The following is a Winter 2000 CCEE News article by
Andy Brickman
Apperson Facelift
Apperson Hall has received extensive exterior rehabilitation during 1999,
coinciding with its Centennial year. Did you know that Apperson is the
fourth-oldest building on the OSU campus? The others are Benton Hall (1889),
Benton Annex / Women’s Center (1892), and Fairbanks Hall (1892).
Time and weather have taken their toll on Apperson so OSU’s Facilities
Services awarded a contract to McKenzie Commercial Contractors of Eugene
for exterior rehabilitation, which included rebuilding the parapet wall,
replacing roof drain systems, repair of masonry, complete weatherproofing,
and painting.
A striking feature of Apperson Hall is its facing of stone, with an elaborately
carved doorway. The base courses of stone, up to the first-floor windows,
are granite, and the upper courses are all sandstone. The sandstone is
much easier to carve but is subject to weathering, while the granite is
“eternal.” It was the poor condition of some of the sandstone
blocks, along with some third-floor leakage problems, which prompted the
exterior rehab project. Pioneer Waterproofing of Portland was the masonry
subcontractor on the job; they are one of only three contractors in Oregon
who are approved to do work on historical masonry structures. Pioneer
has also worked on Crater Lake Lodge and Crown Point Visitor Center among
many others. Two of their masons, Kirk Clark and Lindsay Moore kindly
provided some insight into the details, and some other facts were extracted
from articles by Kenneth Munford that appeared in the Corvallis Gazette-Times
on December 2 and 9, 1985.
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