Patient work provides big key for retired couple
“Do you cut keys?” the customer asked the clerk. The customer must be smiling inwardly if not outwardly, because the clerk is standing right near the key cutting machine.
“Yes,” the clerk answers.
And that’s when the smile grows. The customer, who happens to own and live in a house built between 1772 and 1776, pulls out a key about 8 inches long. It’s the key to his front door.
That customer is Robert J. Cook, a resident along
First, he’s living in one of the oldest houses in western PA. As owner of a house that was nearing completion as Thomas Jefferson authored the Declaration of Independence, Mr. Cook has both the patience to work on a long restoration process and a vision of what the old house has been.
House first built by Edward Cook
While traveling on
Located near
According to the History of Fayette County, by Franklin Ellis, published in
Rented out but
never sold outside the Cook family
The present
occupants of the house have had their hands full from the beginning. Robert
Cook grew up in the house with his family but the house has had many occupants
between those days and now. It even sat empty and unoccupied for eight years
before Robert and his wife Marlene, moved in.
Robert describes at
least eight major areas of work he’s addressed to bring the house to it’s present state.
1. The basement has
been deepened with new concrete footers and floor poured.
2. Sagging floors
have been jacked up and new supports added.
“They used very good
material in the original construction,” says Mr. Cook. “But their technique was
poor.” He found that supporting walls on the second floor were not places above
weight bearing walls on the first floor.
3. New tin roof installed.
4. The outside
masonry has been pointed / restored.
5. The windows are being restored. To preserve and reuse the original
glass, which Cook believes was imported from
6. Heating.
In Mr. Cooks memory, there have been four different
heating systems including the present gas/hot water system.
7. Wiring.
The house, where it had been wired, included knob and
tube wiring. Part of the process of rewiring included cutting groves in the
plaster for new wiring.
8. The interior woodwork
has been restored.
Part of this process
included recording the profile of the original chair rail, door moldings, fire place trim and using new wood made to match the old.
How has he had the patience to work with all those craftsmen who are used to building new, such as plastering contractor who wanted to remake it like a new house, squaring up corners that were not completely plumb and square?
“It’s a labor of love” states Mr. Cook. “And the time I had preparing for this restoration has made me more careful.” Though his wife disagrees.
“You have always wanted to preserve things,” she says. And the retired USAirways mechanic agrees.
When will the restoration be complete? It is unlikely that it will be done in his lifetime, but Robert J. Cook plans to pass a strong heritage to other family members. And the house is only part of that family tradition.
[end]
For more on Edward Cook and his career as a merchant, civil servant, judge and landowner, see the web page http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pamonval/bios/biocookfamily.html. Robert J. Cook the current home owner, is also active in the Rostraver Township Historical Society.
Photos:
The Cook homestead in
Antique hunters took the original key and
lock but Mr. Cook found one he feels is quite close to the lock installed in
1776 when occupants first moved into the house. He likes to tease hardware
clerks by asking them to duplicate this one for him.
The window wells which penetrate thick stone walls make a nice setting for seasonal decorations in
the Cook house in Belle
Restoration involved uncovering two
centuries of remodeling. Here Mr. Cook describes how this huge wedge-shaped
fireplace looked when he started restoration. The stone mason
replaced several missing stones to bring the appearance back to “original.”
David Hiebert
311 Market