For years, the entire back half of world-renowned artist Frank Duveneck’s boyhood home sat directly on the ground – no foundation separating the floor joists from the dirt, or, for that matter, the water that rushed towards the house from a neighboring lot for at least a decade.
The wood was rotted, deteriorated, and falling apart – a nebulous basis for a series of structural additions and renovations that, over decades, were hammered in place with no regard to existing structural integrity, or its lack thereof. A veritable house of cards.
“Had this been any other structure in the city, we would probably have ordered it’s demolition,” said Covington Assistant Neighborhood Services Director Walter Mace. “The damage was just that extensive.”
The physical state of Duveneck’s historic home, located at 1226 Greenup St., was not the worst that Structural Systems Repair Group (SSRG) project manager Casey Culhane had seen, but it was among the worst.
“We’ve had buildings literally fall, whereas this building was about to fall,” said Culhane, who, along with his crew, has spent the last two months working to stabilize the historic structure, and will soon see its completion.
“When we walk away from here, we want to give the City of Covington a stabilized structure that they know has no risk of falling over and deteriorating,” said Culhane.
Getting to the bones
The threat of collapse posed by decades of ominous renovations placed over the structures ‘bones,’ so to speak, is what spurred the City’s efforts to gain legal authority to move and stabilize the building, and preserve a piece of the city’s history.
Last September, Kenton County Judge Kate Molloy gave the City conservatorship of the building, granting the City the legal authority to move and stabilize the building, prompting the City to contract with SSRG, which is based in Cincinnati and specializes in the restoration and preservation of historical properties and landmark structures.
After a thorough inspection and inventory of the property, SSRG found an array of issues:
• Original wall studs were cut from a portion of the building’s south wall and new double 2 x 4s “scabbed on” and not extended to the underside of the second floor framing. The wall had bowed and was in jeopardy of further damage or partial collapse.
• As for the north stone foundation wall, the basement appeared to have been over excavated to create a deeper portion that would have undermined the foundation wall, causing the soil to fall below and the wall to fall inward.
• A third section of stone foundation at the rear of the building had stone missing. Roof downspouts were broken and water was getting into the area, with rotted wood in the wall and at the perimeter wood sill on top of the foundation.
As the SSRG crew pulled back the multitude of ill thought out renovations to better understand the building’s bare bones, they discovered further damages to tackle: collapsed foundations (that is, where foundations actually existed); a roof placed on top of an existing roof; and stone walls that had practically washed away over the years.
“As the guys from SSRG continued their work, it became a trip back in time,” said Mace. “They continued to discover previous attempts to fix major issues with the building over the years, that certainly would not have been acceptable by modern standards. And each one of those attempts required work to correct.”
SSRG crews shored up the building’s roof, put holes in the ground and shored up the floor to hold it in place while crews tore out the foundation, built a new one, and reattached the floor.
“Preserving Covington’s rich cultural history is a top priority,” said Mayor Ron Washington. “Thanks to the work of SSRG and our City staff, we will be able to preserve and restore this cultural icon for the next generation.”
Where history and creativity stirred
It’s said that there’s a connection between creativity and place; that an artist’s home and studio reveal the personal and creative process behind iconic works. While museums give a static experience, an artist’s home is an immersive environment, the place where ideas and inspiration stirred.
The Springs, New York has the Jackson Pollock-Lee Krasner house. Giverny, France has the home of Claude Monet. Malaga, Spain has the home of Pablo Picasso. And Abiquiu, New Mexico was the summer retreat of Georgia O’Keefe. In Covington, Frank Duveneck’s house is a lens to the artist’s gaze onto the Covington that informed his art. To those in the art world, and those with an appreciation of Covington’s history, that’s worth saving.
“The home and studio are evocative space that bring the artist’s practice, vision and imagination to life and inspire creativity in all of us,” said Julie Aronson, curator of American Paintings, Sculpture and Drawings, at the Cincinnati Art Museum, where Duveneck’s works of art are displayed in depth.
Whatever inspiration Duveneck drew from while growing up at 1226 Greenup St., it spawned an internationally known and revered American master of 19th century art. His works are displayed in depth at the Cincinnati Art Museum, and can be seen at the Taft Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many other world-class galleries.
“Through his masterful works of art and influential teaching, Frank Duveneck brought a cosmopolitan, international perspective on art to Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky,” said Aronson. “The compelling story of his immigrant family, with whom he lived in the house on Greenup Street, had a profound impact on his life and work and resonates today.”
Rachael Parker, Director, Northern Kentucky Creative Placemaking, ArtsWave, sees timeless themes in Duveneck’s art and personal narrative.
“What I identify with and find inspirational about Frank Duveneck’s legacy is his artistic and personal story of growth and evolution, with universal themes that are as relevant today, as they will be 100 years from now,” said Parker. “Frank Duveneck put our region on the map, we should persistently be working to preserve, honor, and share his legacy,” said Parker. “The arts fuel economic vitality, cultural vibrancy, and thriving connected communities. The arts instill pride in our residents and drive tourism in Northern Kentucky.”
Duveneck’s Covington
Duveneck was born to a family of working-class German immigrants, where his passion for art began at a young age, nurtured by his family and the church, said Parker.
Born in 1848, Duveneck was also born into an interesting time in Covington, one which Dave Schroeder, Executive Director of the Kenton County Public Library, said was growing quickly due, in part, to a large influx of German immigrants, with both Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati receiving several hundred immigrants per week in the two decades prior to the Civil War.
A year after Duveneck’s birth in Covington, his father, Bernhard Decker, died of cholera in 1849. That same year, cholera killed one out of every seven members of Mother of God Parish. Duveneck’s mother later married Joseph “Squire” Duveneck and took his surname.
“Covington was an expanding industrial city with neighborhoods, or burg, blossoming like mushrooms seemingly overnight,” said Schroeder.
The Helentown neighborhood that Duveneck grew up in, said Schroeder, was a mixture of homes, small businesses, and industry. Densely populated with large numbers of German Immigrants, and smaller numbers of Irish, English, and African Americans.
“For Duveneck, the neighborhood would have been a familiar space centered around the parish church and school, the Benedictine St. Walburg Convent, and a variety of German-owned and operated small businesses,” said Schroeder.
Many of those neighborhoods, he said, were centered around German Catholic and Protestant Churches. One of those German Catholic Churches was St. Joseph, at the corner of 12th and Greenup Streets in Helentown, with a parish staffed by the Benedictine Fathers of Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
As part of their mission, said Schroeder, they brought Brothers from their order to Covington and established the Covington Altar Building Company on Bush Street, which bult altars, pulpits, organ cases, and other church furnishings for a largely Midwest market.
“Many of the altarpieces produced by the company were highly decorative and included painted images of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the saints,” said Schroeder. “Here, Frank Duveneck came into contact with Johann Schmitt and other German artists who taught him how to paint, guild, and design.”
Covington, Schroeder said, was a very Catholic city, with German culture playing a significant role in the region, and in Duveneck’s life.
“Without his association with the Altar Building Company, and the artists who worked there, Duveneck’s life could have turned out much differently,” said Schroeder. “These artists encouraged him, taught him, and challenged him to produce high quality work, and eventually encouraged him to study abroad in Europe.”
Schroeder said the artist’s legacy to the community is “enormous” and his childhood home “special.”
“Duveneck’s home on Greenup Street is special for many reasons,” said Schroeder, citing the building’s age and primary use as a residence for more than 150 years.
“The fact that the Duveneck family owned it for many decades is also a testament to his love of his hometown and deep connections to the community” said Schroeder. “To think that one of this country’s most talented painters not only lived and worked in Covington, but also, that his home still stands well over a century after his death. Duveneck’s house, and many other examples,, tell the story of Covington in a way history books cannot.”
City of Covington