Plaster

There was a time when decorative plaster was as common as icing on a birthday cake. Yet, as drywall has replaced plaster as the chief material of a home's interior walls and ceilings, wood and plastic have replaced the plaster ceiling medallions and cornices that decorated the larger homes of 75 to 100 years ago. Only two dozen or so Philadelphia-area firms do flat plaster work on walls and ceilings. And just a handful reproduce decorative plaster. They range from companies such as Felber Studios of Ardmore, with more than a dozen employees and national connections, to sculptor Daniel F. Lowenstein of Philadelphia, a one-man operation specializing in reproducing damaged cornices.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.   MIGUEL COTTO is out for revenge against Antonio Margarito, but it seems his bitter feelings toward the man who beat him bloody on July 26, 2008, have not cooled to a point at which the WBO welterweight champion will try to settle an old, festering score dispassionately. His dislike of Margarito still runs hot, very hot. "I handled my defeat like a man," Cotto (36-2, 29 KOs) said of his 11th-round stoppage at the perhaps-loaded hands of Margarito (38-7, 27 KOs)

In the Now-We've-Heard-Everything Department, there's this from the West Coast: Dr. Stork's Original Pregnant Tummy Cast Kit. Now baby boomers expecting their boomlet don't have to wait till the kid is born and walking to get that traditional keepsake, the bronzed baby shoe. Now, they can get a memento while the kid is still in the womb: a plaster cast of Mommy's tummy. The do-it-yourself kit will soon be available in novelty stores, baby shops, and gift catalogs, for $19.95.

Question: We have a large brick heat-vent stack in our small kitchen that takes up considerable space. Could I take off the plaster that covers the brick from floor to ceiling and expose the brick for architectural interest? I assume I'd need to have the brick pointed to contain the exhaust emissions, but could I do the plaster removal in a weekend? Answer: If your house was built before 1978, there might be asbestos behind or in the plaster. Take a small sample of the plaster and send it to a lab approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for testing.

Question: I read your December article about basement leakage. I, too, have a basement foundation of fieldstone. The house dates to 1835 or thereabouts. You mentioned that this basement construction made use of "Irish" plaster. Can this fieldstone wall be sealed with Drylok or some other masonry waterproofing treatment? Answer: A lot of people asked what "Irish" had to do with the style of construction, so let me explain that first. The "Irish" applies to the nation of origin of the masons, who devised a way to rid themselves of job-site debris and save on construction costs.

James J. O'Brien, 92, a self-employed plasterer whose work included homes as well as projects for a church and museum, died of heart failure Friday at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby. He lived in Wayne. Mr. O'Brien retired 20 years ago and remained at the home that he built, with the assistance of friends, in the mid-1940s. He completed the masonry and carpentry and helped with the plumbing and electrical work. He graduated from the former St. Katharine of Siena High School in Wayne in 1925 and eventually followed an uncle in plaster contract work.

William J. Gallagher Sr., 67, a general contractor and an artisan of ornamental plaster, died Wednesday when he was struck by a SEPTA commuter train in Middletown Township, Bucks County. He was a resident of Northeast Philadelphia. Mr. Gallagher, vice president of the Shannon Corp. in Cinnaminson, N.J., suffered a cortical stroke on Oct. 22 and was left blind, according to his daughter, Bernadette Liddell. She said he did not suffer from Alzheimer's disease, as had been reported by the coroner's office following his death.

Roland Reed's work space looked more like a hospital operating room than the first-floor hallway of a rowhouse in the city's Spring Garden section. There was plastic everywhere, protecting the floor, sealing doorways to the living room and the kitchen - all designed to keep dust and debris confined to a space Reed could easily keep clean. Refreshing, especially when too many contractors are not so tidy. But then, Reed, 43, busily at work on a ceiling less than half an arm's reach above him, is, according to his customers, unusual in many respects.

Bryn Mawr's antique white horse, the wood and plaster icon that had gone begging for a new paddock and master, has found both. The Bryn Mawr Beautification Foundation, a nonprofit civic group, will buy the rare saddle-maker's dummy and move it to the Bryn Mawr Film Institute at 824 W. Lancaster Ave. The $30,000 needed to purchase, restore and move the 19th-century artifact is being donated by the Philadelphia-based William B. Dietrich Foundation,...

Sculptor Lou Desmarais loves working with plaster. "I like the hardness, the resilience, the fact you can pound it, scrape it, sandpaper it," he said. "You can beat it up, and it gives you a nice texture. " Lifting a dust-covered cloth off his work in progress, he revealed the nicks and cuts, rough edges, and grooves in the white plaster form of a male torso. Nearly hidden in a corner of his Solebury studio, an award-winning piece - Aldo, Ex-Boxer, Age 103 - rested on a pedestal.

Arcadia University Art Gallery's "A Closer Look" exhibition, which has traditionally shone the spotlight on a handful of veterans of the gallery's sprawling "Works on Paper" shows, has returned in an eighth iteration organized by Adelina Vlas. Vlas, the assistant curator of modern and contemporary art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, began her selection process in 2009 with a pool of 150 artists from which she chose 40, then 15, and eventually the five whose works are on view now. Together, the works of Dechemia (John Gibbons and Isobel Sollenberger)

The winter has been virtually snowless, but the temperatures haven't been high enough to give your furnace a three-month vacation. How well has your heat source been performing? Although replacing the furnace now - unless it has conked out and been beyond repair - is not considered wise, you might consider doing so when winter has vacated the premises. One expert, David Coulson of Napoleon Fireplaces in Crittenden, Ky., says the heating contractor first needs the size of the house and then determines the size of the furnace necessary for the space.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.   MIGUEL COTTO is out for revenge against Antonio Margarito, but it seems his bitter feelings toward the man who beat him bloody on July 26, 2008, have not cooled to a point at which the WBO welterweight champion will try to settle an old, festering score dispassionately. His dislike of Margarito still runs hot, very hot. "I handled my defeat like a man," Cotto (36-2, 29 KOs) said of his 11th-round stoppage at the perhaps-loaded hands of Margarito (38-7, 27 KOs)

Question: My parents have lived in their house for 48 years. The house is about 54 years old. They have always used good-quality paint. About three years ago the ceiling began to peel. When a representative from the paint company came to inspect the situation he said it was the plaster on the ceiling and not the paint. They have delayed painting because the ceilings continue to peel. What might be the cause and what do you suggest they do? Seems like too long a time for this to happen.

Question: I read your December article about basement leakage. I, too, have a basement foundation of fieldstone. The house dates to 1835 or thereabouts. You mentioned that this basement construction made use of "Irish" plaster. Can this fieldstone wall be sealed with Drylok or some other masonry waterproofing treatment? Answer: A lot of people asked what "Irish" had to do with the style of construction, so let me explain that first. The "Irish" applies to the nation of origin of the masons, who devised a way to rid themselves of job-site debris and save on construction costs.

When Betty Gainsborough bought her circa-1875 Italianate house in Philadelphia's Fishtown section in 1995, it was love at first sight. The tall doorways and cornice brackets, arching marble trim around the doorway with a keystone at the top, and three bay windows proved irresistible. "As soon as I opened the door, I knew it was the house for me," Gainsborough recalls. Cherry-stained pine flooring, chandeliers, a marble fireplace, intricately crafted ornamental plaster skirting the ceiling, and beautiful plaster ceiling medallions were just icing on the cake.

After donning blue plastic hard hats and climbing the stairs to the long-unused Metropolitan Opera House on North Broad Street, 280 audience members awaited the much-anticipated performance of choreographer Wally Cardona's Revival by Group Motion Dance Company. The Wednesday-evening opening began the final weekend of the Hidden City festival. Despite the plaster dust - inches thick in places - people were clearly awestruck by the gargantuan, Colosseum-like space and its traces of former glory.

It was more massive than 21 Ford Expeditions. It had leg bones as thick as tree trunks. Upper arms longer than the height of a full-grown man. Behold the newest inhabitant of Philadelphia: The second-heaviest dinosaur ever found. The dino's bones arrived this week at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal after a three-week voyage from Argentina, where they had been unearthed by Drexel University paleontologists. Yesterday the prehistoric shipment was opened for a public viewing.

The walls are crumbling brick and stone. The small ceiling, hints of ghostly blue and green embedded in its plaster, is largely collapsed. All iron - from locks to nails to hinges and lath - is encrusted with thick, flaking rust. On the outside door of the room, faint in the blistering and peeling paint, the shadows of two Stars of David can be seen, visible echoes of a sacred past inside. This room behind Cellblock 7 - long forgotten, largely unseen, left for decades to collapse into itself - is what remains of the sole synagogue that served the ancient Eastern State Penitentiary, the National Historic Landmark at Fairmount Avenue and 22d Street.

When Joyce Wallacavage tells you her son Adam "isn't normal," it's cause for laughter - and admiration. "Thank goodness he's not normal, whatever that is," she says. It's hard to explain exactly what she means, but after meeting Adam, you know it has something to do with being creative and funny and sweetly different from probably anyone else you know. Adam Wallacavage (his surname is Lithuanian, with the accent on wall) is 38 but looks younger. He has green eyes that don't always find yours, an ironic manner that confuses - Is he serious?