New Roofs for Historic Buildings

Protecting Historic Structures With New Roofs

Carillon Historical Park Roof Project

Owner: Dayton History

Dayton, Ohio

In 2023 we replaced four roofs for Carillon Park. Newcom Tavern, Morris House, and the Hetzel Kitchen’s roofs were all replaced with cedar shakes. The George Newcom House roof was replaced with Enviroshakes (www.enviroshake.com), which are designed to look similar to cedar shakes but require less maintenance, last longer and are more fire resistant. As a part of the roof work, we completed some structural repairs to the rafters and constructed new flashings where needed. We also restored the windows on the Newcom Tavern and worked with local plasterers to create a new ceiling so that the second floor of the Tavern could be opened to the public.

Newcom tavern with a new cedar shake roof and restored windows

Hetzel kitchen (small white building on left) and Morris house (stone house on right) with new wood shake roofs.

Cedar shingle / Enviorshake roof on George Newcom house – Before

Cedar shingle / Enviorshake roof on George Newcom house – After

George Newcom house with new Enviroshake roof

Patterson Adirondack Shelter

Owner: Dayton History-Carillon Historical Park

Dayton, OH

John H. Patterson, the founder of NCR Corporation, brought a bit of the Adirondacks to Dayton, Ohio, in 1906 when he had this shelter built at his estate. It became the prototype for shelters constructed in Hills and Dales Park, Patterson’s gift to Dayton in 1907.

Now the only remaining of these structures was moved to Carillon Park in 2011 when we were contracted to replace the roof.

After strengthening the sagging ridgepole using saplings from the property, extending the eave line to keep water from landing on the tops of the log walls, and building a chimney “cricket” to deflect water from the massive chimney, we replaced the worn-out wood shakes with sustainably produced treated pine shakes.

The chimney cricket to divert water from behind the chimney

The shelter with its new pine roof

The extensions on the eave line

The Adirondack Shelter with Lilly, who manages this website

Standing Seam Roof on a Farmhouse

Privately Owned

Warren County, OH

We hand-formed and installed the standing seam roof on this privately owned, circa-1810 farmhouse.

This standing seam roof has hand-formed seams that incorporate factory-formed rowlocks. Note the rowlock stair-stepping regularly up the roof. This blending of factory finishing with hand forming can be a nice compromise to give a historic look as well as the advantages of modern technology.

The roof on this stone farmhouse has a factory paint finish with a 40-year warranty. 

Paul Laurence Dunbar Carriage House

Owner: Dayton History / Ohio History Connection

Dayton, OH

During the summer of 2014, we replaced the roof on the carriage house with Western Red Cedar shingles, treated to resist decay.

Rob came up with an interesting method of aligning the shingles, which saved us a lot of time. In the lower picture, you can see three screw guns that we used to raise and lower a guide board.

With Rob's system, bolts were fixed in place in the guide boards and all-thread rods were fitted through the bolts into the screw guns. The end result was that the guideboards could easily be moved up and down. The shingles are butted up against this board so that they all fall in a straight line and can be more easily nailed into place. 

Screw guns being used to move a guide board

From the left: Ken, Bruce, Rob, Susan, and Alex Heckman - Director of Education and Museum Operations at Dayton History

Rob and Ken apply shingles