Pre-IPTW Workshops

IPTW 2010 - Pre-Conference Workshops
Frankfort, Kentucky, October 13-20, 2010

Jonathan Appell
Gravestone Preservation Workshop
Frankfort Cemetery, Frankfort, Kentucky, October 19-20, 2010

PTN member Jonathan Appell will be leading two consecutive workshops on Tuesday October 19th and Wednesday October 20th at the scenic and historic Frankfort Cemetery. Attendees are welcome to register for one or both days. Each day will have entirely different focus, and the content will not repeat. Tuesday’s workshop will focus on all aspects of gravestone and cemetery monument repair and preservation and Wednesday’s workshop will relate to historic masonry preservation not limited to applications in graveyards and cemeteries. Each workshop participant will receive a folder of printed materials. The workshop will be a, hands on, interactive event. This means that all who attend are welcome to help perform the work, photograph, or just watch. You are welcome to tape, photograph or video the workshop as desired, for your personal or non profit group applications. All tools and materials are provided, including disposable & work gloves. Please dress for working outdoors in fall weather. The workshop will be limited to 16 attendants on a first come first serve basis. Pre-registration is highly advised to ensure a space. The day of the event registration will be allowed if space is still available. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about an important aspect of historic preservation in one of Kentucky’s most important historic sites, and while your there be sure to pay your respects at the gravesite of Daniel Boone.

Jonathan Appell is a gravestone conservator and monumental mason, performing cemetery preservation planning and conservation projects throughout the United States. He conducts the vast majority of gravestone and cemetery monument preservation seminars held nationally, hands on training workshops to help towns, cities, churches, historical societies, cemeteries, and individuals gain knowledge and experience in all areas relating to gravestone and monument preservation, historic masonry preservation planning and stone conservation treatment techniques.

Jonathan has been working in fields relating to gravestones and monuments for well over 20 years. Prior to devoting himself exclusively to stone and historic masonry preservation, Jonathan attended violin making school, constructed cabinets, built houses and additions, as well as performed many other related trades. He became a modern monument installer and cemetery contractor in 1986, and founded the New England Cemetery Service, performing excavation, foundations, monument installation and monument restoration.

During the early 1990s, Jonathan became increasingly involved with the preservation aspect of historic graveyards and cemeteries. He sought out and gained additional knowledge and training through all available sources, such as attending numerous workshops, conferences, studying sculpture and stone carving and through extensive travels and reading. He now owns and continually enlarges an extensive library including many rare books pertaining to all related subject matters; historic masonry & mortars, geology, sculpture, archeology, cemeteries, & ancient construction techniques.

Rudy Christian

Jim Houston

Historic Log Building Restoration Workshop
Cove Spring Park, Frankfort, Kentucky, October 13-20, 2010

In July of 2009 PTN held its first Preservation Rendezvous in Frankfort Kentucky. The event was focused around two workshops which took place at Cove Spring Park where the
Timber Framers Guild partnered with PTN to teach traditional timber frame techniques in the construction of a picnic shelter while PTN Board member Jim Houston and Executive
Director Rudy Christian taught students how to document and deconstruct a c.1825 log structure which was used for curing meat when the park was the site of a historic farming operation.

This year PTN will be returning to Cove Spring to begin the process of authentically restoring and reconstructing the log meat house. The workshop, which begins on October 13th, one week before IPTW 2010 and runs through Wednesday October 20th, will again be lead by Jim Houston and Rudy Christian plus two other log restoration specialists and will focus on teaching hewing and log notching, laying out and cutting step lapped rafter seats plus repair techniques for damaged wall logs. We will also have a portable sawmill on site to fabricate new rafter and roof sheathing boards which will be installed when the restacked walls are completed. Attendees will have the option of free rustic camping at Cove Spring or taking advantage of discounted hotel room rates at the Capitol Plaza Hotel or any number of local hotels and bed and breakfasts. A camp kitchen will be set up for those who want to join in on community lunches and historic downtown Frankfort is only minutes away for evening meals and entertainment.

Rudy Christian is a founding member and immediate past president of the Timber Framers Guild, founding member and immediate past President of Friends of Ohio Barns, founding member and past Vice-President of the Preservation Trades Network and founding member of the Traditional Timberframe Research and Advisory Group. His experience includes participation in the Quingue Forum, numerous speaking engagements and instructing educational workshops as well as publication of various articles about historic conservation. A recent article entitled “Conservation of Historic Building Trades; A Timber Framer’s View” was published in the APT Bulletin, vol. XXXIII, No1 and his collaborative work with author Allen Noble entitled The Barn; A Symbol of Ohio has been published on the internet. In November 2000 the Preservation Trades Network named Rudy the recipient of the Askins Achievement Award for excellence in the field of historic preservation. Rudy’s educational background includes the study of structural engineering at both General Motor’s Institute in Flint Michigan and Akron University in Ohio. He has also studied historic compound roof layout and computer modeling at the Gewerbe Akademie in Rotweil, Germany. He is an active adjunct professor at Palomar College in San Marcos, California and an approved workshop instructor for the Timber Framers Guild. Rudy’s professional experience as President of Christian & Son, Inc. includes reconstruction of the historic “Big Barn” at Malabar Farm State Park near Mansfield, Ohio and relocation of the 19th century Crawford Horse Barn in Newark, Ohio. These projects featured “hand raisings” which were open to the public and attracted a total of 130,000 interested spectators. He also led a crew of timber framers at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival, Masters of the Building Arts program in the re-creation and raising of an 18th century carriage house frame on the Mall in Washington DC. Roy Underhill’s “Woodright’s Shop” filmed the event for PBS and Roy participated in the raising. Christian & Son’s recent work includes working with a team of specialists to relocate Thomas Edison’s #11 laboratory building from the Henry Ford Museum to West Orange New Jersey where it original was built. In 2006 Rudy led a field school sponsored by the World Monuments Fund, the University of Florida and the Preservation Trades Network at Mt. Lebanon Shaker Village during which the 1838 granary was restored.

Jim Houston has worked in the building trades for more than thirty years, with the focus of the last twenty years being on restoration and preservation. He has worked for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for fifteen years. Houston was an art major in college who now finds a creative outlet in the traditional trades, applied to hand-made buildings.

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