Proposed Quarry Would Destroy Restored Wynnewood

Full story here.

Historic structure has new roof, is ADA compliant

Gallatin News Examiner

By Dessislava Yankova

July 1, 2011

Almost three and a half years after a devastating tornado ripped through Castalian Springs, historic Wynnewood has a new roof.

But as restoration efforts progress, and the September completion deadline nears, site advocates express bittersweet emotions in light of a recent land purchase for a proposed rock quarry. The company Hoover Inc., recently purchased 300 acres in Castalian Springs, using the name Western Farm Products LLC.

"The damage will start from day 1," said reconstruction contract Brad Olds, who has 30 years of experience in historic restoration. "The first blast will cause deterioration in the structure system, and with every blast, the deterioration will continue to severely damage the building over time."

Historic construction unlike present

The second floor of the left wing and the entire roof of the main building are reconstructed with the original 32-foot-long, white oak logs with stones covered with lime-based mortar mix in between. The construction of Wynnewood, and other historic structures, is much softer and weaker than present-day brick and cement and would not handle continous blasts from the proposed quarry just half a mile away.

"After repetitive blasts, the mortar system holding the stones together will turn into dust and fall out, and the building will eventually collapse," Olds said. "And we can't use cement because cement damages the wood."

With Western Farm Products LLC proposing to build a quarry site right in the middle Castalian Spring's historic community, project opponents have raised concerns at meetings including one at the Sumner County Administration Building on Thursday, June 30, when several hundred people attended.

Wynnewood, however, is just one of at least 10 historic houses built in the 1800s and early 1900s with walls constructed with soft bricks and without cement or wood frames. One of them, the 1802 Hawthorne Hill house on Old Highway 25, sits next door to the proposed quarry.

"With the quarry across the street, the Hawthorne house will fall," Wynnewood Director Rick Hendrix said. "It will collapse."

Hendrix: restoration to protect site's historic integrity

Renovation efforts at the Hawthorne house, which the state purchased in 2006, paused after the February 2008 tornado shredded much of Wynnewood and historic preservation funds were subsequently rerouted, Hendrix said.

The tornado blew off the roof, moved the building six inches off its foundation and completely destroyed seven of the 14 neighboring structures as part of the Wynnewood site that is on the National Register of Historic Places as one of 29 state locations with the highest landmark status recognition. Wynnewood is also the largest log structure of its age in the Southeast and possibly in the United States, said Patrick McIntyre, executive director of the Tennessee Historical Commission.

The three-stage restoration project costs approximately $5 million. The state, which owns the Wynnewood complex, will cover that out of pocket but could receive a 75 percent reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which declared the site a federal disaster, and some additional insurance compensation upon project completion, Hendrix said.

After the tornado, officials immediately begin restoration that became a three-stage project. The first two, emergency stabilization and preservation, were finished in May 2010. While some residents have questioned the work’s pace, Hendrix said the sensitivity of a project of this caliber requires attention and time.

“It’s such a historically rich site due to the age,” Hendrix said. “We didn’t want to possibly throw away anything. We went through every single piece of wood to see whether it’s part of the house. We had to try in every way to protect its integrity.”

Restoration to benefit site, public

The shell of the second floor, Wynnewood's sleeping quarters, has been restored as close to the original as possible.

"Every log that you see is in its original spot," Hendrix said. "Everything has been reconstructed with original or vintage materials; oak was replaced with oak and poplar with poplar."

Wood too damaged to reuse has been replaced with vintage, or reclaimed, same-species material from about five other sources in Middle Tennessee. The damaged wood was not thrown away but instead was utilized in other parts of the house.

Workers used broken large wood pieces to replicate the back windows of the summer cottage behind Wynnewood. Workers are refurbishing the cottage and the former caregivers’ residence that after the restoration will be integrated into the main museum and visitor's tour for the first time in Wynnewood’s history, site officials said.

While not seriously damaged from the tornado, contractors are also restoring the kitchen's roof.

The restored facilities will also for the first time be handicapped accessible and in compliance with codes, because such requirements were not in place during the original construction, officials said.