New Copper Roofs for the Tower

With the majority of the woodwork now being done off site, the focus on the tower has shifted to the roofs. The tower roofing consists of a dome as well as two small roofs, one below each balustrade. Those two small roofs will be fully replaced with new copper. In the picture above, one of the crew members from Oak Roofing is soldering part of a new roof into place.

Historic Fabric Staying in Place

As mentioned in the April 17th post about historic nails, the wood sheathing for the two small roofs on the tower is historic fabric. The boards measure somewhere between 17-20 inches in width. Boards of that size are most likely from old growth forests and in our case that means the boards likely date to 1747-8. The majority of these boards are being put back into place in preparation for the new copper roofs being installed this week. The only boards not going back are ones that are in too poor shape to be reused.