Spring Cleaning at the Governor's Palace

The annual spruce-up of CW's Governor's Palace is an enormous task: Pictured above: Richard Baker, Colonial Williamsburg senior historic interiors technician, cleans the very old mirror on the first floor of the Governor's Palace. Once a year the building closes for a cleaning, repairs and improvements.
With all the visitors who walk through the Governor's Palace each year, it's no surprise that the 15,000-square-foot landmark can get a little dirty. On busy days, as many as 2,000 people pass through the famous Colonial Williamsburg structure, leaving behind a constant tide of dust and fingerprints as well as endless wads of gum. Daily cleanings keep the subsequent build-up of dirt and grime at bay during the long tourist season. But when the Christmas crowds finally subside, the palace closes its doors — enabling a team of about 100 conservators, curators and other professionals to give the interior and its collection of more than 2,000 objects the museum equivalent of a good spring cleaning. Dust is their primary and most pervasive enemy, says Patty Silence, CW's conservator of museum exhibits and historic interiors. Fingerprints, ultra-violet light leaks and indoor air pollution add to a formidable list of foes.
She and the other members of the team also have to grapple with the cleaning and conservation mistakes of the past — not to mention making sure they do no harm today by committing mistakes of their own. "We want to be thorough — and this is the time of the year that we try to get into the corners and other places that we don't usually reach," Silence says. "But overdoing it can cause as much and sometimes even more damage than doing nothing at all." Beginning just after New Year's Day, the three-week-long project opens with a massive moving operation in which many of the smallest objects in the palace are boxed up and portable pieces of furniture such as tables and chairs are moved. Heavy or particularly vulnerable items such as bedsteads, musical instruments and paintings stay in place, enclosed in temporary cocoons of protective plastic sheeting. "There are times when they're swarming like ants in here," Silence says, describing the seemingly chaotic but purposeful dance of the curators, conservators and art handlers. "The moving alone is a pretty labor-intensive process."



Once the walls are cleared, ladders and scaffolding rise in place, enabling the team to tackle a long list of tasks that ranges from examining, dusting and conserving the palace's collection of rare period paintings to inspecting and cleaning the tall, multi-paned windows.
Ultra-soft badger hair brushes sweep the dust from the surfaces of the portraits, Silence says, while the laborious window maintenance work requires the removal, cleaning, then reinstallation of hundreds of Plexiglas sheets that protect the interiors from the deteriorating effects of ultra-violet light exposure.
This is also the time of year when the team members inspect the soaring Venetian blinds, retaping and restringing any light-weakened fabric elements as needed. "This is the only opportunity we have to move the furniture and make the space we need for ladders and scaffolds," Silence says. "So we try to take care of everything that we can't reach without them."
Two special projects complicated the conservation and maintenance effort this year. Both should go a long way toward improving the day-to-day safety and condition of the palace as well as the objects it houses, Silence says.
Hidden in the ceiling of the expansive ballroom, a new fire detection and security system not only provides enhanced capability but also reduces the visible part of the sensors to the size of a fly. The foundation's electricians also wired the wall sconces and ceiling fixtures in the lower hallway, staircase and upper hallway for the first time, substituting eye-fooling bulbs for the bee's wax candles and open flames that have illuminated these parts of the palace since it was reconstructed in the 1930s. "We can't replace these wonderful fixtures — and previously they were in danger of being broken every time an interpreter went to put in a candle and light it." Silence says. "We also don't have to worry about all the problems we had with dripping candle wax and soot — or the threat of fire."
Cleaning, cleaning and still more cleaning occupies much of the team's time, beginning with the highest black walnut moldings in the palace's musket-studded entry hall and continuing down to the heart pine and marble floors. Simple dust and grime removal is the key objective, Silence says, because — despite its innocuous if untidy appearance — "Dust attracts moisture — and that's how the damage starts." Conservators give the dramatic array of muskets and swords that covers the ceiling and walls of the entry hall special attention during this high dusting task, looking for telltale signs of moisture damage on their vulnerable metal surfaces. Down on the marble floor, they step from their ladders to their hands and knees, then use a specially purified soap, natural bristle brushes and water to clean the black and white stones. Wooden scrapers help remove the traces of wax mistakenly used in the past as a protectant, Silence says. Then the whole surface is sucked free of water and soap residue by a shop vacuum equipped with a high-efficiency air filter. "We're trying not to leave anything behind," Silence says, "and water by itself is a really powerful solvent."
Micro-fiber dust clothes provide the primary weapons for cleaning the walnut paneling and stair rails, including the carved baskets of fruit that decorate the ends. Yet not only does the team forgo the use of penetrating oils and silicone polishes in favor of static and elbow grease but — this year especially — they also toil to remove any such films applied in the past. "We're not coating these surfaces anymore because of the damage it does," Silence says. "It darkens. It gets gummy. And then it just picks up more dust and dirt. So we actually did some work this year to try to remove it."
Ammonia is another old cleaning agent that the conservators have learned to avoid, partly because of the damage the fumes inflict on metal. Feather dusters have fallen out of favor, too, because of the scratches that can come from a broken quill. That leaves such gentle solvents as water and purified soap — or the 50-50 mix of ethanol and water used to remove the smudges and fingerprints from the antique mirrors. It doesn't work as fast — and it requires more attention and elbow grease — but it's all part of the foundation's plans to help such objects last another 300 years. "It's not a terribly glamorous or sexy job," Silence says. "It's a time and energy issue, really, and we spend a lot of both trying to make sure we do it right."