; it was not salvaged.
Tim Healey and Eliot Lothrop
A few of the home’s larger components were saved as assemblies…
A few of the home’s larger components were saved as assemblies. Here, the author (left) and Dan Lee (right) begin to remove the home’s front door (photo, left). They determined it was original to the home and chose to remove the door and framing in one piece (photo, right).
Tim Healey
Smaller framing members, such as diagonal bracing (photo, left),…
Smaller framing members, such as diagonal bracing (photo, left), are either tagged or marked with a permanent marker, as shown here (photo, right).
Tim Healey
A rough-terrain forklift with a telescoping jib boom attachment …
A rough-terrain forklift with a telescoping jib boom attachment helps remove larger timbers (photo, left). Here (photo, right), the author guides a top plate timber on to saw horses, ready to trucked to storage at a later date.
Tim Healey
Salvaged material from the home was stored in a barn located nea…
Salvaged material from the home was stored in a barn located near the new reconstruction site (closer to the town center, away from busy industrial road the home’s original lot was situated on). Here (photo, left), the home’s front door assembly is set in the barn, while larger timbers are stored with the help of a beam roller (photo, right). To thwart future carpenter ant and powder post beetle infestations (they encountered both insects taking the building down), the components were sprayed with Bora-Care (an insecticide and fungicide solution) and granular borate bait by Niban was distributed on the barn’s floor.
Eliot Lothrop
The author documented the home’s existing structure on a set o…
The author documented the home’s existing structure on a set of plans, noting the condition and location of the salvaged material. Also, noted were the structural members too deteriorated to save (drawing, above).
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Photo by Tim Healey
The front entry door’s original fan light was discovered burie…
The front entry door’s original fan light was discovered buried under later-applied casing (photos, left and right). Also, on the left-hand side, ghost lines of original bed molding trim were visible.
Photos by Eliot Lothrop and Tim Healey
The home’s hand-hewn-and-planed internal gutter/crown molding …
The home’s hand-hewn-and-planed internal gutter/crown molding attached to the top plate timber framing (photo, left) was salvaged (photo, right — shown stored on its side).
Tim Healey
Some of the home’s original full-board clapboards — used as …
Some of the home’s original full-board clapboards — used as infill sheathing material — were discovered (photo, left). Rather than having a tapered cut, the clapboards were “fitted” with a bevel taken out of the top third of the clapboard (photo, right).
Tim Healey
Larger, full timbers were hand-hewn spruce, while studs and othe…
Larger, full timbers were hand-hewn spruce, while studs and other smaller members were sawn — also milled from spruce (photo, above).
Tim Healey
Because the frame was so exposed to the elements, both carpenter…
Because the frame was so exposed to the elements, both carpenter ants and powder post beetles were present on site. Here (photos, left and right), a plume of powdery sawdust wafts into the air while pulling out a hardwood peg (powder post beetles prefer to bore into the hardwood pegs, which were typically made from ash or beech). To thwart future carpenter ant and powder post beetle infestations at the storage barn, all the components were sprayed with Bora-Care (an insecticide and fungicide solution) and granular borate bait by Niban was distributed on the barn’s floor.
Eliot Lothrop
A complex double-tenon cut on the top-plate beams was made to ti…
A complex double-tenon cut on the top-plate beams was made to tie into the L-shaped corner posts — a 4×4 joined to a 4×8 (photo, left). A “daisy wheel” pattern was etched into one of top-plate beams (photos, middle and right). Proportionally, gable ends of early buildings would often fit into this pattern. Also, builders would draw this onto the timber to calibrate their dividers to it on a daily basis. For more information on daisy wheel patterns, click here.
Tim Healey
The existing foundation (photo, above) is to be backfilled with …
The existing foundation (photo, above) is to be backfilled with its top, above-grade portion to be left as a "pocket park". At a later date, a roadside historic marker will be installed honoring General Stannard and noting the home's original location.
We tagged all the timber framing with coded hand-stamped tin discs, nailing them to beams, posts, studs, and rafters (we later documented their locations on a set of drawings). Then, with the help of a telehandler and personnel lift, we started dismantling the building.
The home’s wide board sheathing was salvageable. The doors and windows, though not all original, were also saved (in general, we could tell what was circa 1900 and newer, but it was difficult to tell what items, such as interior moldings, etc., dated to Stannard’s time). In the end, we salvaged about half of the home’s original structural frame.
The salvaged pieces have been stored and are waiting to be incorporated into the home’s restoration on a new site. The ultimate project goal is to have the house reconstructed by October 20, 2020, which will be General Stannard’s 200th birthday. Visit generalstannardhouse.org for more information about the project.
