PreservationNation

Written by Doug StanWiens

The first semester of the school year has come and gone at Timberline High. And while there never seems to be a slow day in room 216, I can say that we’ve jumped head first into round two in such a way that surprises even me.

Regardless, I hope you’ve enjoyed the work Kim M. and a number of other Boise Architecture Project students have done in their blog posts. Did you like our behind-the-scenes tour of the Old Idaho State Pen? Maybe you felt like taking action in your own community after reading about some of the controversial decisions made by our local school district? Perhaps you marveled like I did at Ashley’s amazing photo of the Idaho State Capitol reflected in a puddle. We’ve really had a blast bringing stories about places that matter in Boise to all of you.

I’ve been thinking a lot about technology and social media recently, especially after reading Priya Chhaya’s excellent blog post last week (her schedule sounds all too familiar). Before this school year, I never imagined myself as a “Twitterer,” and to be honest, I’m still having a tough time doing Facebook correctly. That being said, it has been really fun (and educational) to see how PreservationNation.org harnesses the Internet to converse, collaborate, and sometimes commiserate over the issues that make us all tick.

So, as a classroom of juniors and seniors, where is the intersection between preservation, education, and technology? Contrary to the idea that the medium is the message, I believe that the medium enables the message. From the National Trust’s Flickr-fueled This Place Matters campaign to the Boise City Arts and History Department’s use of Twitter to announce events, preservation is reaching a much larger audience these days. Technology enables us as a movement to mobilize interests and to “get the word out.” Over the years, it has also helped me get nearly 800 students connected to their community in ways that continue to amaze me.

At its core, the Boise Architecture Project is a constantly evolving experiment in technology that reflects where students are today, and where they are going tomorrow. And, while kids these days are prolific consumers of technology, I find that (clever tweets and status updates aside) many are not as adept at actually producing things with technology. The short list of skills my students learn while participating in the project includes digital photography and photo editing; website design and programming; data storage and management; and video and audio recording and production.  We do all of this on Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, our website, and these bi-weekly blog posts with the National Trust.

Not bad for something that started a few years back as a simple student PowerPoint project on favorite buildings, eh?

While technology has changed our lives, it hasn’t changed the message of preservation. My students get a kick out of learning about Roman arches and mansard roofs the same way I did when I was their age. Just like me, they are drawn to discovering stories about buildings and the people that love them. What’s different – and exciting – is how we’re doing this.

Stay tuned this semester as the experiment continues.

Doug StanWiens teaches U.S. history at Boise’s Timberline High School and spearheads the Boise Architecture Project. This semester, his class of juniors and seniors are blogging about what they are doing in class and in the field to learn more about their community and its history. You can follow the students here on the PreservationNation blog and on their Flickr photostream. Also, get daily updates from the teacher himself on Twitter.

Are you an educator interested in teaching preservation in your classroom? Visit PreservationNation.org for resources, tips, and ideas to enhance your curriculum with lessons that will teach your students to recognize and appreciate the rich history that surrounds them.

Written by Kim M. 

Pillars in the Capitol's rotunda.

If you’ve been following our blog this week, you’re basically old friends with scagliola master craftsman Randy Schaffer by now. In past posts, we’ve explored the basics of his fifteen-step craft and taken you behind the scenes of his work in the recent rehabilitation of the Idaho State Capitol. Now it’s time to dish on another aspect of his time on that important job – things that went bump in the night. 

So, do ghosts really haunt the Idaho State Capitol? While Randy does not actually believe in them, he certainly got an ear full about the ghosts that wander the building’s historic corridors. During his time on the job, multiple people told him about their experiences with these apparitions. Apparently, one ghost is a page who died while sliding on one of the banisters. He is often seen at night walking around in his page uniform. Another ghost is a woman who is seen wearing a white dress and looking out of a window. An evening security guard swore to Randy that he saw her knowing that no one else was in the building at the time. To this day, no one knows her story or why she calls the Capitol home. 

However, other “ghosts of history” made themselves known to Randy during his time at the Capitol. The scagliola panels were literally falling off the walls in one stretch of hallway. In order to preserve this section and to save money, he went to work re-pasting them. In the process, he discovered handprints in the plaster backing. Also, while working on one particular scagliola column, Randy had to replace some base sections. On one piece that was over 100 years old, he found the handprint of the original craftsman who had grabbed it while wet and stuck it on the column with glue.     

History was always on Randy’s mind throughout the renovation project. For example, the hallways behind the House and Senate chambers are where legislators of the past would gather after votes and smoke (before, of course, it was banned in the building). The legislators would actually set their cigarettes on the railings while carrying on discussions or arguments from the chambers, causing ashes to be burned into the scagliola. Randy ultimately decided that preserving some of the burn marks was more important than making everything shiny and new. However, he cautions that if you want to see this side of the building’s history, you’ll have to look extremely close! 

In the end (and ghosts aside), the scagliola work done by Randy Schaffer and his assistants has contributed to a stunningly beautiful Capitol rotunda, full of light, color, and history. It’s something he is proud of and hopes that craftsmen a hundred years from now will appreciate. 

The Idaho State Capitol is a place that matters, and Randy’s hard work and dedication inspires us all to have more pride in our state and its history. 

Kim M. is a student at Boise’s Timberline High School and is participating in the Boise Architecture Project. You can follow the students here on the PreservationNation blog and on their Flickr photostream. Also, get daily updates from their teacher, Doug StanWiens, on Twitter.         

Are you an educator interested in teaching preservation in your classroom? Visit PreservationNation.org for resources, tips, and ideas to enhance your curriculum with lessons that will teach your students to recognize and appreciate the rich history that surrounds them.

Written by Kim M.      

Randy Schaffer in action at the Idaho State Capitol.

Aside from being a word that is generally fun to say (try it fast three times in a row), it is an art form that has been the lifework of one Idaho craftsman. You met him in our last post, but we’re back today with more behind-the-scenes action with the one and only Randy Schaffer.     

Soon after Randy received the contract to work on the Idaho State Capitol, he felt an immediate sense of responsibility. After all, he was tasked with improving on work that was done close to 100 years ago. What would craftsmen 100 years from now think of his work?          

“Knowing that this was the most important building in Idaho, that the people who had worked on it before were the best craftsmen of their day, and that I was going back in to work on stuff that hadn’t been touched in 100 years – that was pretty incredible,” Randy said.         

The Capitol’s scagliola had deteriorated badly by the time Randy started, so he was busy right off the bat. Some of his work, as a craftsman, was to strip off old paint, patch old parts of scagliola that needed new plaster, and (most importantly) rework the columns inside the rotunda. While there is a fair amount of marble in the rotunda from places like Alaska, Georgia, and Vermont, much of the decorative material is scagliola featuring Vermont green coloring mixed into the clam shell white coloring of the plaster.        

Of course he wasn’t the only one working on the site; there were hundreds of painters, welders, mechanics, plumbers, and other construction workers hired – all striving to do great work given the constraints of the job. As a manager, Randy sensed the anxiety among his team as they worked on such an iconic building. However, with extra care and a keen eye towards costs and time, the project was completed under budget and one day early.      

Randy's assessment of the Capitol's columns.

Now, something you should know about scagliola – it’s a top secret process. Really! In order to make scagliola on site, Randy and another craftsman, Chris Reeder, had to cordon off a special section of the Capitol to keep passersby from getting the inside scoop. This, of course, was extremely difficult to pull off with some 40 workers working milling around the same area at the same time. Randy distinctly remembers working on the columns with sparks from welders on the upper floors flying all around him and his tent. Talk about patience under pressure.      

While working on the new scagliola, Randy discovered a few secrets from the craftsmen who came before him. For example, one of the old tricks of the trade was to place newspaper on the back of solid wall pieces to soak up any moisture that may cause a section to sag. So, while working in the Governor’s Office, Randy did a little experiment by reaching his hand into small openings and taking pictures of the inside of the structure’s walls. What we discovered in the shots was newspapers from the 1940’s plastered on the backs of the walls with advertisements for Liberty Bonds, cars, and beauty creams.   

Not only was Randy Schaffer making history, he was discovering it as well.      

Interested in more? Stay tuned for one final installment in our series on Randy Schaffer and his work on the Idaho State Capitol.      

Kim M. is a student at Boise’s Timberline High School and is participating in the Boise Architecture Project. You can follow the students here on the PreservationNation blog and on their Flickr photostream. Also, get daily updates from their teacher, Doug StanWiens, on Twitter.        

Are you an educator interested in teaching preservation in your classroom? Visit PreservationNation.org for resources, tips, and ideas to enhance your curriculum with lessons that will teach your students to recognize and appreciate the rich history that surrounds them.