First Presbyterian Church Plaster Ceiling

The First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca was designed by Josiah Cleveland Cady and constructed in 1900. The existing sandstone building is the fourth church building of the congregation in downtown Ithaca and was constructed on the same site as the congregation's previous building, built in 1853. Cady, in partnership with Milton See and Louis DeCoppet Berg between 1881 and 1909, produced an impressive body of work. The firm's commissions included institutional buildings such as the original Metropolitan Opera House (1883) and south frontage of the American Museum of Natural History (1890) in New York City, academic buildings at Yale University, Williams College, Trinity College and Wesleyan University and many churches, including Presbyterian churches in Oyster Bay, New York (1873) and Morristown, New Jersey (1893). Much of the firm's work was done in the Richardson Romanesque style, including the First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca.

The First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca is a masonry structure, with load-bearing masonry walls and sandstone cladding at the exterior. The ceiling of the sanctuary is comprised of a barrel vault within the gabled roof of the church. The barrel vault is divided into five bays: a narrow bay above the narthex at the west end of the sanctuary, three bays above the nave of the church and a bay above the choir at the east end of the church. The plaster ceiling is comprised of square-shaped "coffered" panels with rosette ornaments. The panels and the ornament are all cast plaster, with a layer of burlap reinforcement. At each intersection between panels, where the corners meet, there are plaster fleurettes. At the center of each panel is a larger rosette. Although the panels are attached to a wooden frame in the attic by means of screws and the corner fleurettes are nailed to the frame through the panels, there are no mechanical fasteners or keying between the center rosettes and the panels. The only means of attachment between the rosettes and the panels is a slurry coat of plaster used as an adhesive at the joint between the panels and rosettes. The plaster elements have a layer of burlap reinforcement, cast within each piece.

The primary focus of VA's investigation at the interior of the church was to document the condition of the plaster ceiling, particularly the rosettes at the center of each panel. In conducting the survey of the plaster ceiling at the First Presbyterian Church, VA technicians sounded each rosette to determine its condition. The location, severity and quantity of conditions such as loose rosettes, cracking at the plaster panels, missing or loose fasteners and open seams between rosettes and the panels were recorded on elevation drawings and photographed using still digital cameras.

Following the investigation of the plaster ceiling, VA technicians installed netting below the barrel vaults of the plaster ceiling as a temporary protective measure. The Denka AT80 atrium lift used for the investigation and a second aerial platform, a Genie AWP-30S personal lift, were used for access during the netting installation. The general design of the netting consists of sections spanning between the cornice level at the north and south walls and the east and west end walls in a horizontal plane. The netting material used is a white nylon material with 7/8-inch unstretched mesh size and treated with a flame retardant, as distributed by Pucuda/Leading Edge Safety Systems. The netting sections are attached to 3/16-inch diameter 7x19 galvanized wire rope running longitudinally along the north and south sides of the sanctuary at the cornice and transverse cables at the east and west end walls. Cables running diagonally over the choir and crossing in front of the organ keep the netting from resting on the organ pipes. The sewn edges of the eight netting panels, used to span the sanctuary were crimped to the cables at the perimeter walls and crimped to each other at the transverse seams.

Although representatives of the First Presbyterian Church first approached VA to inquire whether rope access would be an appropriate means to install the protective netting, in subsequent discussions and site visits, it became clear that aerial platforms could be used to perform the investigation and install the netting with less impact on the historic ceiling. The work was carried out over two weeks at the end of November, which allowed for reopening of the sanctuary in time for holiday services and events. Meeting the schedule was due in part to the efforts and labor provided by church volunteers, who removed and reinstalled the pews in the sanctuary to accommodate the aerial platforms used by VA.

See the First Presbyterian Church project profile.