Onsite reconstruction began today! MCC returned to Connecticut College yesterday to unload materials and begin setting up and today started putting all the carefully restored parts back together. So far they have rebuilt one exterior wall at the front of the house. All of the pieces are made to fit together perfectly, and watching the MCC crew reassemble the panels and bolt them into place allows you to imagine what the original construction of the house must have been like. The panels look completely different now that they are repaired and repainted. Unfortunately the layers of paint put on the panels made them very slightly thicker so larger holes had to be drilled in the base of each panel to enable them to be bolted to the foundation and all fit together properly. It is amazing that such a small difference in the panel size could affect the fit of the joints, but it goes to show how precisely each of the parts was made and how snugly they all fit together. This necessary adjustment caused a minor setback in the reconstruction since some of the panels that had already been put in place had to be taken down again to adjust the fit. However, the wall was back up by the end of the day and the MCC crew will continue to make progress on reconstructing the exterior of the house throughout the week.
It's great to see what all the restored pieces look like, and it will be very exciting to see them come back together!
The first completed wall at the end of day one
Attaching one of the exterior panels to the foundation. Each of the exterior panels, seen here on the ground, has been placed around the perimeter of the foundation according to where it belongs in the wall.
Securing two of the panels together
Photos by Doug Royalty
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