Dale Cox, the mason from Woodland, MI, is a student of bricks and mortar. His credentials include the careful restoration of several keystone bridges, centennial farmhouses, and stone buildings. He's even worked on a centuries-old Irish castle.
So Cox immediately knew that there was something special about the former D.A. Blodgett Home for Children, the four-story fortress built in 1908 and recently restored, with Cox's expertise, to house a local nonprofit group and accelerate the revitalization of the Cherry Street corridor in downtown Grand Rapids.
“This is a masterpiece,” he says of the Classic Revival building. “The bricklayers took a lot of pride when they built it.”
Delos A. Blodgett originally commissioned the building for the city's smallest and lowliest population, its orphans. Generous and compassionate, the philanthropist was known to say, “How we treat the ‘foundling’ – the term of the era for orphan – so goes the future of our community.”
True to his philosophy, Blodgett spared no expense. He financed the construction of a truly extravagant orphanage for the time. He hired Chicago architect Ashbury Buckley to design a brick building that protected children from fire, proved a model of sanitation, and showcased exceptional structural design. Both functionally and aesthetically, the building was created to stand the test of time.
But when the Blodgett Home lost its purpose – foster homes, not orphanages, began to take in and care for orphans – it also began to lose its integrity. Mary Free Bed, for example, in the 1950's tore down the building's majestic terra cotta pillars and front entrance to make room for a 30,000 square foot brick addition to house polio victims.
Four decades later, the building stood on the brink of a bulldozing. It had become a liability of broken glass and dirty graffiti. An anchor of bricks and mortar weighing down the revival of one of Grand Rapids' newly reenergized neighborhoods.
“It was a community treasure being allowed to rot," says Jonathan Bradford, CEO of the Inner City Christian Federation. "Nobody dared to claim it.”
Nobody, that is, until Bradford's organization seized on the building in 2006 before indifference ultimately gave way to a swinging wrecking ball. Today, after a remarkable 18 month renovation project, the former orphanage stands with the likes of the Pantlind Hotel, the Wealthy Theatre, and the Heystek Building in the Heartside district as long neglected but now fully restored historic assets at the forefront of the movement to rejuvenate Michigan's second largest city.
Replicating History
The building renovation, which included measures to maximize energy efficiency and attain LEED certification, ultimately involved a talented team of architects, contractors, and construction workers. But rebuilding the brick walls and the detailed terra cotta work comprised perhaps the most significant aspect of the restoration effort.
Demolition of the mismatched additions on the face of the building revealed extensive destruction to the original materials and architecture. Numerous windowsills and eyebrows sustained heavy damaged. Several keystone pieces were missing. The entire front porch and balustrades, pilasters, and capitals had to be completely rebuilt. The project also involved recreating four, 35-foot pillars styled in similar fashion as remaining corner pilasters and capitals.
In total, 45 percent of the buildings' original terra cotta trim, supports, and decorative styling had to be replaced.
“There was a lot of head scratching,” says Kevin Weadly of Rockford Construction. “Without the luxury of peeling off the building's exterior from the top down it was quite an undertaking.”
Enter Dale Cox, the man many consider Michigan's authority on masonry restoration. He immediately realized this wasn’t the typical reconstruction project.
“Terra cotta doesn’t mount the same [as brick]," Cox says. "The masons were experimenting with mortars. While most buildings in 1908 were built with a lime-based mortar, they used a cement-based mortar. It was some of the hardest mortar I’ve every run across and a testament to the bricklayers and their skills at the time.”
“Getting into a building like this, we analyzed and took samples of the mortar," Cox continues. "It was hydraulic mortar. Invented in New York in 1865. It probably took about 20 years for the innovation to reach Michigan. We had to analyze it. Find out the compression strength. Match what we found. Go back and redo it in the same way.”
To complicate things, the original solid terra cotta pieces were built right into the masonry when the building was first constructed. Everything was mortared together structurally.
What's more, restoring terra cotta is extremely expensive. So the project managers turned to a new-age material called glass fiber reinforced concrete, or GFRC, which has become the restoration substitute for solid terra cotta during the past 25 years. The material is lighter, cheaper, and more durable than terra cotta, experts say.
A Monumental Achievement
Some exterior pieces could be removed, repaired, and reinstalled. Some were pulled from the building to be copied. Others, still structurally sound but partially damaged, could not be removed due to strict historic preservation guidelines. So Cox's crew made resin molds of the attached pieces to rebuild them.
Approximately fifty pieces were shipped to Stromberg Architectural, a GFRC replication contractor in Texas. “We flew down to be sure the shop drawings were accurate," says Rockford Construction's Kevin Weadly. "Every tiniest detail was reviewed and scrutinized by architects and engineers." The delicate terra cotta replications traveled back to Grand Rapids on tractor-trailer.
Dale Cox's job was to lead a team of 8 masons and put everything back together, including more than 10,000 salvaged bricks picked to rebuild the building's front facade.
"This is simply history repeating itself," he says. “They’ve done restoration since the pyramids were built. We don’t have the Irish castles of the 1200's or the European castles of the 14th, 15th, or 16th centuries. Our buildings in the 1700s were logs and clay.
"Masonry structure began here in the 1800s when people made brick in their own back yard kilns," he continues. "Brick took over and was accented with limestone, sandstone, or terra cotta."
Recently completed, the redevelopment of the D.A. Blodgett Home is now ranked as the most extensive terra cotta restoration project in the history of Michigan, according to state historic preservation experts. It’s an outstanding badge of honor for a professional artisan like Dale Cox, and a magnificent community treasure for the City of Grand Rapids.
Nancy Davis is an independent writer and artist living in Grand Rapids. She last wrote for Rapid Growth about
Armand Merizon, one of West Michigan's more accomplished artists.
Photos:
Various exterior views of the restoration of the D.A. Blodgett BuildingPhotographs by Brian Kelly - All Rights Reserved