On Saturday, the group that volunteered to stay in Newbern helped Van clean the area around the church. While Van made a trip to the Post Office, the group decided to take that time to reflect on their experiences at the church. When Van returned with his mail, everyone began to load more wood into the big trailer. While Lea and Jessica were putting a huge piece of wood into the trailer, Lea’s foot slipped off the edge of the trailer! Lea laid on the ground in pain, grass covering her clothes and face. All her colleagues rushed to her side and tried to comfort her. She thought that it was broken, but after a few moments of nausea and crying, she realized that it was simply sprained. Poor Leanna Faye. We love you, and we are glad that you are alright boo!

Yesterday was once again D-Day. Unlike most days where we drive around Western Alabama, we spent our day in Greensboro, Alabama ten minutes away from our residence in Newbern. There in Greensboro we traveled to three antebellum houses that were all built in the early 1800’s. The first house we went to was the Noel-Ramsey house located behind the Greensboro courthouse. Our tour guide was a solider from World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War named Colonel Charles E. Ramsey who actually lived in the house until a few years ago. This small two-story house was built in a French style and now has a side addition to match the original house. Almost all of the furniture in the house was donated. The house was also decorated with paintings, a showcase of dresses located upstairs from the 1800’s, and family artifacts. At the house we drew our first floor plan for Dick (which none of us were prepared to draw). The next house we toured was less then a block down the street from the Ramsey House called the Johnston-Torbert House. There we met the owners of the house who actually reside there and learned a little bit about their family. This house was a two-story Federal style house. Inside were beautiful crown moldings, five mantels that were all different from each other, and a chair molding that also serves as the base for the window. While there we had a first for D-Day. They served us food and drinks that nourished our bodies so we could continue drawing. For the Johnston-Torbert house we drew a mantle, which was also another first. After completing our drawing we walked down to Camellia Court. Camellia Court was the first uncompleted house we have toured as well as the first renovated house we have seen. The owner, Pam, is a very enthusiastic woman who works at Hero, which is a program similar to Habit for Humanity (The Hero building was a rural studio project a few years back). Pam started renovated this house in June and is still currently working on it in her spare time with Johnny. Johnny is our go-to guy who can pretty much do anything. With his help they have completed the entire inside of her antebellum house, which now has a modern flare to it. Inside the orginal hardwood floor is glazed and the walls have been dry-walled and painted with carefully placed lighting that shines towards the ceiling. Unlike most antebellum houses, the inside floor plan has been renovated to be open and does not clearly state uses for the spaces within the house. The outside of the house is still in the process of being completed and will be added to the beauty of the building that already has charm. For our drawing of this house we completed another floor plan and drew the front elevation of the house. Once we completed our drawings we drove back home to ponder over the next D-Day.

So today was another day of hard work. Everyone was working together to achieve our deadlines. We must be done with the site research by 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday. At 4:00 p.m. we received an email from Linda Derry that ended with “HELP!”, it was brought to our attention that a master plan exists that may conflict with our current plans for the location of the church, and may interfere with future plans for the park. Fortunately, the problem was resolved with some compromise, and the visitor center they are planning to erect in the near future can be moved to accommodate the church. For our presentation on Wednesday we must make the aforementioned buildings mesh in some logical way. Hopefully it will all work out well.

Hey everyone,
So Jason was out of town reviewing some student work in Auburn today, and the rest of us continued work here in Newbern. While a few students are still working on the site proposal for the church’s new home, the rest of us are working diligently to get a full set of AutoCAD drawings of the church in its’ current condition. We are still awaiting feedback from the structural scaffolding company and also waiting for the go ahead from the CAC (Cahawba Advisory Committee) to have it put in. We plan to begin deconstruction within the month.

Yesterday was D-Day with Dick Hudgens, the second year professor for Architectural History and Materials and Methods. Every Thursday we spend the entire day from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with Dick. The length of the class ensures an educational and exhausting day. In the mornings, we spend time reading through our textbooks, taking a test, and usually looking at slides of varied historical architecture. After lunch we all hop in our cars and follow Dick to some city in Alabama. Yesterday we went to Demopolis, the city of the people, where we visited the Bluff House and Lyon’s Hall. The Bluff House was a Federal Style home with various Greek revival characteristics. Our tour guide and Dick made sure to point out every single architectural detail of the period (1800’s). Most of the furniture and many of the artifacts like the kitchen tools, and even the clothes, were all original. It was interesting to unearth the history (more like un-dust) with Dick and the tour guide. After the tour we drew an elevation of the western wall in thirty minutes and then drove to Lyon’s Hall. Lyon’s Hall was one of the best antebellum homes we have been to yet. Much like Bluff Hall, Lyon’s hall was also a Federal Style antebellum home with Greek revival characteristics. An interesting feature is the pyramid shape of the door frames which is said to have derived from the egyptians. This is the only home, that we have visited (as of now), that had been handed down from generation to generation until the late 1900’s. All the history was still preserved in the house by the inhabitants so there was a plethora of artifacts telling the story of the house. One important discovery in the house was the family Bible, which held in its contents the records of all the marriages, births, deaths, and things of that nature. The tour guide did an excellent job telling the story of the house. After the tour we drew an elevation of the eastern wall in thirty minutes and handed our sketchbooks to Dick. Another trip with Dick was finished, and the exhaustive, heated, informative day was complete.