Columbus First National Bank

How in the world did I end up liking history? Is that something that just comes with age or what? Maybe it’s a connection with something tangible. I’m not sure but when I was a kid history was the most dreaded class of the entire day. Could not stand it and could see little point in studying things of the past. Of course in High School I could see no point in studying about much of anything for that matter so go figure.



This is a historic shot of the First National Bank Building in Downtown Columbus. I’m really not prepared to write anything of substance about this today but I really need to pull together all the loose ends I have about this building. It has an interesting history both as a bank and in the afterlife since. I’m thinking it’s been close to twenty years since it has been a bank. It is currently vacant but something cool is going to happen here in 2010 one way or another. There are a couple of new things waiting in the wings for this old building and either way it will be fun.



We restored this sleigh last year for a client in Pennsylvania. It was a local treasure from a prominent family in their area and we were proud to bring it back to life.



Like most projects it starts with reducing it to a heap. Everything comes apart. The wood runners were solid but if you look closely you can see the upper dash support is broken. That particular break needed to be addressed before we installed the new dash.



The outer skin of the body was in really sad condition. We ended up replacing the majority of it using the original for patterns. Here we have the body in hard coat sealer awaiting the first sanding.



The sleigh turned out beautifully. The original colors were black and maroon which we matched. The patterns of the original mohair upholstery were matched in the new upholstery as well.



A cream stripe really set it off. There were remnants of original striping still in place which we duplicated. The sleigh was delivered just in time for Christmas and it spent the winter in their home next to the fireplace.

Was 80 degrees in Wisconsin yesterday and more of the same today. It is surprisingly dry though for this time of year. It sounds as though there may be a little rain on the way for tomorrow which will be nice. It will be the first official warm rain of the season. That should put the grass into overdrive.

Have a great Weekend!

Ciao!
T