In a message dated 9/15/98 8:25:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> The whole idea of a historic 1960's sidewalk has been on my mind all
day--why is this particular sidewalk historic?

The Levittown sidewalk was designed and installed by Michael Frombly, an
enterprising and eccentric concrete mason who later became a popular tavern
owner and local politician.  Mr. Frombly died of congestive heart failure in
February 1996 in the midst of his last monumental pour at the Farmingdale VFW
pheasant barbecue. The current owners of the Frombly Tavern, which serves 57
different micro-brews and has an amazing assortment of blended Scotches as
well as a separate cigar lounge where local pols cavort, are his desendants.
The sidewalk seems to have particular meaning to the Frombly's and they insist
that since they are paying they should get what they want. To me it looks like
any plain gray concrete sidewalk from the early 1960's. I understand from
discussions with my more intellectual associates that this may be a part of
the "Preserving the Modern" trend mixed with a bit of vernacular minimalist
architecture. I have difficulty keeping the work crew from laughing when we
are on site.  Part of the contract documents state that if the workers make
disparaging remarks about the sidewalk that they will be removed from the
project. This has become a construction management issue as the tavern has
been serving the crew free lunches including beverages.

On one side of the tavern is a Staples (office supply store) and on the other
side is a McDonalds. Across the road is a BP gas station. I guess the historic
value in this case is determined by those who have the money to preserve and
want to spend it. An attempt was made by one of the younger Frombly's, a
paralegal recently graduated from CW Post, to place the sidewalk on the
National Register. This effort, to her consternation, did not seem to get very
far. They have erected a brass plaque that is nailed to a nearby white oak
tree.

As to matching the existing, yes we have had to do an analysis of the
materials and match as closely as possible to the original. Prior to our
involvement in the project cores were sent out to several conservators, there
are more than enough reports. The odd thing, from our perspective, is that the
reports provide conflicting information. The differences in seive analysis of
the aggregate and fines were most remarkable. We believe, from Frombly's
records, which were kept in a Redwing boot box and discovered by his surviving
eldest daughter beneath a pile of tools stored in the barn behind the tavern,
that the concrete was supplied by Hicksville Ready Pour which, much to our
benefit, remains in business to this day. We have a fairly close match on both
the aggregate (crushed limestone) and the sand (yellow LI sand) but have had
more difficulty with the cement. The mock-ups that we have installed have
either been too light in color or too dark. We have suggested that a period of
weathering would help to blend the new to the old, but there is pressure to
have the restoration completed prior to cold weather. The owners do not want
to wait until spring, which would allow more time to explore design issues. We
have also been having some difficulty negotiating replication of the
reinforcement. Mr. Frombly used a lot of salvaged plumbing pipe and auto body
parts. We have had a problem locating similar scrap of the same vintage and
there is a serious question over the proportioning of plumbing to auto parts.
The original sidewalk was not poorly floated, but we are being asked to
provide rustication to match the weathered sidewalk, thus the problem with the
gum splotches. We consider ourselves fortunate that Mr. Frombly disliked
exposed aggregate. The argument that it is proper to match to a clean
original, determined by a cross section of the existing, in the likelihood
that someone in future may want to clean the sidewalk was recently rejected by
the owners as too costly.

We are keeping track of the project, taking a lot of pictures, and hope to
write it up for a technical publication. For everyone who has contributed
information on gum removal and replication we are greatly indebted. The idea
of shipping the sidewalk to Minnesota has been rejected as some sort of weird
joke, thanks anyway.

][<en Follett