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Federal Gold: The Moses Myers House Restoration Project in Bloom

Good progress is being made in the Chrysler’s efforts to restore the interior of the Moses Myers House to its 1820 appearance. At this time, Phase I of this project is nearing completion. The goal of Phase I is relatively simple: to return the principal rooms of the first floor and the stair hall to their early 19th-century color schemes and to clean their neoclassical architectural ornaments. The plaster is now selectively cleaned and painted flat white in imitation of the original whitewash, and the woodwork is returned to the colors that were present in the 1810s. The colors that Myers chose for the woodwork of these rooms reflect their use. The stair hall and the back parlor, which served as informal living spaces, were painted a handsome pale blue-green, while the two most formal rooms on the first floor, the drawing room and dining room (added to the house in the 1810s), were painted an elegant creamy white. For an added decorative effect, the Myers installed a costly imported marble mantle in the new dining room and gilded the drawing room mantle.

Detail of mantlepiece in the Myers Drawing Room revealing a portion of the elaborate gold leaf original to the house

The cleaning of the architectural ornament not only improved its appearance, but also the understanding of its refined nature and sophistication. In the 1950s, the ceiling in the front hall was described as a sunburst. Today, with this well-preserved ceiling stripped of an eighth-inch-thick, 200-year accumulation of paint, one can see that the central medallion and the corners represent feathers and that the entire composition consists of fans, tassels, ribbons, and more than 1,200 individually made pearl-like beads. Cleaning the two first-floor wooden mantles led to similar revelations. The late 1790s mantles in the drawing room and back parlor are hardly humble affairs. Both were heavily ornamented with composition ornament of the finest quality—some of it perhaps imported from England, some of it made in Philadelphia by the firm of Zane & Chapman, or by its successor, Zane, Chapman, & Wellford.

Prior to cleaning, the ornament on these mantles had appeared quite flat. Many coats of paint filled the crevices, and 1960s cleaning efforts further flattened the high points. Using solvents, the upper layers of paint were stripped away, leaving a hardened shell of old oil paint that the project conservator, Stephen Marder, discovered he could safely pick away with a metal stylus and a scalpel. Perhaps the most astonishing discovery was that virtually all of the relief ornament on the drawing room mantle had been gilded, and still more amazingly, that the gilding had remained largely intact underneath many layers of hardened oil paint.

The Moses Myers House is open for tours while the renovation continues. Visitors are welcome to stop by and view this exciting process. For more information, contact the manager of the Moses Myers House, Marcia Riley, at 333-1086 or the Freemason Street Reception Center at 441-1526.

The restoration of the Moses Myers House is a unique and true collaboration with the community. The extraordinary work that is being done is thanks to many generous donors to the Chrysler’s Campaign for the Future. Each phase of the transformation will require Campaign funds to become a reality. While work has commenced the Museum is still in need of additional donations to complete the next phases of this project. If you are interested in learning more about contributing to this piece of Norfolk’s history please visit the Campaign web site or contact the Campaign office at (757) 965-2049.

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For general information, please call (757) 664-6200. For media information, please contact the Public Relations Department at (757) 333-6295 or publicrelations@chrysler.org.