Creeping Elements Slowly Eating Away Mercer's Museums A Fund-raising Effort To Upgrade And Repair 2 Facilities Has Entered The Second Phase. The Goal: $3 Million.
DOYLESTOWN BOROUGH — When it rains, the concrete walls inside the Mercer Museum weep.
From the outside, the massive, castlelike structure appears to be an indestructible fortress. But, just as a mighty mountain range is eventually worn down by the elements, the museum and its precious contents are slowly being ravaged by moisture and sunlight.
Enter the Bucks County Historical Society, whose trustees are determined to stop further deterioration through a two-phase $4 million fund-raising campaign called "Celebrating An American Original."
Between 1913 and 1916, Henry Chapman Mercer, an architect, historian, collector and ceramist, built the Mercer Museum to display his collection of more than 50,000 pre-1850 tools and artifacts, said the museum's curator Cory Amsler.
The seven-story building, with its rising towers, gables and parapets, is made entirely of reinforced concrete. It is one of the earliest applications of reinforced concrete on this scale in the United States, Amsler said.
The concrete, however, absorbs water and during freeze-thaw cycles it cracks and flakes. The cracks allow moisture to penetrate deep into the structure and rust the building's steel reinforcing rods.
During a December rain storm, water was found standing on the floor of virtually every exhibit room on the east side of the building. It had been forced through the cracks and fissures by the driving rain. Some artifacts were saved from a potentially destructive soaking because they were on platforms, but those on the floor suffered from some corrosion...
https://newhopetoday.blogspot.com/2017/04/henry-mercer-fonthill-museum-doylestown.html
https://newhopetoday.blogspot.com/2017/04/henry-mercer-fonthill-museum-doylestown.html
Read complete article at below Link:
http://articles.philly.com/1993-02-28/news/25954407_1_mercer-museum-fund-raising-fonthill-museum
http://articles.philly.com/1993-02-28/news/25954407_1_mercer-museum-fund-raising-fonthill-museum
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