Taking Care

Annual Quarry Farm Update from Steve Webb

It’s been another busy year here at Quarry Farm. Even though our event schedule was back in full swing, we were still able to complete several important projects to improve the house, the property, and the scholarly habitat so that all is properly preserved and made more conducive for inspirational insight and productivity. And while the Center for Mark Twain Studies staff has been running around like crazy, we wanted to make sure the scholars didn’t have to.

goes in the latter. We also commissioned local artists, Jennifer Thomas and Bridget Bossart Van Otterloo to paint their favorite parts of the landscape surrounding the farm. They both did an amazing job, creating two paintings each that are proudly displayed in the Scholar’s Lounge. With the new furniture, painting, paintings on the painting, and some healthy green ferns and parlor palms, the place has a whole new feel that is both elegant and fully functional.

One of our main focuses this year was to make the upstairs of the house, where scholars spend most of their time when they're not on the porch, more comfortable. I started by painting the three study areas early in the year. Then we purchased a new leather couch, and two big cozy chairs that make it a really comfortable place to get some reading done. You might be wondering, Steve, why didn't you use antique furniture since the house is a historic landmark? Well, the answer to that is simple: antique furniture is horribly uncomfortable. The house has some museum rooms and some living spaces. All the beautiful, old and uncomfortable furniture goes in the former, and all the beautiful, new and comfortable furniture

One of our most challenging projects of the year was the restoration of The Crane Bedroom. Although it’s not quite complete we are very, very close to wrapping it up. The original plan was to replace the 1950s wallpaper with something more period appropriate–a reproduction of a pattern from the late nineteenth century. But in contemplating the job we found that underneath the plaster was a decorative wall covering called Lincrusta. Lincrusta was popular in the late nineteenth century and is found throughout the house in different patterns. In uncovering this buried treasure we decided to rip out all the plaster and restore the Lincrusta to the best of our ability. It turned out to be a much more challenging task than originally anticipated, but we’ve weathered the proverbial storm, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, and we are set to wrap this project up in the near future.

Water, water everywhere but I can’t find the leak. In the world of historical preservation water is one of our most persistent adversaries. Can’t live with it, can't live without it. When we fix one leak I rarely have a moment of relief before another arises. The most recent round of Whack-A-Mole had the H2O seeping through the bricks of our most western facing chimney and into the Twain Bedroom. Luckily, we have the historic stone mason Courtney DeRusha in our corner. She and her team erected an impressive scaffolding structure around the towering brick chimney and repointed and restored the whole thing over the course of a couple weeks this summer. It was a daunting task and she not only completed it to perfection but she fixed a crumbling section of the front porch while she was at it–since she had her tools out anyway.

On to the Parlor. The room of the house that is most like it was in Twain’s day. The kind of room where we keep the uncomfortable furniture. There were some bay windows in that room that were in terrible shape. They were ancient and dysfunctional and had the insulating qualities of swiss cheese. It just so happens that we know the guy that wrote the book on historic window restoration (literally.) Steve Jordan came to the rescue and restored the four windows to their original beauty. And it’s quite possible that they work better now than they did one hundred years ago. Nice work, Steve Jordan!

In other news about exceptional Steves, I, with the help of my assistant Jacob, painted almost the entire exterior of the house this year. In previous years we’d tackle one side per summer but this year, we got in the zone and left no peeling paint unscraped, no bare wood uncovered, no exposed stucco left behind. We reached high peaks previously untouched by man and thwarted the efforts of even the most persistent carpenter bees. It was an unrivaled performance. The sense of accomplishment will be temporary though, I know, winter is harsh and paint’s gonna peel, but for the moment I will relish in this victory before I prepare to prepare for the next battle.

Our front porch received a major makeover this year too. With the help of Elise Johnson-Schmidt, we acquired some amazing Old Hickory furniture from the early 1900s that completely transformed the space. It was made at roughly the same time that this iteration of the porch was constructed so not only does it look beautiful but it fits historically as well. We added some ferns and other plants, the cherry on top, and the place is better than it’s been since the days of Susan Crane.

With all these accomplishments we still had time to plan for the future. There are several projects in the works for this winter and next summer. I don’t want to spoil next year's Dear Friends.

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Steve Webb