Wallpaper at 135

In the spring of 2007 I was invited to harvest wallpaper samples from 135 Warren Street,


which was being gutted and rehabbed, and turned into an art gallery (Currently Verdigris Tea and Gallery).
Some of the oldest papers I have ever found were entombed behind the sheetrock in the stairwell here,

 

 and in the tiny bedrooms on the top floor.






It was somewhat frustrating,  though, as most of the papers were original layers, pasted onto either original plaster or wooden plank walls--- a combo that makes them very difficult to remove and save.

                                     
                                        Old papers are often very thin, with thick, chalky, brittle inks.

These blue medallions were stuck on the plaster on the side of the room that probably got a lot of sun.  The rest of the paper in the pattern had completely deteriorated, but this part of the pattern clung on over the years.

Many of the walls were like big collages in there.

The unabridged album of my photos and wallpaper scans can be found on my flickr page HERE. 

Old walls, new life

This is the old dance hall that used to be on Robinson Street.

More specifically, it was tucked in the back, speakeasy style, on Rope Alley, near the intersection of 2nd Street.
I took these pictures 6 years ago, when the Housing Resources people let Alan and I go in and rummage around before they rehabbed. They were about to gut it and turn it and the adjacent 2-story apartment building into new housing.

I grabbed the piano stool with glass ball feet, some loose ivory piano keys, and some beautiful wallpaper samples from the upstairs apartment (which I later used in a collage.)




Alan salvaged a heaping truckload of beadboard from the dance hall walls, and stored it away.

Not too long after, the whole building burned down.

Last week Alan  pulled out some of the beadboard and installed a 20+ foot span of wall in his workshop (partially shown here). He also devised some secret method of removing spraypaint graffiti without ruining the original finish.