Category Archives: Historic Preservation
Ohio’s First Black Church Nearing Renovation Completion
The Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in South Point had some state grant money redirected to another project, so some items not essential to the occupancy permit had to be postponed. These included items such as the new wood floor, installing the original tin ceiling and the replacement pieces, new window and door casings, reinstalling the wood wall base, and interior painting. The exterior painted wood handicap ramp has also been swapped for a premanufactured aluminum ramp. The owners are hoping to raise enough private funds to finish the remaining work this year.
Left: View of the northeast corner of the church, which is still awaiting delivery of the new custom front doors. Right: Interior looking northwest toward the location of the new egress door, which will lead to the wheelchair ramp.
What Do We Do With All This Water?
When Intel decided to build a plant in Ohio, one of the reasons is the abundance of water. Apparently, data centers keep getting built here for the same reason. But it you are working on an old building with a basement, all that water can be a liability! At The Gardner House, Steller Construction finished installing the underpinning, new concrete slab floor, and exterior perimeter drain when a torrential downpour saturated the site. Rain came down so fast that the drainage system couldn’t get water out fast enough to prevent it from entering the basement. One solution is to add a drainage mat on top of the waterproofing to keep water off the exterior wall and direct it down to the drain pipe.
L: New fluid-applied waterproofing membrane that will be augmented with a drainage mat against the wall. R: An exiting cistern filled with water that we hope can be made into a historical exhibit that the pubic can view.
At Fernwood State Forest, the foundation drilling team working with E. Mullins Construction hit water that required the use of steel caissons to stabilize the shafts walls before the concrete could be poured. As an option, the driller could have eliminated caissons and used a slurry product known as “construction mud” (amongst other colorful names) in the shafts to keep the walls stable as concrete was being poured.
L: The Fernwood State Forest storage building in April 2025 with concrete piers curing in wood formwork. R: In July 2025, the floor slab in place and building framing up and anchored to pier foundations.
And finally, at Mount Zion Black Cultural Center in Athens, which is known to have a high water table, the constant rain made basement soil excavation a mud pit and caused the water table to rise. On the assumption that wet weather would only be more extreme in the future, HDC worked with the contractor Wolf Creek Contracting LLC to raise the level of the basement floor and enclosed all sump pits in waterproofed concrete enclosures. The basement will still be usable space, but design changes eliminate floor finishes and keep drywall a few inches off the floor behind the vinyl baseboard to minimize water damage in the future.
L: Wolf Creek Contracting rigged up a conveyor system to remove mud and bricks from the basement. R: Water in the basement after another heavy rain slowed construction progress.
Gallipolis Freight Station Museum
Kabil Associates is the lead firm on an ODOT-funded project to renovate a freight train into a meeting space for the Gallipolis Railroad Freight Station Museum. Hardlines Design Company is providing architectural and historic preservation consulting and Kramer Engineers is providing MEP services. The main architectural work is to finish the interior renovation of a passenger car to include an accessible restroom, catering kitchen, and a meeting room and to update the exterior painted finish. This passenger train once carried circus workers who lived in self-contained studios that had a kitchenette, bathroom, and fold-down bunk. One of the rooms is being converted into an accessible restroom and kitchen and the other will be restored back to its historic condition in the future. The project is expected to be bidding in late 2025!
L: The interior of the passenger car has already been partially gutted. R: One of the intact studio “apartments.”
3D Drone Photographs Assist with Exterior Envelope Repairs
Left: Detail of attic dormer at the Clifton Opera House. Right: Detail of Sign Plaque at Clifton School.
HDC has been working on preparing construction packages to rehabilitate the historic Cedarville Opera House in Cedarville and the historic Clifton Opera House and Clifton School in nearby Clifton. All three buildings were constructed in the late 19th century and have varying degrees of roof, brick wall, and wood window deterioration. HDC commissioned MAJ Consulting LLC to take high resolution photos of the exterior of each building and stitch the photos together into a high-resolution 3D exterior model of the building that is so clear we can conduct an exterior assessment and prepare remediation drawings based on the model alone! This method is extremely helpful for steeply sloped roofs and tall buildings where exterior conditions had to be observed and assessed from the ground.
Detail of Fire Department Hose Tower at the Cedarville Opera House.
HDC Wins Diversity in Business Award
Hardlines Design Company was named an Outstanding Diversity Organization by Columbus Business First. The eight organizations and 10 individuals will be honored at a happy hour reception on Thursday, April 6, at the Columbus Museum of Art and will be featured in Columbus Business First in their April 7, 2023, issue.
HDC Remembers Cathie (Chris) Senter 1966-2023
The historic preservation community was shocked to hear of the sudden passing of Cathie Senter on February 27, 2023, of a heart attack. Cathie started her career in Canton, Ohio, where her passion for historic preservation earned her multiple awards, including Stark County Citizen of the Year. Cathie first interviewed for a job at HDC in 2007 but ultimately decided to go back to school. Before she started school, she worked at HDC over the summer on the window package for the Woodward Opera House and helping to finishing the HAER drawings for Monongahela River Locks and Dam project for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District. After getting a degree from Belmont Technical College, she stayed to become a beloved instructor of the preservation trades, including doors and windows, model and mold making, plaster, roofing and flooring, and all types of historic masonry. Cathie came back to work for HDC in 2017 and endeared herself to preservation clients, who appreciated her knowledge and willingness to explain proposed solutions. She conducted assessments and prepared reports for the St. Louis Arsenal, caretaker lodges and chapels at national Veterans cemeteries, and was working to complete the final phase of the rehabilitation of the Historic Gardner Homestead. Her attention to details and desire to take care of her clients often led to extended schedules, but her premature passing is one deadline we gladly would have postponed.
Cathie (Chris) at work at HDC.
At left, a 2007 drawing from the Monongahela Lock and Dam documentation project and at right, the restored windows at the Woodward Opera House in Mount Vernon.
HDC Looks Back On and Forward to Black History Projects
In recognition of Juneteenth this month, HDC looks back on our projects that were associated with Black history.
In early 2002, HDC started a project to prepare a renovation master plan for the Gammon House in Springfield, Ohio. The Gammon House was built in 1850 by George Gammon, a Black abolitionist and is one of the few Underground Railroad sites in Ohio that was owned by a free person of color. HDC subsequently implemented the first phase of the renovation plan to stabilize the exterior.
The Gammon House before (left) and during (right) stabilization in 2007.
In 2003, HDC was commissioned to prepare a feasibility study to renovate the Lincoln Theatre in Columbus into a modern performing arts center. The Lincoln Theatre, an Egyptian Revival theatre that opened in 1928, was funded by a Black developer, designed by a Black architect and built by a Black contractor. HDC’s study was used to secure funding from the City of Columbus and Franklin County, with the remaining funds raised by private donors. The grand re-opening occurred in 2009, and the project received awards from Columbus Landmarks Foundation, Heritage Ohio and the Ohio Historic Preservation Office.
The interior of the theatre before (left) and after (right) rehabilitation in 2009.
In 2005, the City of Wichita commissioned HDC to prepare a redevelopment study for the Dunbar Theater, which was constructed in 1941 and named after Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the Black poet and author from Dayton, Ohio.
It was the focal point of a commercial and entertainment hub that served the McAdams neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods that were predominantly African-American in origin until 1963, when the theater closed. Power CDC, a developer that specializes in inner-city Wichita, acquired the building in 2007 and restored the façade and marquee in 2012-2014.
The Dunbar Theatre continues to be a work in progress.
In 2007, HDC prepared a Historic Structure Report and implemented the stabilization and exterior rehabilitation of the Lathrop House, which was built c. 1850 by Lucian Lathrop, a prominent white abolitionist in Sylvania, Ohio. The house contains an Underground Railroad Museum in the new basement and HDC completed an update to the Historic Structure Report in 2021 to rehabilitate the interior of the house and make it accessible.
The Lathrop House before (left) and in 2021 (right).
In 2017, HDC prepared a master plan to rehabilitate the Ozem Gardner House in Sharon Township near Worthington, Ohio, which was built in the 1840s by a local abolitionist, into offices for the Flint and Walnut Grove Cemeteries. The Gardner Family donated the original land to create the cemetery in 1821. The pandemic set the project back from its goal of opening in 2021. It is currently anticipated to be completed in 2022.
The Ozem Gardner House before (left) and after restoring the original masonry window openings (right).
In 2020, the City of Athens commissioned HDC to prepare a renovation master plan to convert the Mount Zion Baptist Church, built in 1904 by a Black congregation, into a community center and museum of African American Appalachian culture. The study was used to obtain a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to start the rehabilitation process.
The Mount Zion Baptist Church in Athens, Ohio.
HDC recently worked with architect O.A. Spencer on the interior renovation of the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing and Cultural Arts Complex in Columbus, whose mission is to connect community through the arts by engaging central Ohio through performing, cultural and educational programs of high artistic merit that increase and disseminate knowledge regarding the vast and significant contributions of Black Americans to the culture and history of America and the world.
The main Auditorium with new flooring, ceiling and lights, looking through the updated column (left) and looking into the Lobby past the mural by artist Wali Neil (right). Photos by Shellee Fisher Photography.
And finally, HDC is very honored to have been awarded the project to prepare a Historic Structure Report of the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Lawrence County, across the Ohio River from Huntington, West Virginia. The church was built c. 1849 and is one of the first Black churches constructed west of the Appalachian Mountains. The team is looking forward to starting work in August!
The Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in South Point, Ohio.
Stained Glass and Faceted Glass at Jefferson Barracks Chapel
The exterior (left) and interior (right) of the chapel at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis
One of the seven national cemetery locations HDC is investigating with Tetra Tech is Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis. The project here is not the historic superintendent’s lodge, but a chapel built in the 1970s. Since it is such a recent building, the team was lucky to be able to visit the studio of Emil Frei & Associates in St. Louis, the firm that designed and installed the stained glass windows in the 1970s and the faceted glass skylight in the early 1980s. In addition, Stephen Frei led our tour and demonstrated how faceted glass is made by chipping away at a 1″ thick block of glass. He also came to the site to inspect the skylight, which he himself had personally installed. Stephen Frei also explained how the stained glass trees around the perimeter were intended to blend in with the trees outside and that the faceted glass skylight was renamed “The History of Humanity” from “The History of Religion” to be accepted for use in a federal building.
The faceted glass skylight in the chapel (left) and Stephen Frei explaining how faceted glass works (right)
Northeast corner of the Meade House in Symmes Township