Jackson Evans has just completed restoration work on a wing’s worth of the State House’s antique windows. The hand-made windows, which were built in the 1820s, were pains-takingly removed from the capitol and restored to their former glory in Evans’ Braintree shop. (Herald / Tim Calabro) When Jackson Evans was a child growing up in Northfield, he often visited the Vermont State House, and recalls being impressed by the beauty of the building. He never dreamed he would one day be involved in the restoration of it.

Now living on a quiet road in Braintree, with his wife Katja, their four-year-old twins, Mason and Ava, the twins’ two-yearold brother, Finnley, and a menagerie of animals, Evans owns a small business, Black Sash Restoration, that specializes in historic window preservation. The business gets its name from the fact that “most windows at some point in their life were painted black,” he said. Evans, who got an undergraduate degree from Ithaca College in 2002, also earned a master’s degree in historical preservation from UVM in 2006.

Jackson Evans puts the first finish coat on the exterior of one of the massive State House windows in his Braintree shop. (Herald / Tim Calabro) “As an undergrad, I spent a few semesters traveling all over the east coast working for Weather Hill Preservation, which is based in Charlotte, taking down old houses and barns,” he recalled. “I learned a lot there, and then when I did an internship for the Vermont Department of Historic Preservation, I decided that I really liked doing window restoration.”

Evans has focused on the window restoration business for the last year or so. About six months ago, he won a contract from the state to restore two windows in the Vermont Statehouse. After completing this initial job to state officials’ satisfaction, he won another contract to restore an additional 14 windows from the legislative wing of the Statehouse.

He started the project this fall, immediately after completing renovations to the workshop next to his home. The 14 windows, with two eight-paned sashes per window, took about 10 hours each to complete. Each sash weighs 40 lbs. and measures 4 ft. by 7 ft. Fully restored, the last of them were put back into place at the Statehouse this week.

Gallons of Putty

“They’re all put together using no glue at all and they’re fastened with wooden pegs,” Evans marveled, working on a window at the special easel-style platform he built for this project. “I went through eight gallons of putty doing this job! All of the sash weights were still there, but I had to replace the ropes, which were in various states of decay, and put in sash chain, which lasts forever. This is the most windows I’ve restored at one time.”

“It’s an honor to work on that building,” he added, recalling how thrilled he was to be able to spend a morn- ing “going around the outside of the Statehouse 50 feet up in the air on a lift. “I just felt how impressive it was.”

According to Wikipedia, the current Vermont Statehouse struc­­ture was designed by architect Thomas Silloway, amplifying the design of an earlier structure designed by Ammi B. Young, who later was the supervising architect of the U.S. Treasury. Young’s structure was of a more reserved Greek Revival design based upon the Temple of Theseus in Athens and was nearly totally destroyed by a fire during January 1857.

Silloway was able to salvage the Doric portico, as well as portions of the granite walls, added an additional bay of windows on each side of the central portico, and increased the height of the dome (copper on a wood substructure) to its current level. The dome, roofs, and window frames were originally painted dark terracotta red to suggest Tuscan tile. The dome was not gilded until the early 20th century, when many states did so as a part of the Colonial Revival style.

Old Red Paint

“When I was scraping down these windows, I found the original red paint inside and out,” said Evans, showing visitors to his workshop how he ages the new replacement brass stop head adjustors and sash locks in an ammonia solution to replicate the dark patina of the original hardware. “These windows are made of white pine and were most likely constructed right here in Vermont.”

“I just love the vocabulary of working with windows,” Evans added, noting that a “muntin” is a strip of wood or metal used as support between panes of glass, a “rabbet” is a groove or recess cut in aboard so that another piece may be fitted into it to form a joint, a “rail” is a horizontal piece of wood separating panels, and a “stile” is a vertical piece in a panel or frame of a window or door.

“When I see old windows by the side of the road, I stop and pick them up,” he said, “so now I have a stash of old glass I can use for restoration projects.”

Evans figures he’s in a good place for the type of business he has, noting “Vermont has the fourth-oldest housing stock in the U.S.”

In addition to restoring windows from older buildings, he also constructs new wood and aluminum windows for residential projects. Right now, he’s a one-man operation, but as he gets more work, he hopes to hire an assistant.

For more information about Evans’ business, go online to www.blacksashvt.com.