Jennie Bramhall House Porch Case Study

Preservation in Action Award Recipient

Tim & Francene Grewe – owners
Ernie Munch – architect
Francene Grewe – general contractor

The story of the Jennie Bramhall House and the restoration its porch is a tale of tenacity, creativity, cooperation – and takes the concept of Do-It-Yourself to the utmost degree! Built in 1909, the house is a cast concrete masterpiece, designed by Alfred Faber in the Queen Anne style with a touch of Arts and Crafts.

When Tim and Francene Grewe purchased the house it had over 100 broken or missing balustrades on its multiple porches, all kinds of architectural details were missing, the deck was collapsing in chunks, and beneath the porch the elegant key stones were dropping out of the Richardsonian arches in the foundation.

In addition to shoring up the foundation, repairing the arches, and rebuilding the porch decks, where were they going to find matching concrete balustrades? Needless to say, nobody is making this stuff anymore, so Francene decided to do it herself! She enlisted the help of several members of the Architectural Heritage Center who helped conduct research on the house and architect. And Dave Talbott, who owns the firm Architectural Reproductions, taught Francene how to cast her own balustrades.

Hauling endless numbers of bags of concrete in her little Prius, Francene never expected to be owning equipment such as a concrete vibrator or a mail scale. She even concocted her own “recipe” for the concrete. Salvageable pieces of the structure were deconstructed and numbered. Replacement pieces were cast and installed. And the DIY network documented the process.

This description is a gross simplification of one woman’s zealous (some might call it crazy) quest for preservation perfection. But what a stellar outcome!

More Photos of the Jennie Bramhall House

Click to enlarge the images below.