200 South Ithan Avenue, Villanova, PA

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PROJECT DETAILS

The famous "Bloomfield" mansion was almost "Gone with Wind" like Tara, or Xanadu in "Citizen Cane". But firefighters were able to coral the blaze and keep the structure so it could be brought back to life like Lazarus.

And that’s where Pinnacle Scaffold comes in to save the day. Pinnacle has a reputation for extraordinary work on historic properties and this was no exception.

Scaffolding around a burned out shell of a house is no easy feat but our experts handled it with great skill – giving crews the necessary access and room to do their work.

The blaze, with apparently started on the third floor quickly spread and caused significant damage to the entire building.

As you can see from the photos, the real challenge was engineering a safe way to span the gaps and elevations all around this house. A big shout out to Alternate Design Solutions for working with us to come up with certified drawings for solving that problem.

You can also see in the photos that here are numerous verticals and horizontals throughout. That is because the entire structure is going to be tented with debris netting. These extra supports are needed to keep it strong enough to withstand the elements. Crews plan to work straight through the winter on this project and it’s a wonderful way to keep the heat in and elements out when working in nasty conditions.

So, with the utmost care Pinnacle Scaffold came in and decked out the entire mansion giving crews access to both the front and back sides. This Gilded Age Main Line mansion, known as "Bloomfield" was built in 1885 and later redesigned by architect Horace Trumbauer. It boasts a grand ballroom, 14 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms and three power rooms. It has 24.000 square feet and sits on a 7 acre estate. It was movie set spectacular. In fact, it’s been in several movies over its lifetime. The home is part of what once was the George H. McFadden estate, which used to encompass most of the block. And it sits just down the road from the Villanova campus.

The current owners plan to restore the home after the fast moving fire ripped through the structure April 4, 2012.

We will update this when we have photos of the tented house. For any historic restoration or delicate work don’t hesitate to call Pinnacle Scaffold today. (302) 650-0520