Pennsylvania State Capitol, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

In 1902 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania commissioned the renowned American sculptor George Grey Barnard to design a work for the main entrance of the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The two Carrara marble groups were carved by the Piccirilli Brothers of New York and Italy from individual blocks of marble weighing up to seven tons each.

The sculptures were plagued with numerous problems nearly from the time of their completion, especially the formation of cracks and movement away from the wall. An early inappropriate remedial treatment was performed in 1928 despite Barnard’s vehement protests. In 1947 the groups were subjected to yet another overly aggressive waterproofing treatment and were then sandblasted in 1977. These abuses were aggravated by naturally occurring factors including acid precipitation, particulate pollution, and a severe climate prone to multiple freeze-thaw cycles each year.

Early examinations of the State Capitol Statuary determined that this combination of human and nature-generated factors had done significant damage to the historic resource as a whole and particularly to the Barnard Statuary. In many instances the bonds between the crystals of the marble were destroyed by acid precipitation dissolving the marble at the crystal interfaces. There was also evidence of micro-cracking and micro-fissuring within the marble, phenomena typically associated with damage caused by the freezing of entrapped water.

Even the granite, which normally has excellent resistance to weathering and environmental pollution, had suffered noticeable surface deterioration.

In an ongoing effort to help stabilize the deterioration processes and to prolong the lifespan of these significant works of art, the Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee undertook a five-year conservation project with a large structural and building repair firm acting as general contractor, and Conservation Solutions, Inc. (CSI) performing the dual role of supervisory conservator and monuments conservator. The project consisted of two distinct phases: an intensive pre-cyclical maintenance program and a cyclical conservation maintenance program.

The pre-cyclical maintenance portion of the project began in July 2000 and was completed in September 2001. Its primary focus was to make the sculptural groups watertight by replacing deteriorated mortar joints, previous repairs, and caulking. It also included a testing program to evaluate the effectiveness of various repair treatments and a monitoring program to evaluate the treatment over a five-year period.

The cyclical conservation maintenance program is intended to prolong the lifespan of the conservation treatment that was performed during the pre-cyclical maintenance program and to reduce the need for more costly invasive conservation treatments in the future. This program includes the installation of a monitoring system and the implementation of an ongoing conservation treatment program.

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