READING, Pa. — Reading-based developer Alan Shuman is no stranger to major restoration projects, frequently incorporating the preservation of historical character and details in the buildings he works on.
“If you look around here at some of this wood trim and how beautiful it is. The walnut trim here, there’s no knots in it,” says Shuman, gesturing. “That’s all old growth walnut; it hasn’t been available in the states here for over a century.”
Sometimes finding the craftsmen with the skills to do the work can be tricky.
“It’s normally pretty difficult to track them down unless you go to a major metropolitan area, so that’s why we’re using social media,” says Shuman.
He turned to Facebook when looking for ornamental plaster workers for the Berks Trust project and once again is seeking specialized skills through social media for the Trexler Mansion project.
“We get pieces that have older refrigeration, they might have doors that are damaged, cast bronze pieces that are missing,” says Shuman. “So, we’ve been looking for people who can do that kind of work and restore those.”
“Up here we’ve been looking for the people who can recreate the intricate pieces and do the gold gild work that these are going to need to bring them back to the way they looked in 1869,” Shuman says referring to details in his current project.
He says finding the right people to do preservation work is important and social media helps him keep that work local and find those specialized craftsmen.
“This building was expensive when it was built, but it would be much more expensive today to try to get those pieces and put it back together like this today,” says Shuman.