New Venture Blog

New Venture, llc is very pleased to announce that we are adding the great State of Pennsylvania to our ever growing list of service areas.

Our focus at first will be in and around Gettysburg, PA. This is a beautiful part of the State, rich with History, and filled with wonderful people that take pride in being part of that. For this reason we feel that our services in Historic Preservation will be most welcomed and we look forward to forming great relationships with like minded Historians and proud owners in Historical Districts.

I would like to extend a personal thanks to Jolene at “Quite the Stir Bed and Breakfast”

BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG PENNSYLVANIA (PA)

in Gettysburg for bringing this area to our attention and for her recommendations to others of our work in Historic Preservation. We appreciate your valued opinion of our work and our practices.

If you live in Adams, Cumberland, Franklin, or York County’s in Pennsylvania, give us a call for your Restoration needs. We just know you will be confident in our process and our work. We now use the best in lead safe renovation techniques that will insure your family can breath easy about the possibility of lead paint contamination that exists in many older homes. See what a difference New Venture can make for your Preservation and Restoration projects!

Every so often I meet someone with an older home that wants to know how to register their home with the National Registry of Historic Places. Along with that comes many questions about who can do it, what criteria do you need to meet, and what the benefits can be.

For people that have never gone through this process, the amount of information that’s available can be overwhelming and many times will halt the intentions of the registrar.

If you feel your home or community has some Historical significance and have considered applying with the National Register of Historic Places the first thing you should do is read the National Registration Bulletin on How to Complete National Register Registration Form. This bulletin covers most common questions of qualifications for everything from a single home to an entire community.

The Introduction section covers the most basic facts about the process. Below are some of the most common questions that are answered in this section but it is not the entire section. Please click the link above for more detail.

Q:WHAT IS THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES?

A:The National Register is the official Federal list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture. National Register properties have significance to the prehistory or history of their community, State, or the Nation. The register is administered by the National Park Service…

Q:WHAT QUALIFIES A PROPERTY FOR LISTING?

A: Properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places possess historic significance and integrity. Significance may be found in four aspects of American history recognized by the National Register Criteria:

* Association with historic events or activities,

* Association with important persons,

* Distinctive design or physical characteristics, or

* Potential to provide important information about prehistory or history.

A property must meet at least one of the criteria for listing. Integrity must also be evident through historic qualities including location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.

Generally properties must be fifty years of age or more to be considered historic places. They must also be significant when evaluated in relationship to major trends of history in their community, State, or the nation. Information about historic properties and trends is organized, by theme, place, and time, into historic contexts that can be used to weigh the historic significance and integrity of a property.

Q:WHO MAY PREPARE A NATIONAL REGISTER NOMINATION?

A:Any person or organization may prepare a National Register nomination. This includes property owners, public agencies, private institutions, local historical societies, local preservation commissions, local planning offices, social or merchant organizations, professional consultants, college professors and their students, special interest groups, or interested members of the general public…

The term “Dead as a doornail” has been used for a long, long time to describe all things that are most certainly dead. The question is, why a door nail of all things and where did this term originate from?

The term can be found in the written English language as far back as the 14th century in writings such as Shakespeare’s Henry IV and other writings from the mid 1300’s.

Some have thought that the meaning came from the lower nail used to hold a doorknocker to the door and the repeated banging of the striker on the head of that nail would surely make it dead. However, it is most likely that this term had it’s origin from a typical carpentry task done in early door construction.

Wooden doors makers from the 14th century to about the middle 1800’s used  nails to hold the door hardware on. The nails used were made purposely longer than the thickness of the door and when the hinges and latches were nailed on they would go to the other side of the door and bend the tip of the nail over with a hammer. Using a punch, they would then turn the point of the nail back into the wooden surface. The term for this technique is called “clinching”. Once this was done the nail was considered “dead” for two reasons. First, the nail was almost impossible to remove and would not come loose. Second, nails were mostly made from wrought iron or other brittle metals and if you try to straighten it out it will, in most cases, break the tip making the nail unusable for re-use. So, when clinching a nail, the nail is dead.

The next time you hear the term “Dead as a Doornail” you now know the history behind it. Just another term that came from ancient tradesmen of our kind. The meaning of the term has almost been lost because technical advances have us doing things in a different way. It’s funny that the term is still alive and well today although many don’t know what it means.