Calling all PMHS Alums: please help us raise
the funds to complete the restoration of Pelham Memorial High School!
The Pelham Preservation Society, in cooperation with the Pelham Board of
Education, has embarked on an ambitious project to restore the lobby of Pelham Memorial High School. Designed by the firm of Tooker & Marsh, PMHS is considered one of the most significant Collegiate Gothic Style buildings in Westchester County. The
lobby had been painted in non-historic colors with unsympathetic lighting. Pelham Preservation retained the
services of EverGreen Architectural Arts, which conducted paint analysis of all surfaces of the lobby, examined the Art Deco WPA bas-relief and analyzed
the memorial bronze plaques dedicated to the servicemen from Pelham who gave their lives in WWI and WWII.
From this analysis and the study of historic photographs, a paint and glazing scheme was assembled for the lobby. In
addition, Pelham Preservation Society volunteers studied historic photographs of the lobby and conducted site visits to similar
Collegiate Gothic buildings from the period to understand the color and type of original floor tiles. The PMHS restoration
project was coordinated with other work undertaken at PMHS by the Pelham School District and was
completed as part of the final phase in the summer of 2010. As the next phase of this project, Pelham Preservation hopes to have the funding to
restore these floor tiles as part of the project.
Help restore the Pelham Memorial High School
Lobby by making a tax-deductible donation to Pelham Preservation Society, Ltd., P.O. Box 8129, Pelham,
New York 10803, Attention: Tom Shirocky, Treasurer. For opportunities about alumni or class gifts or for other further
information contact: info@PelhamPreservationSociety.com
The photo above at left is from the 1947 PMHS Pelican
yearbook showing the first floor lobby as it once appeared, including the original Arts & Crafts style tile floor.
The photo at right is the floor of Stewart Hall at Vassar College, which was built about the same time
as PMHS. Pelham Preservation Society is continuing to raise funds and is working with Pelham School District architects
to select a floor tile that would be similar to this original flooring.
A key part of the lobby restoration project was to restore
the stone and plaster work as close to the original Gothic look of the building as possible. While stripping the stone
to its original finish was cost prohibitive and impractical, the lobby has been painted and the stone work and architectural
elements glazed with a stain that makes the elements resemble stone. Above are photos of the lobby before and during
the glazing process. See more photos of progress on the lobby painting here.
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| WPA Relief After Restoration |
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| WPA Relief Before Restoration |
The photo at left above (from an
old PMHS yearbook) confirms recollections of PMHS alums that the WPA bas relief (the edge of which is seen at the right
of the photo) was not originally gold in color (as shown on right), but was a more neutral color. Pelham Preservation
retained the services of EverGreene studio, which stripped the relief and restoreed and preserved this element of the
PMHS lobby. See the work on this architectural element.
The Pelham Preservation Society raised funds to restore
the bronze plaques dedicated to those from Pelham who gave their lives during World Wars I and II. The plaques have
been stripped of paint, polished to their original finish and preserved with a cystalline wax.
The third floor skylight will be restored as part of this
project and the school district restored a second skylight on the top floor landing that had been concealed.
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| PMHS Third Floor Lobby |
