The second floor exhibition gallery has been repainted thanks to a grant from the Thomas A. Rodgers Jr. Family Foundation.
The walls were showing signs of wear and years of exhibit marks from frames and display materials and needed to be freshened up, as did the trim and mop boards. Fortunately, the heavily-stenciled ceiling and the painted and gilded crown and picture moldings, original to the 1870 construction and restored over a decade ago, required nothing but a good wipe-down and vacuuming.
The room was repainted using the same color scheme selected when it was first converted for use as a gallery – deep cinnamon on the walls, and a light coffee color on the trim – furnishing an ideal backdrop for display purposes.
The draperies have been sent to the cleansers and are ready to install, and the reproduction lace “glass curtains” – so-called during the Victorian period because they hung closest to the window – will be replaced due to sun damage.
Next up: the 1840’s French gilt-bronze gasolier that originally hung in Mary (Brayton) Durfee Young’s residence on North Main Street – she was the mother of B.M.C. Durfee – will be cleaned; the shades and crystal pendant lusters have to be removed, washed, and rehung.
No fun, that.
Thank you, Thomas A. Rodgers Jr. Family Foundation.
