$ 800,000 + freight
This 1904 Richardson Romanesque Schoolhouse located in Southwest Pennsylvania is available to move. A 5,600 sqft structure built from fine, hand cut, random ashlar Cussewago Sandstone.
ResErections, Inc. documents, markets, and disassembles architecturally unique 19th century stone buildings that can be reconstructed on sites where the investment results in the creation of new real estate wealth. We laser scan the building (accurate to 1/7th inch), number every stone, and package and ship all building materials worth saving.
The school has 4 large 37'x28-25' classrooms with 12' ceilings with interesting antique light fixtures and 'old time' quality slate blackboards. Cussewago sandstone weighs 150 lbs/sqft. The 8,000 sqft of fine rock faced sandstone laid in a random ashlar patterned Romanesque style contains 5,300 cuft, or 400 tons of 8" thick hand-carved stone. Shipping would require 20 truckloads.
Greensboro,
Pennsylvania was an important Monongahela River port community. Some of
the earliest glass manufacturing facilities in the region were located in the
New Geneva/Greensboro/Glass Works area, and the glass industry led to
the establishment in Greensboro of important pottery manufacturing facilities in
the Mississippi Valley.
The Greensboro Public SchooI Building is an architectural monument to public education. Built in 1904, it was an elementary school for 57 years until 1961. An example of the legendary skills of Italian immigrant masons, it and two other notable stone structures in Greensboro was built by James Parreco. The schooI is listed on the National Register of Historic Places but is outside the formal Greensboro Historic District and is not constrained by civic regulations. Externally intact, it is endangered by internal deterioration. It is a beautifully constructed, 120 year old stone school building that can be disassembled, relocated, and reconstructed for apartments, offices, a school, or other venues.
An excellent example of school design from
the early 1900s, it is a striking presentation of a national design trend of the
gilded age ... the Richardson-Romanesque style. The building’s premier
feature is its exterior walls, constructed from locally quarried Cussewago
sandstone. The exterior stone gives the building durability and symbolizes
permanence. The exterior is attractive and reflects the determination of the
Italian immigrant community to build a noble building showing the importance of education
for their youngest children.
Sandstone, a sedimentary stone, is stable over a long time when the individual stones are laid horizontally. It is even-grained, of grey or brownish hue, does not develop iron streaks or stains, and wears well. The facade of the building is rock-faced random ashlar with thin mortar joints, Each stone is sawn to a straight edge on four sides while the face is left rough. Three different thicknesses of ashlar stones allow the pattern to appear random. No more than two stones share the same mortar joint. Walls are very strong and will not separate.
The emphasis of the design is on mass and uniform, rock-faced articulation of the walls, creating a bold heaviness deemphasizing details. A projecting water table course of rock-faced stone at the level of the first floor separates the partially exposed basement from the walls above. This course sheds water away from the foundation and keeps moisture from rising in the walls. Rock-faced lintels and sills project with slightly sIoped depressions on the top surface to shed water. Other notable stone details are the wedge-shaped voussoirs forming the entry arches, and a datestone that reads GREENSBORO / PUBLIC SCHOOL / 1904.
The stone was cut and shaped consistent
with the dominant architectural trend of the era, the Richardsonian Romanesque
Revival. The Romanesque style is characterized by heavy masonry walls with
roughly textured surfaces with a limited number of openings. Entrances were
a combination of half-round arches and small, vertically oriented windows. The
depth of the Richardson window arrangement allowed angled reveals on the
interior side refracting ambient light into the rooms. Wavy glass windows
with transoms adorn all sides of the structure. Wavy glass is cylinder
glass - blown in cylinder shapes, cut down one side, and flattened to
create panes. Creating glass lightweight enough to be
lifted yet strong enough to resist wind, the glass grain
developed while molten. In the early 1900s, Western
Pennsylvania was the center of America’s glass industry.
The building's interior plaster is lime
based from local materials. Lime plaster was given a
sand-textured finish to make it appear like stone, complementing the rougher
geometry of Romanesque buildings. The lime based mortar between stones is
thin, and flakes off easily as individual stones are removed.
Southern yellow pine used for trim and
flooring is a very hard wood that has the grain, coIor, and appearance of pine. In the early 1900s, the wood would be 200
years old when harvested and is fine-grained with far more growth rings per inch
than today’s forestry products.
The attractive ceiling was finished with
pressed metal. Pressed metal cielings were common at the beginning of the twentieth
century for stores, schooIs, and retail facilities resembling
expensive decorative plaster.
