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Dirt Palace at the Wedding Cake House
Monday, September 10, 2018
September 15th Workday
Friday, June 29, 2018
June Volunteer Workday!!!
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Saturday, April 28, 2018
MAY VOLUNTEER DROP IN HOURS
People have been asking how they can volunteer more regularly. For the month of May we'll test out having drop in times for volunteers who are interested in coming by. If you want to pop in and scrape some wallpaper for a few hours, or work on other projects - we will be onsite and set up for volunteers during these dates/times: MAY
Tuesdays and Thursdays - 10am - 2pm
Friday evenings (with beer!) 5 - 7pm
Sundays 2 - 5pm
If there's a specific project that you'd be interested in tackling - talk to us! While it's ok to pop in, a heads up is always appreciated...e-mail us at dirtpalacepublicprojects@gmail.com
If you come by dress for a mess & remember that it's still cold!
Guest Blogger Mike DeCesare!
I’m Mike I’m 12 years old. I play basketball, baseball and
football. The one time I was on Broadway street, the house was new to me I had
never heard about it or even seen it ,but the first time i laid my eyes on it
it just caught me. I had never seen architecture like it around, I really love
Victorian history like the house ,so Back in 2017 I started doing some research
on the house to see if anyone owned it or its abandoned and kind of figure out
the status, then i read it was purchased by a group named Dirtpalace, I
continued some research and a few months ago i got in contact with Xander she
was very nice, I told her about how much i love Victorian history and how I’d
do anything to help save it. I couldn't even imagine it being knocked down
because it’s a piece of Rhode Island history. I've been to a bunch of different
Victorian houses none of them catch my eye like the wedding cake house. When
you walk inside it's like a Newport mansion. There's stained glass a very large
mirror that is protected, lots of fireplaces, one of the very nice ones are
cracked down the middle i found that quite disappointing but i hope that will
get to be repaired. I recently went with my mom to help work, I love to work
especially on this house I scraped some wallpaper and helped put a door frame
in, after that Xander showed me how to do plaster crack repairs.
interested in the tower and also the screened-in deck, the tower seemed very
cool because you can literally see all of providence not many if none other
houses have that feature. I also really liked how the ladder up to the tower
was kept original and not ripped out. I also think the landscaping is one of
the top 3 most important things of preserving a house. To bring it back to life
with bright green grass and refurbish the small metal fence along the perimeter
of the yard. The project is going to be rough, there is tons of work to do but
Xander and Pippi seem very determined to do the #1 most important thing which
is preservation not renovation fully but I think the important thing is to make
it as original and the same as it was when it was first built, they don't want
to change the house. For example there was a very big decision about steam heat
and I think that's one of the most important parts of an old house, like you
cant have an old house with forced heat it just isn't right that will make the
house feel like a museum not like a actual house. It won't have that same warm
feeling without the steam-heat.
I found this picture very interesting because there looks to be a fountain there I don't know if there is one still and its just covered but I don't think so. I think the house should be fixed up to look as close as possible to this original picture.
I found this picture very interesting because there looks to be a fountain there I don't know if there is one still and its just covered but I don't think so. I think the house should be fixed up to look as close as possible to this original picture.
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
SUNDAY WORKDAY!!!!
Our Saturday Workday was TOTALLY AMAZING!!!!
5 tons of rubble was moved to the dumpster
The infamous 600 lb holly thistle radiator made it to the 2nd floor
Not to mention all the work done on the grounds.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the 50+ Volunteers who came out on Saturday!!!
So much wallpaper was scraped
5 tons of rubble was moved to the dumpster
The infamous 600 lb holly thistle radiator made it to the 2nd floor
Not to mention all the work done on the grounds.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the 50+ Volunteers who came out on Saturday!!!
Friday, April 6, 2018
Bubbles and Rubble Workday!
BUBBLES AND RUBBLE WORKDAY AT THE WEDDING CAKE HOUSE
People have been asking – When are we going to have another workday at the Wedding Cake House? Well... now that it is spring ?!? (Is it?), we are aim to please! If you have an interest in coming over and lending a hand with physical labor, we're ready to take you up on it! Skip the gym & come and help us move bags of rubble to the dumpster, or move the “infamous” holly and thistle steam radiator to the 2nd floor. Still have a chill? Warm up by steaming off wallpaper
We'll likely have about 3 tons of bagged plaster rubble (150 ready to go 40ish pound bags) to move into a dumpster & many hands will make much lighter work of this! There will also be other jobs for people without the need for heavy lifting!
Saturday April 14th
We'll get started at 2:00 pm, and start wrapping up and making bubbly cocktails and mocktails at around 5pm. The amazing Lucie Searle will once again grace us with her fantastic cooking. If you can RSVP and let us know if and when you're coming that would be great!! e-mail us at dirtpalacepublicprojects@
If you have work gloves, wear em! We'll have dust masks, hand wipes, and tools on hand.
Friday, December 29, 2017
Looking back on Late Summer (the successful grant report)
In the frosty depths of what might prove to be a record breaking cold snap for Rhode Island, thinking a few months back to August and September and their warm breezes takes a fairly serious act of imagination. When it's winter like this I sometimes have a hard time summoning the memory of other realities, of other seasons. Our routine these days is: wake up as early as possible, go check on the pipes at the wedding cake house, do some stuff on site while the propane heater runs in the room with the fragile lead water supply line, try not to think about the part of said supply line with a bulge that we call "the mouse" as in the supply line is a snake and there is part of it that's puffed out like a when a snake unhooks it's jaw and gobbles up a rodent whole, think up ways to have more peace of mind that this epic cold snap will not destroy our water supply line, do some office work off site, check back in on the pipe about 3 times a day and repeat. But anyway, the reason that I even brought up early Fall was to tell you about the grant writing part of those days.
While we were blogging in August and September, let's be honest, we were not, dear reader, telling you everything. The reality was that we were mostly writing about the work that we were doing on site, but actually we were working on site by day, and then by night, gazing deeply into the glow of our computers. We were busy crafting long and detailed narratives about why rehabbing this building for our proposed arts use is a good idea, and why, after so many failed attempts at developing this property, a couple of women artists were going to be the people who were able to pull off what other developers and real estate professional weren't. Obviously we had our work cut out for us. We put in 4 major grants with application processes that ranged from short Letters of Intent with follow up interviews, to applications that involved 156 page 18 tabbed multi-binder beasts. Three of these grants were funded, one we will re-apply to in March. While we still have a long way to go, having the support of these organizations is incredibly helpful at this point in the process and we're both very humbled and motivated by these votes of confidence. Here are links that lead to information about the organizations and funds that are supporting this project.
RISCA - State Cultural Facilities Grants
Champlin Foundation
Andy Warhol Foundation
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