Voices of Preservation: Darren Tracy on the Rehabilitation of Dr. Ferguson's Office
Lisa and Darren Tracy standing in front of Dr. Ferguson’s Office in Glens Falls. The couple decided to tackle the restoration after first reading about the property in an AARCH e-newsletter.
The restoration of Dr. Ferguson’s Office on Culvert Street in Glens Falls was a labor of love for Darren and Lisa Tracy — it’s also one of this year’s Excellence in Historic Preservation Award winners. In this guest blog post, Darren recounts how he first became aware of the threat to this National Register-listed building and the process of bringing it back to life.
In October of 2017, I received an email from Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) notifying its members of the possible demolition of a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. My wife and I are longtime members of AARCH. They provided assistance to us in the 1990s when we rehabbed a condemned building (Hubbard Hall, Elizabethtown) and placed it on the National Register. So we knew this building was significant because it was on the Register. Additionally it was charming and cute as a button as you can see from the photograph below, even though it was near collapse.
Dr. Ferguson’s Office before and after restoration. The small Second Empire-style house went from being an eyesore to adding to the overall charm of the streetscape.
There was broad community support to save the building. According to the Glens Falls Post Star, “Eric Unkauf, owner of The Shirt Factory in Glens Falls, had mounted a Facebook campaign to save the Culvert Street building.” But the hour was late and no one had stepped forward. The City of Glens Falls had recently solicited and received bids for demolition because of the safety concern the building posed. The City took possession of the property in 2014 due to unpaid taxes. I understand the structure was in need of significant repair and left vacant when the City took possession. If my wife, Lisa, and I were going to act, we needed to move quickly (my wife and I are a team, but on technical matters she defers to me). I learned of the plight on a Thursday, looked at the building on Friday and reached out to Mayor Jack Diamond about purchasing the property on the following Monday. He suggested I attend the next City Council meeting and make my pitch for purchasing. It was at that point that I started to second guess myself. I inspected the building on many different occasions, vacillating back and forth about moving forward. It was in really poor condition and needed a ton of work, but because it was on the National Register, small scale and walking distance to the downtown, I jumped off the cliff and made my pitch to the Council. They agreed to sell it to us for $1. This might sound like a good deal, but really it was a negative asset because of its condition. The mayor, city council and other city employees were very helpful. They transferred title to us three days after the meeting and temporary stabilization started. We needed to install a temporary roof so the building could make it through the winter.
Before and after photos showing the building interior, looking at the northwest window. Photos courtesy of Darren Tracy
I can’t describe how much moral support we received from the community, inversely proportional to the size of the building. It seemed like every day during the long renovation period someone would stop by and tell us how thankful they were that we undertook the project. We gave many private tours during construction showing the work in progress and opened our doors to an AARCH group that was touring the Hyde Museum in the City. Because of the degree of deterioration to many parts of the building, there were many construction challenges. We utilized local subcontractors and our small construction company staff to complete the work. My wife and I own a small construction firm and I own a small engineering consulting firm, both of which were integral for this project to be completed creatively and efficiently.
Some unique strategies included retaining the existing mansard roof without totally rebuilding, retaining the brick detail without totally rebuilding and creating an energy efficient, sustainable structure using building science principles.
Photos showing the rehabilitation in progress. From left: Jacking up the mansard roof; Multiple layers of High R Rigid insulation being installed; Wood framing was glued to exterior brick to stabilize the wall. Photos courtesy of Darren Tracy
The roof rafters were rotted and the roof structure had settled as much as six inches. Instead of completely removing the roof structure and rebuilding from scratch, we choose to detach the existing roof structure completely from the second floor, jack it up and repair as needed. This strategy saved us money and preserved functional historic materials. The fasteners that anchored the brick exterior to the wood wall framing were corroded and not effective — in some cases completely disintegrated. The interior wood framing was rotted. The masonry walls were bowing and ready to come down with a strong wind gust. In order to stabilize the brick, we constructed new interior wood framing. We adhered the back of the studs to the brick masonry walls with a thin bead of canned urethane foam. This is a unique detail that I am unaware of being used elsewhere. This served to stabilize the brick exterior with no negative impact on the brick. The remainder of the brick between the studs was left as is, resulting in a remarkably sturdy wall.
A 6 mil. vapor barrier was added under the new concrete basement floor which was very helpful in minimizing moisture wicking up into the building from the earth. Rigid insulation was installed between the new stud framing. An air space was left between the existing brick and the new rigid insulation so the brick could breathe. The rigid insulation was sealed to the studs with a bead of canned urethane foam, helping to minimize the water vapor transmission from the interior to the exterior during winter months, which can be damaging to the brick because the water vapor can condense, freeze, and damage the brick face. Multiple layers of rigid insulation were used in the second floor ceiling, sealed tightly to provide maximum energy efficiency within the space we had to work in the mansard roof. Care was taken to provide unobtrusive but adequate ventilation above the ceiling insulation, minimally affecting the building aesthetic.
In recent years, the City of Glens Falls has undergone an economic development resurgence, in part due to the preservation of historic buildings which contributes to the quality of life in the community and the desire to live there. The rehabilitation of Dr. Ferguson’s Office is part of the mosaic, but could have easily been lost.
Darren Tracy PE
Principal, West Branch Engineering & Consulting PLLC
This guest blog post is part of our series celebrating the 2020 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award winners. You can find all the posts in this series by clicking here.