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50 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, April 7, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 5, 2005 Stonemason apprentice Jeff Watson piles stones taken from the old foundation of the Hanley farmhouse. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven A foundation set in stone A third-generation stonemason helps restore a historic farmhouse By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune CENTRAL POINT — When it comes to selecting stones, the workers who put the foundation under the historic Hanley Farm house knew their rock from their rubble. "This stone is all hand-cut and hand-fitted," stonemason Kirk Clark observed while taking a break from rebuilding the foundation. "The old guys that did this, you can tell they did it for a living. "It wasn’t just some farmers packing up some rocks," he added. Clark, 55, of Canby, knows of what he speaks: The third-generation stonemason has been working with stones for 37 years. Although the original stones were well placed, after some 140 years the foundation has settled a bit, posing a threat to the historic landmark owned by the Southern Oregon Historical Society. Advertisement The veteran stonemason works for Portland-based Pioneer Waterproofing Inc. which is being paid $37,000 to restore the foundation. The funding is coming from grants given by the John and Jane Youell Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, Betty Root, the St. Laurent Family Foundation and the Heritage Conservation Division of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Mary Love Hanley, a great niece of Michael and Martha Hanley, left the historic farm to SOHS when she died in 1986. The land was originally purchased by Michael Hanley in 1857 with the original portion of the house built in the 1860s. Work began in mid-March and is expected to be completed in another two weeks. "What we’re doing is putting a new foundation under the 1860’s section of the house," explained SOHS curator Steve Wyatt. "It had settled in spots." In fact, the floor tilts a bit here and there in the oldest portion of the house. The kitchen area has dropped several inches over the past 140 years, Wyatt said. "They are going through, tearing out the old foundation and putting temporary braces underneath," Wyatt said. "They will finish by putting steel columns underneath, putting a brick foundation around it and then putting the old rock back in front. "Once they are done, you won’t know anything was done when you walk past the house," he added. Some of the stones likely came from a quarry near Kanaka Flat near Jacksonville, the same site where stone was quarried for what is now the Jacksonville Museum building, Wyatt said. Most of the foundation beams were rock-solid, hooked together in mortise and tenon fashion. But one beam under the kitchen sink was so rotten the stone masons could break it apart with their hands. The replacement beam, 8½ inches wide and 10½ inches high, had to be specially milled, Wyatt said. "This thing is really well constructed," Clark said. "In a lot of ways, it’s probably heavier timbered and the woodwork underneath a higher standard for strength than some of the new stuff built nowadays. "Basically, it’s all hand-set rock with footings and foundation right down into the dirt," he added. "They built the walls first, then set the house on top of that." Clark, who began working with stone at age 18, has worked on several historic sites around the state, including the Crater Lake National Park structures built nearly a century ago. The stonemason has also rebuilt stonework at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood, Paradise Lodge on Mount Rainer and the Vista House built in the Columbia River gorge by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The first stone breaker in the family was his grandfather, Frank Clark, who learned his trade in Germany before arriving in Canada around 1900. He would settle in Minnesota where he taught his son, Warren Clark, the trade. Warren Clark worked throughout Oregon, and taught his son, Kirk, how to work with stone. Assisting him in the Hanley Farm project is apprentice stonemason Jeff Watson, 25, also from the Portland area. "I got tired of being a mechanic," Watson said. "With this work, you are always at a different place. You move around a bunch." The stonemasons moved a bunch while under the old farmhouse when they discovered it was crawling with black-widow spiders. An industrial-strength vacuum cleaner was deployed to suck up the poisonous arachnids. After the old stones are put back into place, the Hanley Farm house will stand well into the next century, Clark said. "As long as this house doesn’t burn down, it will be here for many more generations," Clark said, reiterating, "They really knew how to build things back then." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Distance Education Diamonds Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoo Fasa Advertisement s