The Allegheny Portage Railroad Museum is a part of the U.S. National Park Service and a National Historic Site in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania. One of the park’s features is the historic Lemon House, which served as an inn and tavern for travelers in the early to mid 1800s. I was commissioned to replace three floorcloth in the house. Two of these are in two connected dining rooms and the third is in the central hallway (pictured left).

We started work on these in June, using over 1200 square feet of heavyweight #4 canvas. The floorcloths which were being replaced were made in the 1990s, using lighter weight canvas and paints which cracked and peeled over this relatively short time. We used a marine-grade exterior acrylic paint and clear coat finish which will be much more suited to withstand museum traffic. The canvas we used is 10 feet wide so there was no seam in the hallway piece and only one center seam in each of the 20-foot square dining room rugs. The seams on the old floorcloths were made by doubling the two edges and sewing. This created a ridge which caused foot-scuffers to create premature wear by rubbing off the painted surface, exposing the raw canvas. The new floorcloths have butted seams which lie perfectly flat and give no raised edge to cause wear. In the dining room the two floorcloths are joined across the room where they are butted together (cut to match) and tacked with cut black steel tacks at 1″ intervals all the way across, on both sides of the seam. Again, no raised edges!

Can you find the seams in this photo?

There is a 1/4 round toe kick which was removed from both areas prior to the floorcloths being installed. When these are replaced and the furniture is brought back in, everything will look much tidier. But for now my work here is done!

A special shout goes out to Nancy for letting me stay after hours and for letting me back in early; to Betty who helped me unpack those very heavy tubes and to the two guys (I didn’t catch their names) who took a break from building a fence so they could help me move these babies around. Also big thanks to Theresa who stayed back at the studio and continued to shrink, prime, sew and paint even more projects, and to Bart and Lauren who held down the fort and cared for my critters!

I put together a little slide show so you can see more photos:

For more info about this park go to www.nps.gov/alpo

Canvasworks will be CLOSED the week of August 21- 28. I am NOT going to lift, paint or move ANY canvas during that time!!!