Category Archives: Historic Preservation
HDC Remembers Cathie (Chris) Senter 1966-2023
The historic preservation community was shocked to hear of the sudden passing of Cathie Senter on February 27, 2023, of a heart attack. Cathie started her career in Canton, Ohio, where her passion for historic preservation earned her multiple awards, including Stark County Citizen of the Year. Cathie first interviewed for a job at HDC in 2007 but ultimately decided to go back to school. Before she started school, she worked at HDC over the summer on the window package for the Woodward Opera House and helping to finishing the HAER drawings for Monongahela River Locks and Dam project for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District. After getting a degree from Belmont Technical College, she stayed to become a beloved instructor of the preservation trades, including doors and windows, model and mold making, plaster, roofing and flooring, and all types of historic masonry. Cathie came back to work for HDC in 2017 and endeared herself to preservation clients, who appreciated her knowledge and willingness to explain proposed solutions. She conducted assessments and prepared reports for the St. Louis Arsenal, caretaker lodges and chapels at national Veterans cemeteries, and was working to complete the final phase of the rehabilitation of the Historic Gardner Homestead. Her attention to details and desire to take care of her clients often led to extended schedules, but her premature passing is one deadline we gladly would have postponed.
Cathie (Chris) at work at HDC.
At left, a 2007 drawing from the Monongahela Lock and Dam documentation project and at right, the restored windows at the Woodward Opera House in Mount Vernon.
HDC Looks Back On and Forward to Black History Projects
In recognition of Juneteenth this month, HDC looks back on our projects that were associated with Black history.
In early 2002, HDC started a project to prepare a renovation master plan for the Gammon House in Springfield, Ohio. The Gammon House was built in 1850 by George Gammon, a Black abolitionist and is one of the few Underground Railroad sites in Ohio that was owned by a free person of color. HDC subsequently implemented the first phase of the renovation plan to stabilize the exterior.
The Gammon House before (left) and during (right) stabilization in 2007.
In 2003, HDC was commissioned to prepare a feasibility study to renovate the Lincoln Theatre in Columbus into a modern performing arts center. The Lincoln Theatre, an Egyptian Revival theatre that opened in 1928, was funded by a Black developer, designed by a Black architect and built by a Black contractor. HDC’s study was used to secure funding from the City of Columbus and Franklin County, with the remaining funds raised by private donors. The grand re-opening occurred in 2009, and the project received awards from Columbus Landmarks Foundation, Heritage Ohio and the Ohio Historic Preservation Office.
The interior of the theatre before (left) and after (right) rehabilitation in 2009.
In 2005, the City of Wichita commissioned HDC to prepare a redevelopment study for the Dunbar Theater, which was constructed in 1941 and named after Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the Black poet and author from Dayton, Ohio.
It was the focal point of a commercial and entertainment hub that served the McAdams neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods that were predominantly African-American in origin until 1963, when the theater closed. Power CDC, a developer that specializes in inner-city Wichita, acquired the building in 2007 and restored the façade and marquee in 2012-2014.
The Dunbar Theatre continues to be a work in progress.
In 2007, HDC prepared a Historic Structure Report and implemented the stabilization and exterior rehabilitation of the Lathrop House, which was built c. 1850 by Lucian Lathrop, a prominent white abolitionist in Sylvania, Ohio. The house contains an Underground Railroad Museum in the new basement and HDC completed an update to the Historic Structure Report in 2021 to rehabilitate the interior of the house and make it accessible.
The Lathrop House before (left) and in 2021 (right).
In 2017, HDC prepared a master plan to rehabilitate the Ozem Gardner House in Sharon Township near Worthington, Ohio, which was built in the 1840s by a local abolitionist, into offices for the Flint and Walnut Grove Cemeteries. The Gardner Family donated the original land to create the cemetery in 1821. The pandemic set the project back from its goal of opening in 2021. It is currently anticipated to be completed in 2022.
The Ozem Gardner House before (left) and after restoring the original masonry window openings (right).
In 2020, the City of Athens commissioned HDC to prepare a renovation master plan to convert the Mount Zion Baptist Church, built in 1904 by a Black congregation, into a community center and museum of African American Appalachian culture. The study was used to obtain a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to start the rehabilitation process.
The Mount Zion Baptist Church in Athens, Ohio.
HDC recently worked with architect O.A. Spencer on the interior renovation of the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing and Cultural Arts Complex in Columbus, whose mission is to connect community through the arts by engaging central Ohio through performing, cultural and educational programs of high artistic merit that increase and disseminate knowledge regarding the vast and significant contributions of Black Americans to the culture and history of America and the world.
The main Auditorium with new flooring, ceiling and lights, looking through the updated column (left) and looking into the Lobby past the mural by artist Wali Neil (right). Photos by Shellee Fisher Photography.
And finally, HDC is very honored to have been awarded the project to prepare a Historic Structure Report of the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Lawrence County, across the Ohio River from Huntington, West Virginia. The church was built c. 1849 and is one of the first Black churches constructed west of the Appalachian Mountains. The team is looking forward to starting work in August!
The Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in South Point, Ohio.
Stained Glass and Faceted Glass at Jefferson Barracks Chapel
The exterior (left) and interior (right) of the chapel at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis
One of the seven national cemetery locations HDC is investigating with Tetra Tech is Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis. The project here is not the historic superintendent’s lodge, but a chapel built in the 1970s. Since it is such a recent building, the team was lucky to be able to visit the studio of Emil Frei & Associates in St. Louis, the firm that designed and installed the stained glass windows in the 1970s and the faceted glass skylight in the early 1980s. In addition, Stephen Frei led our tour and demonstrated how faceted glass is made by chipping away at a 1″ thick block of glass. He also came to the site to inspect the skylight, which he himself had personally installed. Stephen Frei also explained how the stained glass trees around the perimeter were intended to blend in with the trees outside and that the faceted glass skylight was renamed “The History of Humanity” from “The History of Religion” to be accepted for use in a federal building.
The faceted glass skylight in the chapel (left) and Stephen Frei explaining how faceted glass works (right)
HDC Starts Work on the Historic Meade House in Symmes Township
Northeast corner of the Meade House in Symmes Township
HDC is leading a team that includes engineers from Elevar Design Group to prepare a feasibility study to rehabilitate the Meade House in Symmes Township into a banquet facility. The house was built in 1906 on an over 200-acre farm for Dr. Charles C. Meade, a homeopathic physician, Pulte Medical College of Cincinnati professor of obstetrics, Homeopathic Medical Society president, and former president and director of the Hamilton County Fair Board. Dr. Meade was born in Fort Branch, Indiana in 1862, the son of Stephen Walter Meade and his wife Sarah Jane Rutledge, who was of English descent. Dr. Meade graduated from Central Normal College at Danville, Indiana, in 1886 before earning a medical degree from Pulte Medical College in Cincinnati in 1890. He went on to post graduate studies at the New York Post-Graduate School of Medicine and Surgery. As part of the teaching staff at Pulte College, Dr. Meade served as chair of embryology and junior obstetrics from 1898 to 1902. From 1902 to his retirement in 1905, he held a full professorship and oversaw both junior and senior obstetrics. Dr. Meade lived in this house with his second wife, continuing to assist neighbors with difficult births in his retirement. He sold the house in 1917 and moved to the Hyde Park neighborhood of Cincinnati.
Fall 2019
HDC President Charissa Durst receives Smart 50 Business Award
Since 2014, the Smart Business Columbus Smart 50 Awards have recognized the top executives of the 50 smartest companies in central Ohio for their ability to effectively build and lead successful organizations. All 50 winners were honored at a special celebration, and three organizations received specialty awards for their achievements in three category areas — innovation, impact and sustainability. Additionally, all guests were treated to a keynote address on what it takes to lead a successful “smart” company. Click here to read about what set the 50 honorees apart.
Five Oaks Historic Home project in the news
HDC teams with The Tradesmen Group to work on the Governor’s Residence
HDC is working once again with The Tradesmen Group, this time on a project at the Governor’s Residence in Bexley, Ohio. HDC had previously worked with The Tradesmen Group as the General Services Administration’s (GSA’s) representative during the construction phase of the exterior restoration of the federal courthouse in Toledo, Ohio. The two firms teamed to compete for the project to renovate/replace the existing pergola and portico roof on the rear elevation of the Ohio governor’s mansion, which was designed by Robert Gilmore Hanford, a Columbus-based architect, for industrialist Malcolm D. Jeffrey. The mansion was built during 1923–1925 and the Jeffreys lived in the house until Malcom’s death in 1930, at which point it was sold to his sister Florence Jeffrey Carlile. In the 1940s, Mrs. Carlile expanded the house with an addition of a screened garden room on the first floor that led to a covered portico and extended into a wooden pergola. On top of the portico was a small rooftop terrace that served an expanded master bedroom suite. Upon Mrs. Carlile’s death in 1954, the house passed into the hands of the Very Reverend Charles U. Harris, who sold the house to the State of Ohio in 1957, and since then it has been used as the official governor’s residence — or a meeting site if the governor chose to live elsewhere.
The current project is to replace the wooden portico, which itself is a replacement of an earlier version, with a structure that will have a life cycle of at least 40 years. The roof over the portico will be replaced with one that will allow the roof terrace to be more actively used, and any necessary structural repairs will be completed.
HDC Finds Success Working as a Consultant to Engineering Firms
In the past five years, HDC has been teaming with other architectural and/or engineering firms on a variety of higher education projects. At The Ohio State University, HDC has teamed with Monks Engineers on a variety of infrastructure improvement projects that required some architectural support. For example, at the OSU Newark campus, HDC designed a screening wall for a new generator outside of Reese Hall and also designed a set of concrete steps for access up the hillside. On the main campus, HDC provided details and specifications for historic material demolition and repair to support the replacement of electrical panels in Orton Hall. OSU also asked HDC to design a corten steel screening fence for the equipment yard with a custom pattern, but later determined that an electrical project could not fund a custom fence.
Ziti Graduates (barely) from Foundation Obedience Class!
Since the middle of August, Ziti has been in a weekly foundation obedience class held at the veterinarian’s office next door to HDC’s location in Clintonville. At the end of September, Ziti had her final evaluation. She lost points for sniffing while heeling (the beagle in her is absolutely fascinated with the smells on the floor), and she broke formation during her 1-minute sit-stay and her 2-minute down-stay (she only holds a stay when the reward is great — like dinner). She also didn’t manage to stand still the first time but did pretty well on the second try. However, she was perfect coming when called, which the instructor said is the most important command to know. So, overall, she scored about a 75. Charissa’s husband, Don, noted that Donut did much better at her graduation evaluation; he had to be reminded that Donut was almost a year old at that point and had already been through two Puppy Kindergarten and one Basic Obedience class with another instructor.
However, Ziti didn’t just spend all seven weeks in class and doing homework. One of the class assignments was to visit a new place every week. So, Ziti got to visit Highbanks Metro Park one weekend and had fun splashing and posing.
Spring 2018
President Charissa Durst Honored as a Progressive Entrepreneur
Charissa Durst was named a 2018 Progressive Entrepreneur Honoree at the Smart Women Breakfast on April 17, 2018. The award recognizes female entrepreneurs who have forged their own path and developed a company that has achieved substantial growth. Charissa was honored for establishing herself as a leader in her field and among other women business owners, as well as for building Hardlines Design Company (HDC) from the ground up into an award-winning company that has earned an excellent reputation for its creative approach to architectural design and its love for the renovation of historic buildings.
Demonstration of D/2
Cathie Senter gave the office a demonstration on how to clean masonry using D/2 Biological Solution, which is a non-toxic cleaner that can be sprayed onto masonry at full strength or diluted with water. We used bricks obtained from the Dawn Theater during the last field visit and confirmed that the brick featured black speckles that matched the original black mortar. The longer the brick was in contact with the solution, the cleaner it became. D/2 is also commonly used to clean historic gravestones in cemeteries.
Bricks from the Dawn Theater in a D/2 bath
Woodward Opera House Gets Partial Occupancy Permit
After 17 years, there is a light at the end of the tunnel! The Woodward Opera House project received partial occupancy at the end of March, which allowed portions of the building (the commercial sections) to be leased and occupied. Areas still under major construction include the theatre areas, which likely will not be ready until the fall season at the earliest. Charissa Durst and Brad Curtis have been working through the federal historic tax credit reporting forms as well as responding to issues brought up by the contractors and state inspectors. Many people have been asking about a grand opening, and we hope to have some news on that soon!
View of new main stair in the Promenade, April 2018
View of the Stage (left) and view of the Balcony (right)
HDC works with Commonwealth Heritage Group at the St. Louis Arsenal
Last fall, Commonwealth Heritage Group asked HDC to team with them on a project at the historic St. Louis Arsenal in Missouri for Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. HDC’s portion of the project was to conduct a conditions assessment and prepare repair and mothballing recommendations for when the Air Force transferred ownership of the buildings to the General Services Administration in the near future. Cathie Senter conducted the field work and recently contributed to the executive summary currently under review.
The Arsenal has a long history that began in 1827, when the site was used to manufacture and repair small arms and gun carriages for the Army as well as territorial militias west of the Mississippi River. It played a key role in settling the American West from arming U.S. troops during the Indian Wars of the 1830s to being a Union outpost during the Civil War. The Arsenal property is today a satellite to Scott Air Force Base and is highly secure, and all field team members had to be escorted and could not take photographs. However, the following historic images are already in the public domain and can be shown here.
Historic photo of Building 7, built 1849-50 as the Ordnance Coal House and now the Visitors Center.
Historic photo of Building 6, built in 1852 as the Carriage-Maker’s Shop and now demolished.
When the Boss is Away, the Dogs Will Play
When HDC President Charissa Durst attended the Women Presidents Organization annual conference in Los Angeles, Donut the Beagle stayed home to be tended by Charissa’s husband, Don Durst. Meanwhile, back at the office, the staff’s dogs made guest appearances.
Brad tries to teach Baxter the building code.
Megan’s Sherlock refuses to do any work and prefers to watch traffic.
Donut, who turned 14 on March 25, goes to Prairie Oaks Metro Park the weekend after the WPO conference and would rather be splashing in the water than posing for a photo.
Support historic preservation in Ohio – it’s the Wright thing to do!
(originally posted by Andy Sewell on March 3, 2015)
Wilbur and Orville may have been looking to the future with their work developing powered flight, but they also knew it was a good thing to support historic preservation – with their tax returns!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipt2rP-Q3D4
Supporting the Ohio History Fund on your 2015 Ohio state taxes is easy, tax-deductable, and a great way to show your support for your state! Donations from the Ohio History tax check-off are used to fund local history projects throughout Ohio through the History Fund grant program.
With the Ohio History Fund, Ohio citizens can help support our local and state historical sites and preserve significant pieces of our history. Funds donated through your tax-deductable donation go straight to funding local history projects. For just $8, the average donation and the price of a couple fancy coffees at the corner coffee shop, you can help repair a roof, preserve rare documents, or help connect local school kids to their Ohio heritage.
Where does your donation go? All donations directly support the History Fund, which was created to help fund local, regional, and statewide projects, programs, and events linked to the expansive history of Ohio. The program is a competitive matching grants program and requires successful grant applicants to have a matching funding source. For more information about the History Fund grant program and how to apply, visit ohiohistory.org/historyfund.
Don’t take Historic Preservation for Grant-ed!
(originally posted by Andy Sewell on January 26, 2015)
President Ulysses S. Grant knows his duty when filing taxes – he contributes to the Ohio History Fund on his state tax return.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iclR7JW9IdM
Supporting the Ohio History Fund on your 2015 Ohio state taxes is easy, tax-deductable, and a great way to show your support for your state! Donations from the Ohio History tax check-off are used to fund local history projects throughout Ohio through the History Fund grant program.
During its first year of operation, the Ohio History Fund gave out matching grants to 11 projects, ranging from the digitization of rare, pre-WWII color movie film documenting small-town Ohio to improving artifact curation storage and even building public restrooms at Whitewater Shaker Village, allowing the site to be open for public visitation for the first time since restoration efforts began. Supporting historic preservation has never been so easy!
It’s simple to contribute – just check off the box on your tax return and fill in the dollar amount. Remember, your donation is tax-deductable!
Annie supports historic preservation in Ohio -so should you
(originally posted by Andy Sewell on January 13, 2015)
Annie Oakley, famed Ohioan, was known for being on the mark. Why should filing her taxes be any different?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RiS-63Nc78
Annie Oakley didn’t have to think twice about supporting historic preservation by donating to the Ohio History Connection (formerly the Ohio Historical Society) on her 2015 Ohio state tax return. Local communities and historical organizations throughout Ohio are greatly supported through the generosity of Ohioans. Just a small, tax-deductable, donation of $8 (a cheap lunch) helps keeps lights on, historic documents and collections preserved, and our children educated in the history and heritage of Ohio.
It’s easy to contribute – just check off the box on your tax return and fill in the dollar amount. Remember, your donation is tax-deductable!
Where does your donation go? All donations directly support the History Fund, which was created to help fund local, regional, and statewide projects, programs, and events linked to the expansive history of Ohio. The program is a competitive matching grants program and requires successful grant applicants to have a matching funding source. For more information about the History Fund grant program and how to apply, visit ohiohistory.org/historyfund.