Pequot Library, Southport, Connecticut

Among the striking details in Robert Robertson’s Pequot Library are the cast iron, copper plated decorative columns which head each aisle of the two story stacks. Before restoration, these were covered with layers of soot from the first years of the Library’s existence when the stacks were lit with coal gas, and with the dust of benign neglect – one of the most welcome conditions the restorer can come across, because the pieces had not been altered, with one exception, since the Library’s creation.

Newmans, Ltd.’s challenge was to gently remove the residues and the original protective film, carefully highlight the polished copper, and apply a new protective film.