Preservation Progress at InfoAge
Building 9001 - The Marconi Hotel Lounge
The Marconi Hotel Lounge is a work in progress. We have alot of work done as you can see below.
We need to remove the 1980s wall and ceiling treatments from the east side. Then we need to repair the moisture damage to the plaster on the outside wall. This will require new expanded
metal lath and new plaster. We need to repair damage to the floor
and columns created when the
walls were added in 1941. Then the whole room will be
repainted.
This is an April 2006 view of
the west end of the Marconi Station Operators lounge..
This is the current state
of our work.
This is a January 2006-7 view of
the east end of the Marconi Station Operators lounge.
Note our chairs. It was not too long ago we did not own more than
25 chairs.
This is the current state of our work. We are eager to remove these 1980s treatments.
Wireless Age August 1914 photo of the hotel lounge.
The photo above was taken at the nearly the same place.
The Hotel lounge is a room connected with distict historic events, persons and groups. Based upon physical evidence and the builders plans the original lounge was one room as can be seen in the photo above.
In 1941 the lounge was divided into two conference rooms. Two walls were built using clay blocks between the exterior wall support column (column on left in photo above), to the center column. Then from the center column to the interior support column. The west room contained the fireplace.
In the 1960s the west room (with the fireplace) was again divided into one large office and a secretary office.
This is a year 2000 view of the office with the fireplace. The door to the right leads to the secretarys' office. This wall was added in the 1970s. The carpenter was InfoAge member Mr. Dan Skinner.
1939 photo of The Kings College students in the lounge, which they used as a classroom and chapel.
Another 1938-41 view of The Kings students in the lounge. The east wall is in the background
1938-41 view of The Kings students in the lounge. The south exterior wall is in the background
The photo above is of the Project Diana team in the lounge in 1946. We believe this is the same wall as in the photo above. Note the wall sconce has been replaced with a clock outlet.
More information and photos on Project Diana.
During the 1960s the REMBASS team spent weeks in the room developing a covert system of sensors to provide electronic surveillance of the Viet Nam to implement the McNamara line. We were told the project was so important the team did not go home for Thanksgiving holiday.
Photo of THE ORIGINAL MAJOR PROJECT OFFICE TEAM JULY 1973
The photo above is of the east side of the lounge in 1973.
When the base was closed in 1993 the offices had carpet, the rooms were clean and all painted surfaces were intact. The rooms were ready for reuse.
During the winters of 2000 and 2001 the electric power was turned off allowing the basement to flood. We had to raise our protests to Congressman Smith's office to compel the BRAC office to restore the power. The 18 months of no power and high moisture saturated the walls with moisture and caused mold to bloom. The paint peeled too.
The lounge was particularly hard hit by moisture. Mold infested all three rooms. The removal of a downspout on the south exterior allowed rain water to saturate the masonry. This caused the interior plaster to fail and a section of the oak floor to rot.
Due to the BRAC office - This is what we started with....
This is a year 2004 view showing the effects of high moisture. Paint has peeled, mold has bloomed and ceiling tiles have collapsed.
The rain water damage is evident on the column. The plaster has failed. The wall to the left of the column with the brown baseboard was added in 1941.
This end of the room was the spot where Senator Joe McCarthy held a conference ( see below) on October 20, 1953 when he visited Camp Evans expecting to review personnel records to find persons suspected to be communists. Note the dehumidifer on the radiator. We ran this unit and five other for three months to dry the masonry before we could begin repainting.
This is the same spot as above. We plan to repaint this corner of the lounge to match this photo.
More about Senator Joe McCarthy's visit.
Faced with the terrible condition of the hotel lounge we had no choice but to dry out the building masonry with dehumidifiers over many months. Then we removed all mold infested materials and washed all surfaces with a bleach solution, then a hydrogen peroxide solution. The next step was to remove all loose and peeling paint for proper disposal then repaint all surfaces with a latex sealer. This caused InfoAge volunteers hundreds hours of extra work and thousands of dollars unnecessary expense in just this room alone.
The secretary office is filled with mold. Note the black stains. The wall to the right of the door and column was added in 1941.
The secretary office looking through to the opening that once held double doors entering into the foyer. That is the foyer fireplace seen in the background.
InfoAge Volunteers go to work....
We removed the acoustic tiles from the wall and ceiling. Then we removed the sheetrock.
In August of 2005 Dan Skinner, who built the divider wall in the 1970s posed before we removed the 2 x 4s and electric.
In April 2006 we removed the 1941 added masonry wall as approved in our NPS approved plan. Note the electrical conduit exposed that was constructed into the wall. The wall and ceiling to the left have been painted with a sealer to cover the mold stains.
This section, in process of being removed, shows the extent of the water damage to the wall plaster on the column.
As we were removing the tile blocks we discovered a vestage of the original hotel picture rail hidden behind the block. If you take a close look at the 1914 photo above you can see the picture rail on the back right wall. The black paint above the picture rail is a mystery.
A better look at the embedded conduit and the electrical boxes. In the background are two of the NATCO clay blocks salvaged from the wall.
A view of the channel in the floor where the wall was. The channel is where the original 1914 oak floor was cut and removed. There is concrete below the oak floor. The channel was filled with concrete to support the clay tile block wall.
Bob Grieb, a member of MARCH, did the hard labor of removing the concrete from the channel. We had him pose for this photo (no gloves or safety glasses). Note the cut on the support column the masons made in 1941 to stabalize the new wall. Also note the east half of the lounge has mold stained blue wall paper and dark paneling.