Dodwell House Restoration Breaks Ground

After months of working through contracts and budgets, our favorite building from 1846 - the Dodwell House - is breaking ground this week! The players are: St. Anna’s Episcopal Church as the Owner, Mathes Brierre as the Architect, Mayer Building Company as the Contractor, and Southkick as the Owner’s Rep and Tax Credit Writer. What a team! We are starting with the sexiest type of work…utilities and site drainage! This building has been vacant for decades, and now it is going back “into community” as a community center and after-school program for people in Treme. See our previous blog under “Restoring a Creole/American House” for the building’s history. My favorite thing about this building is that it is such a complete and untouched gem. It still has the original floor plan, plaster walls, and the dependency structure with cooking fireplaces!

My biggest worries for this building are achieving proper site drainage, and making sure that we don’t cut corners on masonry and plaster restoration. Masonry restoration is a tough game with old buildings like these, as every area of each wall will often have different problems and conditions to contend with. Those differences in conditions make it difficult for subs to bid, especially as modern contracts prefer a one-size-fits-all or standard unit pricing approach. I have full confidence in our wonderful team, though. It’s Week 1.