Category Archives: Historic Renovation
Gardner House Nears Completion with Open House Scheduled for September!
After five phases of construction, the Historic Gardner Homestead is nearing completion with a public reception scheduled for September. HDC initially completed an existing conditions assessment with a master plan for the future renovation. The initial construction phase involved demolishing the first floor restroom and installing a new HVAC system. The second phase consisted of reinforcing the attic and replacing the roof, gutters, and downspouts. The next phase involved exterior brick masonry restoration and repair of the historic wooden windows and replacing the modern vinyl windows. The fourth phase consisted of demolishing the rear porch and excavating the dirt from the south basement. The fifth and final phase involved the rehabilitation of the interior along with structural underpinning of the south basement.
Design highlights include exposing the old wood beams in the first floor ceiling by installing the drywall between the beams, refinishing the original wide plank wood floor in the northeast bedroom, and exposing existing chimney and bearing walls as an accent. Challenges included installing a structural beam in the Meeting Room ceiling to support floor joists that used to bear on a removed wall and meeting accessibility clearances in the small rooms on the first floor by using pocket doors.
The Reception Area before and after rehabilitation. New drywall was installed between the original ceiling beams to highlight them.
The Meeting Room before and after rehabilitation. The ceiling beam in the background replaces a structural wall that had been previously removed.
The second floor northeast room was originally a bedroom but is now office space. The original wide plank wood floor boards were refinished.
Beightler Armory Construction Complete!
Construction for the renovation of the lower level of the Beightler Armory in Columbus started in the summer of 2024 and was completed in 2025. Closeout stalled when the original Ohio National Guard project manager moved out of state but has since been completed in spring of 2026. The project involved removing several partition walls forming small offices and storage rooms to create larger classrooms, conference rooms, and open office space. The lower level also received all new floor, wall, and ceiling finishes, including new LED light fixtures.
L: Typical open workspace in lower level BEFORE renovation. R: Completed open office and work area.
Lower level corridor before and after renovation.
Tarlton Armory Construction to be Completed This Summer!
HDC is working with American Structurepoint (and taking the lead in construction administration) to rehabilitate the Ohio National Guard Armory building in Tarlton near Lancaster, Ohio. The building opened in 1968 and its design is attributed to George P. Guthrie, armory architect. Guthrie earned an architectural degree from The Ohio State University in 1927 and later served in World War II as a first lieutenant assigned to headquarters staff of the 136th Field Artillery. After the war, Guthrie was appointed an architect with the construction division of the Veterans Administration headquarters in Columbus and later served with the Adjutant Generals Department, where he worked on new armory buildings in the 1950s and 1960s serving as Chief of the Engineering Division when this building was designed.
The renovation’s exterior work includes membrane roof repairs, replacement of the windows, and repainting of the previously painted concrete block walls. Interior work includes expansion of the women’s restrooms into an adjacent space, removal of partition walls to create larger spaces, new lighting and HVAC, and new floor, wall, and ceiling finishes. The project is scheduled to be completed in September.
L: The female latrine in February after demolition started with the existing wall between two rooms removed. R: Female latrine in June with wall completed with porcelain tile and fixtures set.
L: Drill Hall in February after the National Guard moved out. R: Drill Hall in June with walls painted and ceiling painting in progress.
All THAT Teen Center Construction Starts Up Again
After the roof replacement, construction at the All THAT Teen Center went on hold as discussions took place with the City building department on whether the project needed a site compliance plan review. Finally, the building department agreed that since there was an ownership change and not a use change (building was still leased by a church for Sunday services), a site compliance plan was not required. However, since the classrooms were used for after school activities and not Sunday school activities, the examiner required that each classroom have an individual smoke detector in addition to the fire alarm system and rated corridor doors already in the project. After the updated fire alarm plans were approved, construction could finally start on the last phase of the project, which is now scheduled to be completed in January 2026.
Left: New classroom walls going up at rear of sanctuary. Center: New restroom partitions in lower level. Right: Multi Purpose Room renovations underway.
Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church Celebrates Jubilee Opening
The Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church received its occupancy permit on November 12, 2025, just in time for the jubilee celebrating its re-opening! Click here for an article and additional photographs of the opening in the Ironton Tribune.
Left: Charissa Durst climbing into the attic during the final punch inspection on 11/7/2025. Center: Contractor Dan Mullins (left) and project manager Lacy Ward (right) with Charissa Durst on the church stoop after the punchlist. Right: Charissa Durst standing at the Jubilee celebration. All photos by Jason Lucas.
Mount Zion Black Cultural Center Phase 1 Nears Completion
After a very wet spring and early summer, dry weather in late summer allowed Wolf Creek Construction to complete most of the exterior excavation and waterproofing, start the elevator addition, and pour the main basement floor slab. The floor is an 8” thick mat slab with 12” thick areas under future column locations. The floor is also heavily reinforced and attached to the exterior walls so rising water will not be able to dislodge it. One of the workers commented we could park an airplane in the basement! Wolf Creek Construction has also been awarded Phase 2 to rehabilitate the rest of the building, which will start once Phase 1 is closed out.
Left: View of the mud pit in the basement in April. Center: Rebar and vapor barrier being laid in preparation for the new concrete floor slab. Right: The new basement floor in September.
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!
