Hawley Weathervane Feels The Winds Of Change

By Nancy K. Crevier

Even those who do not normally walk around with their heads tipped back to admire the clouds may have noticed something missing since late August from the top of Hawley School.

The quill and eagle weathervane, decorating the cupola since the school was completed in 1922 and in dire need of repairs, has been removed and has been in the care of Stuart Hall of Brook Farm Metal Works in Botsford since August 23, when Mr Hall climbed into the man bucket at the end of a 127-foot arm of a crane, and removed the damaged weathervane. That was his second attempt to reach the 10½-foot-tall stem and weathervane, when equipment from Hook & Ladder Volunteer Fire Company, the week before, could not reach a height sufficient to take it down.

“That was probably the most nerve-wracking thing I’ve done,” laughed Mr Hall, Monday, November 29, as he looked over the sections of the weathervane in his Dusty Lane workshop.

Upon examination, it seemed to the metal works expert that the weathervane had previously taken a tumble from the top of the school at some point, signaled by missing pieces and broken sections of copper. Clumsily applied leading indicated to him that the weathervane might have even been repaired in place at that time. “There was a lot of damage to the stem of the weathervane, and water damage to the main section of the weathervane,” he added.

The backbone of the weathervane is a one-inch thick, 12-foot steel rod that runs through the entire weathervane, stem, pedestal, and two feet into the cupola of the school, said Mr Hall. The weathervane itself, the quill and eagle section, is on a hollow tube that slips over the main rod, allowing that section to rotate in the wind.

“The main rod had rotted to about half-inch thick or less in one place and was bent nearly 30 degrees off the vertical,” he said. It was only a matter of time before the piece would have snapped in two.

“Just the little bit of natural movement of the rod is wearing,” explained Mr Hall. To combat that issue, he has replaced the steel rod with a stainless steel rod, and inserted a copper pipe through the flute and into the stem of the piece. “That will protect it from that small but constant hammering movement, and provide stability,” he said.

Once Mr Hall had the weathervane in his shop, he was able to assess the other problems. “It looks like the flute and pedestal was all one piece originally, but the joint just above the pedestal must have broken at some time,” he said. To remedy that problem, he has added a strip of copper to the pedestal and to the adjoining flute of the structure to strengthen it and to prevent water from getting into the piece. Although it is now in two pieces, rather than the original one piece, the advantage, said Mr Hall, is that it will be easier to reinstall.

Between the fluted stem section and the pedestal, small copper segments were missing, possibly blown out by strong winds or storms sometime over the past nine decades, surmised Mr Hall. “Only two of those sections were left. I don’t know what was holding it up,” he said. He was able to manufacture replacement parts and those were leaded into place.

Several joints must be resoldered and leaded on the stem and pedestal before it is ready to be reattached to the actual weathervane. Where repairs are being done, the weathervane must be cleaned down to the copper, leaving the piece in progress a mottled sight of gleaming copper and mellowed green. “If the piece is not cleaned down to the copper,” he said, “the oxidation, which gives it the greenish color, will prevent the lead from adhering properly to the copper.”

The entire weathervane will be very lightly sanded with an abrasive material for cleaning, once all of the repairs are finished. When the weathervane is remounted, the majority of it will initially be a bright copper color, but it will regain the mellow green patina to match the school’s cupola over the course of the next couple of years, said Mr Hall.

The section that supports the four-foot quill and eagle with outspread wings perched above it is also in need of some repair. When moved, loose pieces of lead rattle from inside the eagle. “I’ll need to repair and reseal a few holes in the eagle, and I may need to wrap the stem near the quill in copper to reinforce it, and repair the leaded joint that attaches the quill to the stem,” he said.

Close up, he has been impressed by the beauty of the weathervane. Beneath the mottled patina, a glimmer of gold shines through on the eagle, the ball upon which it is perched, and the quill. “They were gilded once upon a time, a common practice in the 1920s, and probably very beautiful,” Mr Hall said, and added, “Gilding is a very thin sheet of gold applied to a piece. Oxidation probably pushed off the gilding over the years.”

He had hoped to find some identifying marks on the weathervane, but even on close examination, no date or signature as to the designer or manufacturer was apparent. As to why an eagle atop a ball, hovering over a quill, Mr Hall could only guess.

The eagle, as explained in Weathervanes and Whirligigs by Ken Fitzgerald, was a popular addition to many items, beginning in the late 18th Century when the bird was adopted as the national symbol. The outstretched wings echoed the Great Seal of the United States. “Bird vanes are often mounted on a ball,” writes Mr Fitzgerald, “largely to keep the feet intact when the vane is in place…. Most bird-on-ball designs were soldered onto arrows to ensure they would swivel in the wind.”

Symbols For A School

The artist may have felt the eagle was apropos for an educational facility of that era, and selected the quill as a symbol of writing and knowledge. The designer may have substituted the quill for the role of the more traditional arrow, and it is that piece that catches the wind in the Hawley School weathervane, Mr Hall said.

“It’s a fragile piece, so I do have to work slowly and carefully,” said Mr Hall. Repairing the weathervane has been a challenge, and sometimes a frustration to the metal worker who strives for perfection.

“There is so much damage and there are so many missing pieces, that it is not a true ‘restoration’ of the piece, that is, bringing it back to its original state,” he said. A true restoration would mean using techniques that would drive up the cost of repairing the weathervane by many thousands of dollars, he noted. “It will still look beautiful, though, and I have to keep in mind that it is way up there,” Mr Hall said.

The final work on the weathervane should be completed by Friday, December 3, said Mr Hall, and then it is a matter of hoping for a nice day later on in the month to reinstall the refurbished rooftop ornament. “I’m not really looking forward to another ride in the man bucket,” sighed Mr Hall. “But it’s nice to know that it is going to stay up there now. I’m hoping it will be there for longer than another 90 years.”