Recently the New York City Department of Design and Construction asked us to come out and consult on the restoration project at Flushing Town Hall. The town hall is a historical NYC landmark built in 1862. Officially opening in 1864, the building served as a town pubic hall housing a jail, bank, grand ballroom, entertainment center, and a rallying site for Union Soldiers during the Civil War. The town of Flushing was incorporated into New York City in 1898, and in 1902, the Flushing Town Hall became a courthouse. In 1967, the building was granted protected status by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and finally it was recognized in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Today Flushing Town Hall serves as a center for culture and the arts in the community.
Over time the building has suffered from neglect, and various efforts are being made to restore and preserve the building.
The current project is to address various areas of wood deterioration, and areas where column crowns on the exterior of the building have broken off and need to be reproduced. Abatron’s products LiquidWood and WoodEpox, turned out to be the ideal products for repairing the areas of rotted wood. We advised repairing the column crowns by replicating a good crown, or portions of it, with our MasterMold 12-3 Polyurethane Mold-Making Compound. Once a mold of the original piece has been made, we suggested suing Abatron’s WoodCast to recreate the originals. The parts could then be set in place by using an adhesive such as our Epotron 5 or Aboweld 55-22.
In addition to our on-site analysis, we also gave a detailed lecture on Wood Restoration, which included a talk and a brief demonstration of our products. Attendees included city engineers, architects, contractors, and project managers, for the DDC and the Flushing Town Hall restoration.
For more information on the NYC DDC and the Flushing Town Hall, check out the following links: