Should you ever find yourself pinned beneath the hardwood floor of a Civil War Era saloon built on a corner in an isolated town listed in the National Historic Register, take a minute to look around. The first thing you'll notice are the trees. Stripped bare, felled and rolled into place, perfectly preserved, they support the floor — now your ceiling — which may or may not come into contact with your head, contingent upon how careful you are. Follow the trees and you'll find the pedestal — a short, stacked-stone pillar supporting a post, which in turn reaches up to a first-floor ceiling crossbeam, which serves as the backbone of the building. Look past the pillar and you'll find a hole in the deck. Falling through the hole is a quarter-moon of light, which was just eclipsed by the language teacher-turned-preservationist who lowered himself upside-down through the gap to point out structural features which haven't been exposed in over a century. That would be David Braswell, and he's the man you're here to see. Above: History is in the details. David Braswell (left) and Steven Smith, a Maeystown based contractor, examine hardware that will be added to Braswell's latest renovation project. Carpenters Steven Smith. (left), of Maeystown, and Spencer D. Smith, of Columbia, examine plumbing options after carefully removing wood planking from the floor of one of Braswell's buildings.

Over the last 20 years Braswell and his wife Marcia have restored a dozen buildings, including several in Maeystown, a historic village about 45 minutes south of St. Louis. "Restoring an old house is an adventure," Braswell will tell you, "and half the fun is seeing what came before." At the moment, we're standing beneath the Corner George Inn looking at what came after.

Like an architectural detective, Braswell read the clues beneath this turn-of-the-century building and deduced that the hotel and saloon had once harbored a wine cellar. Several days of digging and 20 tons of excised silt proved him right. The cellar now serves as his laboratory — a place to store and restore bits and pieces of bygone buildings.

"You always keep all the pieces," Braswell says, glancing at the floor above us. "Part of the challenge of restoration is being able to reuse what you have and find pieces for old buildings elsewhere. That's what I've spent the last 20 years of my life doing — storing up everything from hardware to doors to architectural artifacts which I think may be useful in my work." He nods at the floor, noting that it's a mix of original wood and recycled floorboard.

"When you're just starting, you don't have to have all the pieces yourself. You need to know people who work on old buildings, who have supplies of parts of old buildings, or who have the knowledge of where to go. Most people start with an old building and they have good intentions, but unless they know where to get the old parts, they're going to find themselves spending big dollars to buy reproduction pieces."

He points to a pair of beams running side-by-side, one original, one a replacement. "And don't take out the pieces just because they don't serve a present day function. Whenever you encounter a feature that doesn't have to be torn out, why spend the time and money? Fix it up,

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build around it, or show it off in an attractive way so you can tell the story of the building."

As Braswell points out, it's a story that can shift in mid-sentence.

"We've often times changed our plans totally during the tear-out phase when we've discovered walls, or staircases, or hidden this and that. Those are the parts of restoration that are really pretty exciting. You may have a plan and then change that plan totally after you get started and discover how the building was built"

To illustrate his point, Braswell makes his way up two sets of stairs to the second floor of the Corner George. He jogs left through a small sitting room and pauses at the next door, explaining how someone acquainted with the building recalled watching movies in the ballroom during her youth.

And?

When the Braswells bought the building, it didn't have a ballroom. Again, he examined the architecture and formed a deduction: sometime during the 1920s the ballroom had been divided into three smaller rooms. "The walls came out in about an hour," he says. Braswell opens the door to 600 square feet of refinished pine flooring adorned with antique furniture, all basking in the light of a half dozen glazed windows. "This is the original room. Original floor, original woodwork, original glass, original window locks." He smiles. "I've restored 12 buildings and I've never found the original window locks in any other building."

While raised ceilings lend other rooms in the house a feeling of height, the ballroom is overwhelming in its depth. But even that pales next to its sense of time.

"Part of restoration is illusion," Braswell says. "The feeling that this really could be the way it was. And in most cases, it is 98 percent the way it was."

Only upon closer inspection do you detect the modern intrusions. In order to save the walls, Braswell sacrificed the ceiling. Heating and cooling vents are discretely arranged along its borders, and sprinkler system heads punctuate the plaster at irregular intervals. "We were able to put all the electric, all the plumbing, all the heating and cooling, and all the ductwork into the ceiling without having to lower it, which is one of the things that I discourage," Braswell says. "This is basically a brand new building — new plumbing, new wiring, new everything — inside a 114-year-old shell."

For others interested in restoration, Braswell suggests tapping into the community. "The very first thing you do is contact people in your local area who are restoring old homes. You need to create an association of people who live nearby if nothing exists. They'll have the old doors leftover hinges. Next up are people who run the local salvage businesses and who deal in used brick, lumber and pieces of old houses."

"Part of restoration is illusion," Braswell says. "The feeling that this really could be the way it was."

Braswell also recommends documenting the prerenovated structure. "Videotape and take photographs, because if you're going to apply for federal tax credits, you'll need to show what it looked like before you started. Then take all the doors and all the transoms out, because in the process of renovation they'll get scratched, broken, jammed — something will happen to them. And again, whenever you're restoring, save all the pieces. You may need an unusual piece to replace something that's broken or rotted."

While the results are impressive, Braswell cautions that the process isn't for everyone. "You have to have the time to do it, you have to have the money to do it, and you have to have the patience," he says. "It always takes longer than you think, and it always takes more money than you think."

As we make our way from the ballroom back to the saloon, Braswell shares another tip. Once the building's skeleton is exposed, remove the dead wiring, then draw a map which identifies plumbing, wiring, ductwork and other significant features. File the map away for future reference.

And if you're going to hire help, hire someone with experience.

"You need people who have creative ideas," he says as we step inside the saloon. "There's no one way to do a building. You're constantly

(left) This second-floor ballroom was divided into three smaller rooms during the 1920s. A chance encounter with a passerby who recalled the building's original layout led the Braswells to tear down the interior walls and restore the room to its original grandeur. (center) A view from the Corner George: Braswell's latest renovation project, (right) The Braswells renovated this 114-year-old building in Maeystown to create a Bed&Breakfast and curiosity shop. By using low impact renovation techniques, they successfully incorporated 20th century technology into a turn-of-the-century building without sacrificing the old world atmosphere.

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thinking of new ways to hide things. And I wouldn't hire a carpenter who doesn't know about old houses, because nothing's straight. Get craftspeople who've done restoration before. It'll save you money."

We pass between a pair of car penters prying slats from the floor and Braswell pauses, resting his hand against the building's central support. He glances around the saloon, imagining how it will look next month, or how it looked a hundred years ago. "You have to have patience when you're doing restoration," he says quietly. "But the rewards are infinite in the sense that, you have something no one else will ever have. You have not a re-creation, but the restoration of something that, if it could talk, would tell wonderful stories."

For more information on historic renovation, contact: Mike Jackson, Chief Architect for Preservation Services at the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 1 Old State Capitol Flaw, Springfield, IL 62701-1507 (or call 217/782-4836).

For additional information about historic Maeystown, write to the Maeystown Preservation Society, PO Box 25, Maeystown, IL 62256, or contact David and Marcia Braswell at the Corner George Inn, 1101 Main, Maeystown, IL 62256. The Braswells can be reached by phone at 800/458-6020 and by fax at 618/458-7770. You can also visit the Corner George online at www.rivervalleyinns.com/ mainstr/msitext. html.

Adding energy to architecture

"We're big believers in 'if you have the original material, you leave it,'" says Dave Leonatti, preservation architect with Melotte-Morse-Leonatti LTD, an architecture, planning and design firm located in downtown Springfield. "We try to maintain as much of the existing material as possible. Only when it's absolutely necessary do we try to mill matching pieces or get into replicating with new material."

When it comes to selecting a contractor, Leonatti emphasizes the value of references. "Not to be disparaging, but it can be difficult to find contractors sensitive to historical projects. Call the state historic preservation office. Ask for names of people who've done historic architecture. And get a lot of references."

In terms of increasing energy efficiency without destroying the architectural integrity of the building, Leonatti says a number of options are available. "Many times there are low profile interior storms — magnetic or other types — that you can actually place to the inside of a window. Those are really low impact and they don't affect the profile. Or if the window sashes are thick enough, you can take out the old single glazing, rout out the frames, and have them accept insulated glass," says Leonatti. "So you can keep the same look and profile and add the energy efficiency of a true insulated glass unit."

David Braswell opens a low profile interior storm window in the old Maeystown Mill. Interior storms offer the advantages of energy efficiency without detracting from the atmosphere of the building.

Adding insulation is another low impact means of increasing energy efficiency. "It's generally something you can do fairly cost effectively without anything being seen," says Leonatti. "Insulating the exterior walls is sometimes difficult. You may be getting into a situation where you're extending the window jambs and the depths of window frames, and that can affect the look."

Leonatti says energy management systems such as setback automated thermostats can also cut energy bills. "But doing energy retrofits can be tricky," he adds. In some past projects, Leonatti has actually incorporated the old heating system into the new. "Say you have an old steam or hot water system where the radiators are an integral part of the look. We'll try to install a modern boiler with automated controls so you get the efficiency of the energy source itself while using the old radiators."

And if you aren't sure how the original pieces fit together, much less the old with the new?

"Do your research," Leonatti advises. "Try to find as much historic precedence as possible. Call the state historic preservation office. And try to get a preservation architect to at least give you a quick hand in terms of evaluation — even if it's just an hour to walk through and highlight some things so you don't have many surprises.

"There are always problems with any kind of old building," Leonatti notes. "What you want to find out is: is the roof structure solid, the foundation good, and can you make it waterproof — can you get water away from the building? Water is the number one killer of any building. Protecting from water infiltration top and bottom are the first two things you want to evaluate. Then evaluate if the skeleton is intact."

And don't be fooled by first impressions. "You should never underestimate the resilience of the materials in some of these older buildings," Leonatti says. "You really need to go in and evaluate — see if the basics are still there. And if it's a house in a neighborhood with a lot of historic homes, it would seem that maybe you have a duty to help preserve a piece of that history," he adds. "Because once they're gone, they're gone forever."

David Leonatti can be contacted at Melotte-Morse-Leonatti LTD, 213 1/2 S Sixth Street, Springfield, IL - 217/ 789-9515 - mmlltd@fgi.net. Beginning March 31, you can visit the Melotte-Morse-Leonatti LTD website at www.mml-adg.com.

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