If you have walked the gardens at Tudor Place you may have noticed a small wood garden shelter set above the Bowling Green providing a restful place to sit and view the fountain and flora below. You may have also noticed that this little shelter was in a sorry state of disrepair. It had deteriorated since its construction in the late 1950’s when Armistead Peter 3rd (AP3) hired William Hingam to build the Summerhouse. Its design replicates AP3’s memory of a ruinous shelter once located west of the central path where the flower knot is today. The Summerhouse has been beautifully restored by the skilled hands of the carpenters and painters of the John L. Juenemann, and is well worth a look on your next visit.
The deleterious conditions that were addressed in the restoration include rotten and insect damaged wood, failing paint, and the correction of a significant racking or structural distortion which had moved the vertical members far out of plumb. To do this, cribbing which is a temporary wood frame, was built to support the pyramidal roof. The original structural members of the roof were in excellent condition and only required a new coat of paint while the shingles and a few fascia (vertical boards at the top of the posts) and sub-roof boards were so badly deteriorated that they had to be replaced. The original copper drip edge and finial were cleaned and reinstalled and the lattice walls and solid back wall panel were removed and any sound wood was set aside for reinstallation. A jack was used to carefully bring the roof into a level position prior to the installation of four replacement corner posts which were anchored to new bases in the ground. The structure was then reassembled using salvaged wood and custom milled replacements that replicated the exact dimensions and details of the original pieces. The Summerhouse was primed and painted to match the original color scheme. The finishing touch was the installation of the decorative cast iron corner brackets that had been missing from the structure for many years.
The beautifully restored Summerhouse is a perfect place for visitors to enjoy the changing autumn leaves, migrating birds, and our lively squirrel population.
