Wheatleigh Estate

Restoration of the Wheatleigh Estate gates was a unique challenge. Being an entrance to a Frederick Law Olmsted-designed estate made this an important restoration of a historical site. It was a project of matching century old  masonry and recreating architectural components to their original design.

Given the age and advanced deterioration of architectural details very few of the existing pieces could be saved for reuse. The original gate structure was made in Europe in the late 1800’s and therefore locating the manufacturer was difficult. Drawing on work with molds I had done early in my sculpture study years I proposed making molds from rubber-urethane. These could replicate all details of the original gates. As well they could be made solid vs. cored which helped aid the structure’s failure in the new england climate.

The process was as follows. First both pillars and adjoining entrance walls were removed and evaluated. All architectural pieces, from sills and lattices to missing floral leaves were evaluated. Those that could be reused were touched up, cleaned and sealed. From these originals wood molds were built to fit each piece.  Using eight “originals ” they were set in boxes and with a rubber-urethane mixture were replicated, one at a time. Over the course of the Summer  the Wheatleigh Estate’s front lawn served as our studio space. After 3 months  44 architectural pieces were casted to assemble into a new Wheatleigh entrance.

To match masonry components a brick supplier in Boston matched the existing brick by halving larger buff utility brick. White masonry cement was utilized to match the existing lime mortar.  Now all of the elements were in place to reassemble the gates.

This restoration brought together various disciplines within masonry. In the end it yielded an 1800 architectural structure by way an artful approach with modern materials and methods. Our mason crew learned quite a lot about form making in the process. And how much time can be spent on this kind of project.