Vermont State Capitol Shows
The Touch of Bethel Plasterer

Jim Calabro of Bethel tells the Randolph Rotary Club about his ornamental plastering work. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

One of the oldest of building trades, combined with knowledge of modern construction, has created a thriving business for a Bethel man.

James Calabro related the story of his Northern Plaster Works company last Thursday to the Randolph Rotary Club.

Moving from downcountry, where his father and grandfather had been in the plasterers’ trade in New York and New Jersey, Calabro started the business in 1986 with his father. It now has eight employees.

His father, who had worked on New York’s Union Station as well as other major buidings, died two years ago.

His very first job was to replaster the ceiling of the governor’s chamber at the Vermont statehouse, work which included reconstruction of five medallions and some cornice work. Since then, Northern Plaster Works has also done work in several other rooms in the Capitol, including the Cedar Creek Room, the upstairs lobby, other common rooms, and the House chamber.

The market for ornamental plaster work, Calabro said, tends to revolve around state capitol buildings and "old movie palaces." He has taken "a great deal of pleasure" out of training several Vermonters in the secrets of the old craft.

That work alone would not sustain the company, however, so it has come up with a new specialty—spray-on fireproofing for structural steel, used in skyscrapers, hospitals, and other big buildings.

The importance of this technique, he pointed out, became clear with the destruction of the World Trade Center. Some fireproofing had been sprayed on the steel of those buildings, he said, and that is what made it possible for most workers to escape. If the fireproofing had been sufficient to retard the fire for a longer period, even more would have been saved, Calabro said.