Old weather vane gets new coat of gold
That worn red-brick building on State Street was the seat of British power and the site of fervent debates between loyalists and revolutionaries. It housed an early commodities market and a modern subway station; gave birth to the oldest continuous appellate court in the Western Hemisphere; and served for 11 years as a temporary home for Boston City Hall.
And through this tumultuous history, which spans almost four centuries, there has been only one reliable way to know which way the wind is blowing at the Old State House: a 295-year-old weather vane gilded with 24-karat gold.
But like government, the shine of that gold dulled with time and needed to be refurbished. Two artisans worked on bended knees yesterday regilding the weather vane, which had been removed from its 102-foot perch as part of a $10 million restoration.
"Because the gold is pounded so thin, it is fragile - like honey," said Heidi Xu, a gold leaf specialist from Evergreene Painting Studios, based in New York City. "It has the viscosity of honey."
That honey is roughly 2 ounces of pliable gold valued at $11,000. It is enough to bring the weather vane back to its original luster and cover the 8-foot-wide ogee dome that caps the Old State House and served as a beacon to ships arriving at Long Wharf.
"It seems like such an extravagance to be putting gold on a building exposed to the elements," said Brian W. J. LeMay, executive director of the Bostonian Society, which operates the Old State House Museum. "But this was the original center of the shining 'city on the hill.' "
Like the building, the weather vane dates to 1713. It is 56 inches long from the tip of its arrow to the end of its split, squiggling tail. The base includes four large letters - N,S,E,W - to mark the direction of the wind.
Constructed with sheet copper and a metal alloy that may be pewter, it was probably an early work of Shem Drowne, an 18th-century coppersmith known for the grasshopper weather vane atop nearby Faneuil Hall, according to Myrna Kaye, author of the 1975 book "Yankee Weathervanes."
The weather vane and the dome of the Old State House served as the backdrop for the Boston Massacre, a tableau etched in history by Paul Revere, who crafted a hand-colored engraving of the shootings.
The dome had been regilded in 2004, but the lead roof began to leak and needed to be repaired. During the most recent renovations, workers discovered much of the original timber used to rebuild the tower in 1748 after a fire. One beam included the letters IR, which are probably initials carved by a Colonial craftsman. Viewed yesterday from scaffolding 100 feet above State Street, the dome looked like an eight-sided pumpkin, painted orange with a lead-based primer to help adhesion of the gold leaf.
The artisans performed work on the weather vane inside. They unfurled rolls of gold leaf that came yesterday by UPS, using dry brushes to apply it to the surface.
"Isn't it pretty?" asked Rainey Tisdale, director of the Old State House Museum as she watched the work. "All of these skyscrapers around us have higher views, but it is not always about height. It's the cherry on top."
