As the work on the Old Naval Hospital reaches fever pitch – and it looks as if they will, indeed, make their Summer 2011 deadline – a remarkable change has come over the outside: a new coat of paint. For those of us who have learned that houses on the Hill should generally be left unpainted, this came as a bit of a shock.
Unsurprisingly, it appears as if the renovators know what they’re doing. Early photos bear out the fact that the paint job, indeed, is as it was originally, and that great care is being taken to make it – at least from the outside – as it once was.
The Capitol Hill Restoration Society is unequivocal about whether to paint your Capitol Hill brick house: “Don’t paint your historic brick row house if it is currently not painted.” This seems to leave little wiggle room for the Old Naval Hospital, which was obviously unpainted before renovations began last year.
The CHRS’s document does go on to explain that painting houses was often done after a renovation, to show that this house had been brought up to latest standards. This explains the color scheme of many of the houses on the Hill today, though does not give free rein to current occupants to swing their paint brushes.
The Old Naval Hospital today. (Picture by Maria Helena Carey)
Thus the new color scheme, as seen in the picture above would appear to be contradictory to what the CHRS wants.
Fortunately, the Friends of the Old Naval Hospital have the answer on their site: A picture of the Naval Hospital as it appeared in 1870. And though the black-and-white image does not indicate the exact colors, it does show a scheme that is exactly what has recently been done to the building. In other words, what happened over the years was that the original paint has simply flaked off, revealing the tough old bricks underneath.
The Old Naval Hospital ca. 1870 (oldnavalhospital.org)
Later pictures also show the corners to be much darker than they appear in the picture above, making the colors much more like what they have been made today.
I think the hospital is going to be a real gem on the Hill. One question, is that section of iron fencing on the east side of the property a renovated section? It look to be in good shape.
I was truly wondering what they were thinking with the painting, after all I had heard over the years about painting bricks! Thanks for answering, Robert! It looks great, but I liked the “tough, old bricks;” so they weren’t the virginal bricks I thought they were. Didn’t know a top-to-bottom entire re-creation was planned. It looks nice, though, as if it is dressed in a new spring suit.
Good thing they didn’t have overhead wires or CHRS’s heads might have exploded!
mark – yes, that is the first section of restored fencing to go in.
It’s a little inaccurate to say that the Naval hospital was unpainted prior to the renovation. It was painted a very faded (and flaking) shade of red – approximately the same color as the carriage house.
The type of cheap, common brick used to build the hospital suggests that it was always meant to be painted.