Historic Manning House Cornice Restoration

Manning House Corinthian Cornice Restoration. Georgian Revival, Manchester, NH, c.1908. Multi-phase, grant-funded exterior cornice restoration completed to National Park Service preservation standards. Full documentation and preservation reports written for each phase. Phase 1 was a coordinated effort with the slate and copper crew. Leapfrogging sections to repair rotted rafter-tails, install structural blocking, and give them sound wood to hang their metal. New soffits and corona/fascia milled on site as I went. Phase 2 was a different undertaking entirely. Eight sections of cornice, rebuilt from the bottom up. A pop-up shop on the lawn to reproduce nearly two dozen modillions, profiles verified against Asher Benjamin's American Builder's Companion (1827), Grecian Cyma Reversa caps drafted, tested, and hand-stuck with hollows & rounds, side-escapement moulding planes. Salvageable originals restored in kind. Over 170 linear feet of moulding hand-stuck across three profiles. The bedmould ball & saucer spindle was the one piece I didn't make myself - a local woodturner came through on that one. The L-CHIP grant plaque frame was a small addition. Panel mould inspired by profiles found on the the portico's entry surround, proportioned to the Corinthian order, hand-stuck in African mahogany with hollows and rounds.