Spotlight 2019
BUILDING WITH A PURPOSE After a year of planning, months of work on every surface of the building, and a down-to-the-wire clean-up effort, Orchard House School was ready to welcome students back for the 20192020 school year and beyond! Maybe you passed the school this summer to see it shrouded in scaffolding and black netting. Behind the curtain was a beehive of activity working to bring our beautiful 110-year-old building back to its original glory - and what a stunner it is!
through the building shows off rooms full of light from sparking clean windows framed in white.
Construction of the scaffolding started the Monday after graduation. Masons began the tedious work of grinding out joints, then repointing each joint to create a water-tight seal, and cleaning the entire surface.
The work of dismantaling the scaffolding started the week of August 12, and the final phases of landscaping and new uplighting began. Thanks to the generous donations from the Fund-a-Need campaign at last year’s auction, a lighting designer was contracted to complete the work early October. The design will gently illuminate our beautiful corner of the city, so it can be enjoyed in the evening hours.
Simultaneously, work began on both the interior and exterior of all our 87 windows and 5 entry doors. Broken glass was replaced, and all frames were scraped, painted or stained, and sealed air and water tight. This eliminated the need for the obsolete storm window coverings. What a difference it makes to have all of that battered plexiglass gone! A walk
Working silently and skillfully overhead, roofers pulled out the rusted tin internal gutter system that spanned the perimeter of the building and replaced it with a state-of-the-art rubber lining and a continuous-edge vinyl cap that matches the freshly painted cornice at the top of the building!
All of this was done to protect our historic gem and to ensure that it remains a solid foundation for learning for years to come, and it wouldn’t have worked without an army of folks behind the scenes. The
OHS Buildings and Grounds Committee met for over a year to develop a budget, find funding, work with an architect, vet and hire the General Contractor and subcontractors, and approve change orders. The faculty and staff were patient and cooperative in working with construction time schedules to ready classrooms and work spaces. Our contractors pushed through and altered plans to keep things running efficiently during unpredictable weather. Overall, the project went smoothly and came in under budget and on schedule! Many thanks to SMBW Architects, James River Exteriors, Blake Contracting, and Roof Systems of Virginia. A heartfelt thanks to families and friends who made generous contributions to make this critical project a reality. Fundraising efforts continue as we work toward matching a $150,000 challenge grant from the Mary Morton Parsons Foundation. All of us, especially the girls, love Orchard House, our second home. Now we can really show off our beautiful Building With a Purpose!