The structural enhancements to the Town Hall have been completed. We can safely say that this building has been saved for for generations to come! 

The connection between the wall beams, top plate rafters and collar ties is solid and will last another century. The rare and beautiful 12 inch pine boards used in 1835 for the exterior walls and roof sheathing have been saved. No one will see them when we are done, but know that they are there in all their wonder and original splendor.

All these structural details will be covered in the next phase of our renovation and dressed with a simple cove along the top of each side wall and cove corbel’s (braces) hiding the hardware at each bay connection. Simple, but effective enclosures hiding cabling and color led lighting.

Here are some of the latest pictures of the completed structural improvements to the 1835 Town Hall roof structure.  Click on any image to see it full size.

Note the steel T plate on the wall beam with the reinforced connection to the top plate. Also note the steel plate along the underside of the rafter beam reinforcing the integrity of the rafters and then the reinforced connection of the rafter beam to the collar tie.

Here is our presentation to the Board of Selectmen with our plans for the future.  

The 1835 Town Hall roof, structure and lift project continues with good progress.

Structure

This month we have seen the installation of steel reinforcement at Bay 1 and 2 which nearly finishes the structural reinforcement of the entire roof.  Click on any image for full view.

Lift

We had expected the lift the first week of December, but the vendor, Garaventa, has had some delays and the lift is now expected to be delivered on December 17th. We will be putting in a shaft vent (required by fire regulations) at the top of the portico before the lift is delivered. We expect to have a functioning lift just after new year.

MCFF 2018 and 2019 Grant Funding

We have a rough plan for the spending of the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund Grant and are working to finalize the plan by the second week in December and review with the Board of Selectmen.

On November 16th, the 1835 Town Hall Committee notified the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund that we intend to apply for an additional $100,000 for the FY 2019 grant cycle. We had requested $200,000 in FY 2018 and were granted $100,000.

Septic

In October, Cabco engineering has determined the elevations for the septic at the 1835 and at the forced main. Cabco is proceeding to prepare the details for the easements we will need for 27 Main Street and 2 Pine Street.Easement language is expected in December and final plans are due in January 2019.

Use of the 1835 Town Hall Building

All our efforts have been devoted to saving this wonderful and important building. We have done that!  We will soon turn to the ongoing capabilities and use of the building, it’s offices and meeting rooms and especially the Great Hall. Many factors come into play when determining the types of uses, events and functions we will be able to host. Included are access, septic, sanitary facilities, structural capacities and fire code requirements.

The 1835 Town Hall Committee will be discussing these issues and the schedule for reopening the building for use at our December 10th meeting.

We have a lot going on. Here is an update on the 1835 Town Hall projects:

Roofing

• The roof is fully sheathed with new shingles and flashing
  
• Steel bracing has been installed at Bay 3 and 4
  
• We are waiting on steel reinforcement pieces to be fabricated for Bay 1 and 2
• We are preparing a plan and budget for the MCFF grant. We are working to have that by November 25^th
• Vareika and Tom Rutherford are both working to get heat into the building. Contractors are busy, but they continue to apply pressure. Heat is essential for some of the finish wok and painting.

Lift

• We are waiting for delivery of Lift from Garaventa – due by first week of December

Septic

• Cabco engineering has determined the elevations for the septic at the 1835 and at the forced main off Waushacum Ave at the fire house system. Thanks to the efforts of the DPW last week.
• Cabco is proceeding to prepare the details for the easements we will need for 27 Main Street and 2 Pine Street.
• Easement language is expected in December
• Final plans are due in January 2019 with estimate for FY 2020 capital request

Sprinkler

• We are working to obtain design and costs for sprinkler system for possible inclusion in FY 2020 capital request

Budget

• Below is a worksheet (also attached) of the finances for the project to date.

The file below is a 4mb PDF file showing photographs presented at the October 17, 2018 Selectmen Meeting showing the status of the repairs to the 1835 Town Hall with some before photos for reference.

Sterling 1835 Town Hall 2018-10-17

The past month has seen great progress and that progress is visible at the 1835 Town Hall. Work is being performed inside and outside simultaneously. The roof surface is being stripped and sheathed and the structural improvements are being added to the interior. The main timbers between the original section and the addition sections have been cut and the LVL sandwich has been inserted between providing support to the entire roof.

Temporary vertical support has been added:

The first LVL Beam sandwiches have been added.

We have an elevator shaft, looking head on at second floor :

Looking down the shaft

We have some clarity on our budget. We applied $48,444 in credits to the existing contract so that we could add $47,643 of additional structural support to the roof. This strengthens the connection between the original Town Hall and the Addition of 1893. A portion of the work credited will not be added back because it will not be necessary. For example $12,800 for steel reinforcement of timber frames (#3 and #4) and $2,000 for the basement slab.

Barring further unforeseen expenses, this results in a net cost increase to our project of about  $33,600 or about 8.4%.

That brings us to the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Grant of $100,000. Joe Booth and the 1835 Town Hall Committee will be working over the next few weeks to detail the plan and budget for the next phase of improvements to the 1835 Town Hall based on availability of funds. Items which will be included are, in order of priority:

• Brought forward from existing contract
  • Drywall Ceiling
  • Painting
  • Collar tie trim and painting
  • Eave work for ventilation
  • Electrical and basic lighting
• Limited ceiling removal and rafter repair at addition roof framing
• Architect / Project Designer
• Finished wood work and trim
• Stage access enhancements
• Additional lighting
• Acoustic baffling
• Sound and audio visual
• Seating

We need to formalize this plan and budget over the next 3 to 4 weeks as the 2019 round of Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Funding  has been approved and we are in the process of evaluating our need for further funding for the Town Hall.  We will need to voice our intent by November 16^th if we will be seeking additional funds.

For questions and further information, email: info@1835sterlingtownhall.org

After an incredible amount of discussion, planning, design and costing, the 1835 Town Hall Committee has just received the list of items to be credited from the current contract and the change order to make the needed structural repairs necessary from the exposed timbers discovered in late July. The credits to be taken out of the current contract, roughly $48,000, include drywall, painting, trim, electrical wiring, eave work and steel reinforcement (steel is no longer needed). The Change Order for the structural repairs to the timbers using LVL sandwiching as designed will be $47,643.

So this clears the way for us to proceed with these structural repairs and our new roof and remain on budget.

Items removed from the current contract will be added to a new contract along with rafter repair, trim, electrical, lighting, sound, insulation and baffing funded by the $100,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund.

Respectfully,

Robert McKay Jones
Chair
1835 Town Hall Committee

1835 Town Hall Roof Project
September 19, 2018

In late July, the 1835 Town Hall Committee learned that the structural connection between the 1835 building and the 1893 addition were unsound. The supporting structure has shifted over time and the engineers were seriously concerned with the integrity of the structure. This was discovered when the cover panels were removed from the existing collar ties and some of the sheet rock was removed at the junction of the two sections opening up the purlin junction to collar ties.

At the close of the August 29th meeting between the members of the Committee and the architect/designer, the Committee needed to take a step back and reflect on our project, the latest structural issues, the options provided for repairs and the possible costs and how we pay for it. There was a lot to digest. It made it impossible to proceed.

We have had an extraordinary amount of communication between the Committee and our architect/designer, engineer and contractor  as well as due diligence by individual members of the Committee and involvement from the Sterling Historic Commission. We met again on September 5th and again today, September 13th.

Our dilemma is that 1) we have very fixed funding for the roof project and we must stay within our budget, 2) new issues with an undetermined cost were discovered, and 3) we must complete the project. It is a challenge.

Our meeting on the morning of September 13th was with 1835 Town Hall Committee as well as our Architect/Designer, the Contractor, Project Manager and the Engineer and Board of Selectmen Chair, Rich Lane. The purpose of our meeting was to work through the options for structural repair and other possible issues and associated costs. We also needed everyone to understand that we had specific limits to what we could spend and some procedural complexities if we exceeded current funding and needed to use the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund Grant to absorb the likely additional costs. The 90 minute meeting provided everyone the ability to communicate their positions. We were able to develop some clarity and ultimately agreed on a course of action.

The engineer needs to design an LVL timber reinforcement system for the failing timber bays that are at the junction of the original Town Hall and the addition of 1893. All parties agreed this would be the least costly of all options and will allow us to save the original structure which is historically significant and preferred by the historical commission. We do not know the exact costs involved but once the design of the LVL solution is complete, the contractor will provide the Committee an exact quote for the repairs.

We authorized up to $9,450 for designs needed to establish exact construction costs; $7,350 for the major repairs to the timber bays using LVL sandwiching and $2,075 for the LVL sandwiching of rafters where necessary. We have these funds within our current budget. This will allow the contractor to provide exact costs.

We expect to hear within 10 days, but we are told by architect and contractor that these costs will be less than $50,000. The payment for these repairs will be from the current budget requiring certain aspects of the latter finish work to be removed from the contract until such time that we have an approved plan and budget with Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund (MCFF) and approval from Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) so that our MCFF grant funds can be used. Our project architect/designer will continue to work closely with the Committee to contain costs and maneuver through the MCFF grant requirements and MHC authorization process.

So we were able to pave a way forward understanding full-well that we might add thousands to the project due to these unforeseen structural issues.

Which brings us to the fact that we are fortunate to have obtained a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund of $100,000 (not shown in the above budget) which can be made available for this project when we follow the MCFF guidelines and provide a project scope and budget to Massachusetts Historical Commission. The scope of the MCFF application includes structural components and finish work to the Great Hall. Joe Booth has outlined the process we will follow to make these funds available.

At this moment, the architect is working to remove some of the end-work in the existing contract (interior finish, wall boarding, painting, electrical, etc.) plus apply any credits resulting from the changes in structural repairs in the last two timber bays which impact the current contract. This will allow us to move forward with the new structural repairs and stay within the current budget. As these structural repairs are made and the roof is replaced, we will create a project scope for the MCCF grant which will include the items removed from the original contract along with the addition of some, not all, the additional features the Committee had been looking for the MCCF funds to enhance the Great Hall, such as lighting, sound, baffles, stage accoutrements, seating, window treatments, etc.

This is a compromise, but it will insure we stay within our budget and will allow us to complete the project. We will be working very closely with Joe Booth and Ross Perry to manage the contract adjustments, control the budget and keep the project moving forward but we had to cross this bridge safely and make sure EVERYONE was in agreement and focused on getting us our roof and staying within our available funds. I am confident we will accomplish both objectives.

There are many people to thank as we moved through this contentious time. David Gibbs and Rob Barwise for keeping us in line with the details of historic rehab, Carl Corrinne and Ron Pichierri for forcing us to step back and reflect for a moment as well as their knowledge and experience, everyone on the Committee for their time and effort and thanks to Rich Lane for his continued participation and knowledgeable counsel.

Respectfully Submitted
Robert McKay Jones
Chair; 1835 Town Hall Committee

You may have noticed scaffolding installed around the 1835 Town Hall. Work has begun. After many years, we will soon see a new roof, structural improvements to the roofing components along with a vertical lift between the first and second floor. As exciting as this is, it is just the beginning. We are also working on plans for the enhancements to the Great Hall to improve its worthiness for significant cultural events. This is made possible by a $100,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund. We are also working towards improvements in septic finally connecting the Town Hall to the firehouse leaching area, the design of which is well underway.

This has all taken a great deal of time, effort and most of all persistence! Persistence is the necessary ingredient in the recipe for reaching an objective, accomplishing a goal or solving a problem. With enduring persistence, success is almost guaranteed. That doesn’t mean it is an easy road, it never is. There are pitfalls, hazards, adversaries, agendas, snags, compromises and setbacks all along the way.

Such is the case with our Sterling 1835 Town Hall and the long quest to replace the roof, repair the structure and add universal access for all. It has not been an easy road. There were obstacles all along the way, a veritable minefield of objections, financial constraints, legal hurdles, misdirection, bureaucratic barricades, apathy and some wrong turns.

For more than a dozen years, a team of volunteers dedicated themselves to a simple proposition, save our Town Hall for generations to come. They devoted countless hours working to achieve what seemed a simple and obvious task. Joined by the occasional superhero who stepped into the fray for a defining moment of accomplishment, we have witnessed a measure of success that cannot be denied.

This all culminated June 14, 2018 in the signing of a contract with a Massachusetts contractor for the repair of the structure, replacement of the roof and the installation of a lift between first and second floor which began July 9, 2018 and will continue through October 30, 2018. All of this was designed and engineered by a most-capable architect with his own team of professionals along with this dedicated team of volunteers. Thanks to everyone involved is not enough, but it is all I have.

The journey continues.

The Sterling Fair or Cattle Show or Sterling Farmers’ Fair as it has been called has a tradition in Sterling dating back to 1860. Except for a few short lapses during the Civil War, World War I and the years between 1958 and 1981 when the Fair was suspended due to lack of volunteers, the Sterling Fair has been an important launch to Fall in our corner of New England. People came from far and wide to witness proud farmers, growers, bakers, crafters and canners celebrate their talents and wares in friendly competition. Noted Sterling farmers with familiar names like Butterick, Fitch, Chandler, Sawyer, Wilder, Osgood, Burpee and many other notables took part.

The Town Common was the center of all the action. Pens were set up along main street to accommodate the various thoroughbreds who awaited judging and that coveted blue ribbon. Dinner was often held in the upper or lower Town Hall which often proved too small to host the entire crowd in one sitting, especially before the addition of 1893.

Seminars, exhibits, acts and entertainment of all sorts could be found. Musicians playing the music of the day, ventriloquists with their talking puppets, tool and machinery demonstrations, salesman selling potion’s that would soothe your skin or cure your ailments, food vendors of all sorts and games for kids and adults alike.

In darker days in the early 20th century, one such game hosted at our beloved Sterling Fair might better be left in the archives. It is so offensive, it is hard to imagine it was legal, let alone appreciated. The game was known as the African Dodger in Sterling and by more offensive names elsewhere. It is pictured in this early 20th century cartoon depicting the Sterling Fair and was retold in 1956 by James Patten Sr. in a Sunday Telegram article and painfully detailed in countless other sources. The game, a dodgeball of sorts, furnished a hanging canvas curtain with a single hole centered a few feet off the ground where an unfortunate black man (or possibly a white man in black-face) offered his head as target practice to patrons who purchased three hard balls for a nickel. It is difficult to imagine that the Town of Sterling in the State of Massachusetts in the early 1900’s participated in such nefarious and perverse activities in the name of amusement.

This is not the case today. The Sterling Fair has the innocence and virtue you would hope for in a small town fair offering great fun, good food and spirited competition for all ages. So remember our past, improve our future and enjoy your days at the Sterling Fair.

The 1835 Town Hall is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. What does it mean to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places?

Briefly, The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.

But there is more to it than that. For example:

• Listing in the National Register is the first step towards eligibility for National Park Service-administered federal preservation tax credits that have leveraged more than $45 billion in private investment and National Park Service grant programs like Save America’s Treasures and Preserve America. Owners of National Register listed properties may be able to obtain Federal historic preservation funding, when funds are available.
• States also administer State grant assistance programs and many of them allow for property tax abatements and State income tax credits for rehabilitated historic properties.
• Standards; the Standards are neither technical nor prescriptive, but are intended to promote responsible preservation practices that help protect our Nation’s irreplaceable cultural resources. For example, they cannot, in and of themselves, be used to make essential decisions about which features of the historic building should be saved and which can be changed. But once a treatment is selected, the Standards provide philosophical consistency to the work. The four treatment approaches are Preservation, Rehabilitation, Restoration, and Reconstruction, outlined below in hierarchical order and explained:
  • The first treatment, Preservation, places a high premium on the retention of all historic fabric through conservation, maintenance and repair. It reflects a building’s continuum over time, through successive occupancies, and the respectful changes and alterations that are made.
  • Rehabilitation, the second treatment, emphasizes the retention and repair of historic materials, but more latitude is provided for replacement because it is assumed the property is more deteriorated prior to work. (Both Preservation and Rehabilitation standards focus attention on the preservation of those materials, features, finishes, spaces, and spatial relationships that, together, give a property its historic character.)
  • Restoration, the third treatment, focuses on the retention of materials from the most significant time in a property’s history, while permitting the removal of materials from other periods.
  • Reconstruction, the fourth treatment, establishes limited opportunities to re-create a non-surviving site, landscape, building, structure, or object in all new materials.

Standards for Rehabilitation

1. A property will be used as it was historically or be given a new use that requires minimal change to its distinctive materials, features, spaces, and spatial relationships.
2. The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The removal of distinctive materials or alteration of features, spaces, and spatial relationships that characterize a property will be avoided.
3. Each property will be recognized as a physical record of its time, place, and use. Changes that create a false sense of historical development, such as adding conjectural features or elements from other historic properties, will not be undertaken.
4. Changes to a property that have acquired historic significance in their own right will be retained and preserved.
5. Distinctive materials, features, finishes, and construction techniques or examples of craftsmanship that characterize a property will be preserved.
6. Deteriorated historic features will be repaired rather than replaced. Where the severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature will match the old in design, color, texture, and, where possible, materials. Replacement of missing features will be substantiated by documentary and physical evidence.
7. Chemical or physical treatments, if appropriate, will be undertaken using the gentlest means possible. Treatments that cause damage to historic materials will not be used.
8. Archeological resources will be protected and preserved in place. If such resources must be disturbed, mitigation measures will be undertaken.
9. New additions, exterior alterations, or related new construction will not destroy historic materials, features, and spatial relationships that characterize the property. The new work will be differentiated from the old and will be compatible with the historic materials, features, size, scale and proportion, and massing to protect the integrity of the property and its environment.
10. New additions and adjacent or related new construction will be undertaken in such a manner that, if removed in the future, the essential form and integrity of the historic property and its environment would be unimpaired.