But right in Wooster a group of researchers has been working to unravel one of the most nagging questions related to the restoration of the Reasin Beall Homestead on the campus of the Wayne County Historical Society.
The question is, what did the window treatments look like?
For the past decade, during which the house at 546 E. Bowman St. has been undergoing what the committee believes is the most meticulous evidence-driven historic restoration ever undertaken in Ohio, the windows of the house have been empty.
Virginia Gunn of Wooster, professor of clothing, textiles and interiors for the School of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Akron, and who has served as co-chairwoman of the Beall House restoration committee, said the windows have been bare because the question of window treatments was a huge one that could not be answered while so many other elements were being brought together.
But after the house was re-opened in June and the committee had a chance to catch its breath, research into what the window treatments were like while the Beall and Stibbs families lived there got under way.
The biggest problem, Gunn said, is unlike the rest of the house where even tiny bits of evidence provided clues as to how things had looked, virtually all of the evidence of the early window treatments had been obliterated by remodeling.
Gunn and other committee members worked with Shawn Godwin of Cleveland, project manager for the restoration, and an enthusiast of early American interior detailing.
Gunn said for years she has collected articles and illustrations from women's periodicals of the mid-19th century. She also collected images of paintings of interiors of homes done during that time period, illustrations from books done then and advertisements from newspapers that give a picture of what kinds of goods were available locally.
Gunn said the only thing known for certain about the Beall House window treatments is all the windows were equipped with wooden shutters. Evidence of the early hardware that held the shutters in place can be discerned, and a prized 1868 photograph of the front of the house shows the shutters in various positions.
news source :-Team researches answer to burning question: What treatments were at Beall House?
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