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Richard Lyons
From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/08/AR2006080801394.html
A Sentinel in the Preservation of a Clara Barton Home
By Linda Wheeler
Washington Post
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Red Cross founder Clara Barton must have had a guardian angel when she followed the troops onto the battlefield and nursed the injured. As she cared for one young soldier, a bullet tore through her sleeve and killed him.
After the Civil War, she headed an office in the District, initially using her own money to search for soldiers missing in action and reconnect them with their families.
Now that office space, carved out of an apartment where she lived, has a guardian angel.
He is Richard Lyons, a General Services Administration carpenter who stumbled on Barton's living and working quarters when he discovered government files and clothing that she had stashed in a crawl space above her bedroom in 1869 before leaving for Europe. Barton returned to the area and in 1897 set up her Glen Echo home and headquarters, now the Clara Barton National Historic Site.
Nine years ago, the building, at 437 Seventh St. NW, was to be demolished. Lyons, checking the roof for leaks, noticed an envelope between a ceiling and the attic. That led him into the dark recesses of the crawl space, where he found files, a metal sign advertising the missing soldiers offices and a blouse with a bullet hole.
Lyons became an instant hero to the preservation community.
The GSA, which had taken over the property from the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corp. after it went out of business, promptly reversed the corporation's demolition order and announced plans to create a museum in the apartment dedicated to Barton's Civil War work.
Since then, Lyons has protected the third-floor space. He does his job well. At age 59, he has a deep knowledge of carpentry, which he first learned about from his grandfather in Tennessee, and the wisdom that comes from living in the District for a long time.
The Barton building is part of a long row of Victorian commercial buildings on Seventh Street with restored facades and new interiors. The work was done by JPI Development following GSA preservation guidelines. Behind them is a new 10-story residential building named the Clara Barton Condominiums.
As the rest of the Barton building, once a shoe store, has been turned into office space, Lyons's job has been to make sure that no one damages or alters the third floor. He has had to fend off the curious and the treasure seekers and admonish plumbers and electricians looking for an easy way to string wiring or place pipes.
For him, it's personal.
"I remember it was the night before Thanksgiving, and I came here to check the roof," he said as he stood in the soft light of the seven-foot windows that once lighted Barton's office. "I was by myself. I heard something in the back, but when I checked, I didn't find anything. There weren't any lights here, and I was using my flashlight.
"Then someone tapped me on my shoulder. I thought it was one of my co-workers come by to help me, but there was no one there. It was then that I saw the envelope stuck up by the ceiling."
Lyons's domain is a series of rooms whose condition many would find repulsive. The wallpaper has fallen away from the plaster, parts of the ceiling have collapsed and the place still has the dust and dirt of a century of disuse after the building's owner closed off the third floor in 1900.
But there are hints of Barton's presence. Her office was listed on the sign out front as No. 9, and a dark brown door is still in place with a numeral 9 painted on it. Lyons has become a student of Barton's time in the District, and he read in the records she kept for the government that there was so much mail from families looking for soldiers that she had a mail slot carved into the office door. There is a sliver of a mail slot at the bottom of door No. 9.
Three rooms still have striped wallpaper that Barton said she had put up to make the place more attractive, Lyons said. When the office got busy with visitors, workers and several boarders, Barton had a privacy wall built at the end of the long, narrow office. The space behind the wall became her bedroom.
Although nine years seems a long time to finish the museum, the GSA's program manager for historic buildings, Caroline R. Alderson, said the museum is still very much in the works.
"We've stabilized the building, put in an elevator for the public, installed air conditioning and heating for climate control," Alderson said. "We've brought the building up to code."
She said the first floor is envisioned as an orientation center where visitors will learn about Barton and buy tickets to see the museum. The elevator is right behind the office. JPI Construction is leasing the second floor for commercial use with restrictions to ensure its compatibility with the museum.
There are still decisions to be made about the large sections of missing wallpaper. The bald spots might be painted with a matching color, or perhaps the original paper will be matched and fabricated.
There are still concerns about the narrow doorways and low handrails. They have to be made safe for the public, but authenticity is also important.
"Corners should never be cut when dealing with a space like that," Alderson said.
Meanwhile, she knows the Barton apartment is safe.
"We have Richard there," she said. "He is our guardian angel." |