Putting A Lid On It -From Here

by Brian McKenzie - The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, VA - December 15, 1999

Nestled within the undulating foothills of Greene County is a rolling wood and meadow called the Twin Lakes subdivision, wherein James Donovan is rebuilding a cupola, the signature garnish of a 102-year-old rural firehouse.

Not bad considering the firehouse is in Rutland, Mass.

Mr. Donovan got the job after visiting the Rutland elementary classroom where his niece teaches, across the street from the firehouse.

Whether pure chance or synchronicity, only the universal timekeeper knows for sure. Yet it's peculiar that the cupola specialist found his way to the firehouse-under-restoration some 700 miles from home.

"There are only about two dozen companies in the country building these and I just happened to be there at the right time," he said with a touch of wonder. " I tracked down what was going on and talked to the fire chief and the volunteers and got the job."

He built the structure on a trailer in his driveway beneath a tarpaulin tent. He built it without plans. He built it without blueprints. He used only a picture from the late 1800s postcard for a template.

"I usually get the dimensions and then start. After 20 years in the construction business, I guess I don't need to make detailed plans," he admitted. "I made a sketch from the photograph and redesigned it so it can be lifted by a crane."

From There to Here

The salt and pepper-haired, New England-born Irishman, who is built like a small bear, moved to Charlottesville from Galveston, Texas, about five years ago. For several years he built custom furniture out of wood salvaged from old barns.

The barns that fanned the fad fell to a few. The fad fled in short order, and Mr. Donovan took up building cupolas and doors for custom homes, commercial facilities and the odd restoration.

The Rutland Fire Brigade building is not all that odd, however.

"The firehouse was built in 1897," Mr. Donovan explained. "They added a second story in the 1930's took down the cupola and replaced it with a smaller one to house the fire alarm bell. Then they removed the belfry completely in 1951 and took the bell out," he said.

Nature Of The Beast

Cupolas resemble church steeples strapped to chicken coops capped with weather vanes or lightning rods; they often appear to have been afterthoughts dropped onto the roofs of barns and old office buildings as decorative ventilator shafts.

For the firehouse, the cupola capped the hose-drying tower and supported the local fire alarm-a large, cast iron bell, capable of a deafening clang that would shame most rock bands.

Painted blue-gray, the squat structure with large pillars turned on the lathe at Clore Furniture features modern truss construction and copper-lined flooring around the bell and on the roof, which was built separately.

This morning, Mr. Donovan says he hopes to crane the top onto the bell base, bolt them together and tote the massive 32-foot-tall structure down the highway.

Weather Channel willing, it will be in the little town near Boston by Friday and on the fire station roof by Saturday.

"I'm not going to get too much rest," he said. "I've got enough orders for cupolas to keep me busy until May."

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