After six months under wraps, netting and scaffolding that was surrounding the Guelph Civic Museum has been taken down, revealing all new mortar work between the limestone blocks that make up the historical buildings on the site.
The mortar work on the main building, which was once the Loretto Convent, has been restored to what it would originally have looked like, said Stephen Robinson, senior heritage planner for the city of Guelph.
The Guelph Civic Museum consists of two connected buildings — the 1850s-era Loretto Convent and the attached chapel, which Robinson said was added in 1872.
About 10 years after that, a fourth floor was added to the convent and a decision was made at the time to change the pointing of the entire structure to a white tape style, which was typical of Guelph and Wellington in late nineteenth century, said Robinson, but not believed to be original to original structure.
“The idea (of white tape pointing) is to look like it is made of finely cut stones that are squared, but they usually are not,” said Robinson.
Until the renovations this year, both structures have maintained the white tape pointing.
The original convent building would not have had the white tape pointing when it was constructed and has been restored to a simpler style of pointing, while the chapel addition has been repointed with the white tape style.
“When you look at the building now, you can see there is two different pointing styles,” said Robinson.
The city was aware restoration work had to be done when the building was converted for museum use, said Robinson.
“When the city did the major renovations to turn the convent building into the civic Museum the budget didn’t include the repairs to the stone walls, or the repointing," said Robinson. "Now that there was budget, it was decided to go ahead with that."
The Guelph Civic Museum opened in 2012 after the city secured a long-term lease with the Catholic Diocese of Hamilton.
An extensive two-year renovation to the existing structures followed. A glass shell containing a new staircase was added to the exterior on the Cork Street face of the building.
