Stained Glass: Henninger’s, a fourth generation family-owned business based in Cleveland has been hired to restore two original stained glass windows on the first floor of the Abbey. These beautiful windows, located opposite the entrance, are the focal point of the parlor.
Last month Henninger’s removed the west window for restoration in their studio. The window will be disassembled, documented, pieces replaced and reconstructed in a new frame and protected from vandalism and weather with an exterior coverant of glass.
This work is made possible with the generous support of Nicholas & Susan Farmer. Restoration of the adjacent window is also planned, however, the design in the center of the window was lost many years ago to vandals. When new artwork is decided upon and the window funded, this second window will also be restored.
1st Floor Doors: Removed last fall, the 1st floor bronze doors are still out for restoration, but we hope they will be re-installed by Memorial Day. This is a major step forward for the aesthetics and functionality of the Abbey. These doors are a major feature of the building. They have been neglected, abused, and vandalized for decades. Now covered with plywood, the restored doors will grace the Abbey once more.
This project is made possible with a donation from the estate of Pat Lewis, Lawrence, Sherry Adelman and the Certified Local Government grant program administered by the Ohio History Connection.
Handrail: We are ecstatic to report that handrails will be installed on the staircases leading to the second floor. So many visitors with mobility issues have not been able to navigate to the 2nd floor for lack of a handrail. With a major donation from Clay & Ethel Hock, a handrail will be on order before the end of the year.
Roof: The flat roofs over the east and west wings have long needed replaced. Prior to the creation of the GLA Preservation Association, roof leaks were repaired by adding a second (or a third or a fourth) layer of roofing without the removal of the previous layers. This year roof replacement will begin! After roofing is complete, replastering of the 2nd floor can begin.
Replacement of both roofs will cost an estimated $110,000 so replacement will need to be phased in one side at a time. Again, this project is possible in part by grants from the Certified Local Government grant program, administered by the Ohio History Connection, and the Historic Preservation Fund of the Columbus Foundation. Further, guidance and support provided by Mike DeCrane, CEO of Phinney Industrial Roofing and Green Lawn Abbey board member, has been invaluable. Thank you Mike!
With matching dollars on the line, our first year of participating in Facebook’s Giving Tuesday was a tremendous success. Your generosity helped us raise a total of $11,650 at the end of the year, substantially more than any previous year! Thank you from all of us at Green Lawn Abbey! We will be good stewards of your donation dollars.
GLA will be partnering with other donors devoting resources to get the job done for some of the projects mentioned in this month’s newsletter.
When life gives you lemons, you have to make lemonade. The coronavirus has certainly changed things in unexpected ways. The spring is typically a very joyful time at the Abbey, particularly because we get to welcome family and friends during our annual Open House. Families gather to remember their departed loved ones, the Kousa dogwoods and irises are in bloom making it the prettiest time of the year to visit the Abbey and others come to see what restorations have taken place since last Memorial Day. But in 2020, our priority is keeping you and all our volunteers safe.
In these extraordinary times, we will be hosting a “virtual” gathering and ask you to participate with us in two ways:
First, we invite you to share a memory and a picture of someone special to you who has passed. Not just those entombed at the Abbey, but your loved ones buried elsewhere that you may not have an opportunity to visit this year. With your permission, we will post your memory on a page on our website for others to read and treasure. Participation is free. Just visit our website greenlawnabbey.org and complete the form.
Second, we hope you will consider sponsoring a flag. We will be hosting an Ohio Proud Field of Flags in recognition of the spirit and pride we have in central Ohio. You can sponsor a flag or two in honor the people you shared a memory of. A lawn covered in Ohio flags will show our community spirit and help the Abbey’s restoration to continue.
This is how I want to remember my husband. Collecting, restoring, and enjoying vintage motorbikes. There is a trunk full of photos of Garrett serving his military duty in Japan but riding on a scooter was where he wanted to be. In fact, on his grave stone there is a picture of a motor scooter to show generations to come what was his passion. Every who knew him knew about his love of vintage bikes. He had about 75 scooters that have been passed down to his son and stored in a building they built together to house this museum of “precious” possessions.
Grandma Loebbaka’s house always smelled of homemade bread. During the Depression, her kids sold the bread on the street corners to help support the family. Later in life, she sold the bread to support her passion for oil painting. She was also a composer and musician. She always played “Danny Boy” on the organ for me. Sadly, the talent seems not to have been passed down in the family.
A World War I veteran, my grandfather, Carey Overshiner was a charter member, past commander and past quartermaster of William Britton Post 6817, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and a member of World War I Barracks at Dunkirk. He owned a pool room in Mt. Victory, Ohio where he lived with my Grandma Susie. He loved gardening and fishing trips to his cabin in Canada. One of his more notable hunting trips made the local papers when he crossed paths with a black bear that charged him – he raised his rifle just in time but clenched his teeth so hard it broke his smoking pipe in half. He would let me sit and watch him putter around in his garage filled with a rich menagerie of curiosities from mechanical parts to tortoise shells, old tools and driftwood, lamp parts to seed pods …and a large bear skin rug on wall.
Like me, my mother could not tell a joke. But she could tease and tell wonderful stories! My mom, aunts and uncles alternated weekends taking care of their infirm mother every weekend. When it was Mom’s turn, we would travel from Dayton to Lima and she would make up the most wonderful stories to keep us entertained (no electronic games!). We kids were often the main characters in her stories but she would slightly change our names to Fichael, Farsha, Fanice and Fanny (like that fooled us!), Miss her terribly!
I didn’t get to know my grandparents because I was born after they were gone. But feel I know my grandfather from the stories I heard. Grandpa was a engineer on the railroad during the Depression trying to support 10 kids! It was tough with limited hours he worked. He didn’t eat with the family through. He waited until the kids had their fill and then ate their scraps and made “gravy bread” to fill his stomach. When in town (Lima), he would walk to Mass every morning. Once, with only a $1 in his pocket, he knew it was too little to be of much use to feed his kids that day, so he tossed it in the collection box to help someone else. Walking home from church, lo and behold, he discovered a $10 bill got stuck to his shoe from out of nowhere! God repaid his generosity and then some!
My grandmother died when I was 9 y.o. She could be stern and made me behave…so she wasn’t my favorite. What I didn’t or couldn’t understand at the time was how much she carried on her shoulders. She had inherited a farm that dated to 1840. She, her husband and their son, my father, were the stewards of that farm and it was her keen understanding of how to manage a farm that carried them through. Thank you, Lena, for all you were and thank you too for producing my father. I owe you everything.
So many projects are either underway or recently finished. Here is a brief update on a number of them.
East Wing Ceiling: It took three months but the east wing, which was the most damaged, has been double primed and painted. It took volunteers three years to complete the 1st floor painting project.
Driveway: An unexpected opportunity arose this summer when the husband of a board member offered his labor to reseal the driveway. While we envision a new driveway someday, this was a blessing to tide us over until then. What was thought to be a 3-bucket job turned into a 16-bucket project as the crack-ridden blacktop soaked up the slurry. Major improvement! Thank you Mark!
Marble Stain: Marsha completed scraping the large stain off the 1st floor foyer. This will do until we raise funds to re-hone the floors. Then the beautiful Tennessee pink marble floors will be ready for another 100 years.
Repaired Ceiling Vents: Jayne and Andy struck again. These hard-working volunteers have now patched the damaged ceiling around the vent holes and built new ventilation screen for both the east and west wings.
Bronze Doors: The 1st floor bronze doors repairs are underway with an expected installation date in November.
2nd Floor Hallway Lights: Yes, we are tired of looking at the dangling bulbs too. It would have been easy to buy new light fixtures, but as preservationists we look to keep the building as original as possible. Taking down the old fixtures was easy enough (George). It took a long time to resurface the light rings (Steven), install new mechanical and electrical parts (Mike), but we could never find new glass globes to fit the 90-year old fixtures. After three years we gave up. We purchased the largest size we could find and made a small adaptation (Jayne & Andy again). The new-old fixtures should be up by spring.
Expanded Plantings: As a part of the plan to enhance the streetscape of the Abbey, this summer Oakland Nursery expanded our existing flower beds with 3 flowering dogwoods, 1 redbud, 32 boxwoods and 38 knockout roses. This is in addition to the hornbeams planted last fall. More yet to come.
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