This is the Historic "Cooper Place" Apartments located just above the 4th st. Elevator in the historic preserve in Dubuque, IA. This building has some rich history behind it and it was a pleasure to be a part of with owners Carl & Mary Summers owners of Locator's LTD.
The building was constructed by some true masonry craftsman in its time but.. The technology and understanding of the times did not require hard galvanized tie in's of the wall system that we have learned to install in modern applications. This building was a veneer over wood lap built in the 1830's and used 16 penny nails pounded into the lap wood as a wall tie. I was quite suprised to see that those nails held for 179 years!! Ultimately the freeze, thaw, and settling shifted the veneer out and away from the structure and became a liability to the owners. As the Restoration Contractor we had the responsibility to carefully deconstruct the front facade and recycle the original brick and relay the front 3/4 of the facade. Another local masonry company did 1/4 a few years earlier but ours looks better ;) We also tuckpointed the south wall which i will put up some pictures of soon.
