Rockhill Iron and Coal Company Post Office, Robertsdale, PA
Prior to Restoration - mid-1980's
Exterior Restoration in Progress - 1997
Exterior Restoration Nearing Completion - 1998
The FEBT purchased the old Rockhill Iron and Coal company Post Office in
1987 and has been bit by bit making it habitable again and restoring the structure
to its EBT era appearance. The pace has picked up remarkably in the past three
years with the help of contributions, grants and interest free loans the group
has secured.
It is planned that the Post Office building will become the permanent home for
FEBT's museum and extensive collection of EBT items.
Progress Summary
When acquired, the PO was a wreck, boarded up windows, flooded crawlspace,
collapsed floor and shot physical plant. 1996 through 1998 the basic
structural and physical items were restored. The restoration work has been
moving right along and by 1999 reached the point where some activities
couldn be held in the building. 1999 and 2000 mostly consisited of fine
tuning the exterior and starting finishing work on the interior. 2001
is expected to be a year where interior work such as electrical outlets,
plaster repair and replacement and wall and floor coverings are addressed.
1996
In April and May
later wall coverings were removed to reveal the orgonal wall coverings; Cleaned up debris
from the collapsed floor in the 'Barber Shop' portion of the building; documented and
removed the second floor balcony on the west wall; removed wires, cables, drain pipes
and other attachments on the exterior walls faces; remvoed toilet fixtures, the furnace and
heating system piping; substituted translucent protective covers on the boarded-over
windows.
In June, July and August the work crews the work crew removed the radiators, most of the
knob-and-tube electrical wiring and additional piping; verified the paht of the
underground conduit used to discharge runoff from the getters to the storm sewer;
removed rotted flooring and joists from the ground floor of the building (except the
area under the stairs); contnued efforts to make the Post Office ready for the
structural repairs to be performed by contractors.
1997
Structural, roofing and drainage work was all completed. This included the installation of a
french drain around the exterior of the building, regrading and a new cement slab
in the crawl space, new roof and gutter installation, repairs to the fascia and soffit boards,
window repair or rebuilding, and staircase and subflooring installation.
1998
Flooring was installed and finished and the heating and cooling systems
installed. Exterior work included completion of window, door and balcony repairs
and addition of storm windows to the first floor. Water and sewer stubs and lines were run for
hookups to the new Wood-Broad Top-Wells Joint Municipal Authority water system
by contractors.
1999
Most cxterior restoration work was completed with
some painting and finish work on the windows, doors and balcony and
addition of storm windows to the second floor. Final connection
of sewer and water stubs to building lines was also completed.
At the last 1999 Robertsdale work session on October 30, FEBT
member-volunteers William Adams and William E. Grant, Jr., installed a
test aluminum threshold plate in the main exterior doorway and
retractable interior door sweeps on the other three first-floor
exterior doors of the Old Post Office. We will evaluate the effectiveness
of the door sweeps this winter, but we already plan to install similar
thresholds in the other three doorways when work sessions resume at
Robertsdale this year. Bill and Bill also installed temporary
weather-stripping and seals around all second floor windows and all
exterior doors to ready the building for winter.
In December Huntingdon contractor Rex A. Smith performed
maintenance and minor repairs to the roof and gutters of the Old
Post Office. The cost of this work was $378.00.
2000
In the Post Office we made minor repairs to windows and the balcony
railing; completed stripping the paint from the exterior door onto the
balcony and sanded, primed, and applied two coats of exterior gray paint
to the door; removed loose paint and rust from the exterior of the metal
door into the read addition and applied two coals or rust- resistant gray
paint to the door; installed metal thresholds and door molding with weather
stripping in all four first- floor exterior doorways; filled imperfections,
sanded, and applied the first two coats of enamel floor paint to the
interior wood staircase; and used treated lumber to construct temporary
frames to keep soil and debris out of the surface drains in the front
and rear of the Post Office lot. In November we sealed the building for
winter, but we may apply more paint and varnish to the staircase in
December.
2001
Our planning continues
for raising the funds needed to underwrite the next major stages of work on our
current restoration projects, but in the meantime there are several short-term
items of work we would like to initiate this year if the necessary funds are available.
We need to have a new survey made of the entire museum site, incorporating the
depot into the site plan we obtained several years ago for the old post office
property. The new site plan would allow us to develop the additional improvements
needed for the museum site and illustrate these improvements to prospective
funding agencies.
