McCook Mansion

Fine Art Architectural Restoration was contracted by the McCook estate to restore the decoratively painted bedroom ceiling of Mary McCook, the wife of prominent businessman and lawyer Willis McCook, who represented Henry Clay Frick.  Additionally, the block-printed wallpaper in the private chapel in the McCook Family Estate (completed in 1907) on 5th Ave in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA was badly delaminating and dirty and discolored from embedded nicotine, soot and dust. The mansion is now an incorporated luxury bed & breakfast called The Mansions on Fifth.  

Badly delaminating and dirty block-printed wallpaper in the private chapel was humidified and set down by injecting a thermosensitive adhesive into pockets and setting them down with a tacking iron.  The wallpaper was cleaned with a combination of wet cleaning with mild, alkaline solutions and dry cleaning with eraser sponges.  

The bedroom ceiling of Mary McCook was cleaned with a combination of mild, alkaline solutions and eraser sponges. Water damage and efflorescence was mitigated, and the paint layer consolidated with a stable synthetic resin and set down with a tacking iron.  Chantal then inpainted paint losses in the decoratively painting ceiling with preservation-grade artist paints.

Client:  Mansions on 5th