There are no plans and few references to the Brick Chapel, nor information about its construction. How long did it take to build, what quantities of materials were needed, and how was it actually built? Architect John Mesick suggested that we make this project an experiment in architectural history, rediscovering how such a structure was erected in frontier Maryland. To this purpose, master mason Jimmy Price kept records of every day of labor, and every brick and pound of mortar used.
While we did transport bricks and mortar vehicles, and placed the heavy roof timbers with a crane, other aspects of the project were done as true to the period as possible. All materials were lifted up to the workers with a hand-operated winch or windless and the bricklayers stood on wooden scaffolding. Partially based on archaeological evidence, this scaffold was made of pine saplings lashed together with rope.
The holes you see in the walls of the chapel are called "putlog" holes where the end of a log was inserted. These horizontal logs helped to fix the scaffold to the building and provided a base for a work platform. Normally, each hole is filled with a brick as the scaffold is dismantled. We left the holes open to illustrate the construction process. Notice the three lines of holes, showing how the work surface was raised in stages
as the walls of the chapel grew upward.
[Captions:]
A hand-operated windless, based on 17th-century examples, was used to lift each brick and bucket of mortar as the chapel walls rose.
The masons found the wooden scaffold to be better than any modern scaffold they had ever worked on. Archaeological traces of the holes where the scaffold logs were placed in the ground helped the museum recreate this ancient system.
These "putlog" holes helped support a wooden floor for the workers as they laid bricks. Used with both brick and stone construction, this method dates back to Roman times.
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