Tag:The Remnant Trust
James Madison and Thomas Jefferson
As mentioned here previously, I had the opportunity to attend an event put on by The Remnant Trust last week. An Open House was held at their facility in Winona Lake, followed by a meal and program at a local banquet facility. As with everything associated with The Remnant Trust, it was handled professionally and was very entertaining. I was afforded the opportunity to meet with members of The Remnant Trust board as well as prominent citizens of Warsaw and the surrounding area. It was rewarding to be able to discuss our work on the facility with the people that made it possible.
The Open House included access to the vault where they had character actors portraying two of our Founding Fathers, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. It is always interesting to see these portrayals and fascinating to see how they choose to handle interactions with the modern world. In this case, they chose to handle it as having made the trip from the east coast and being somewhat surprised that the native population was a bit more advanced than their scouts and explorers had led them to believe… They each went through the vault and discussed books that they were familiar with from their time or earlier, discussing how these books had affected their lives and philosophies. Listening to “Thomas Jefferson” discuss the works of Aristotle and “James Madison” discuss the Magna Charta was fascinating.
At the banquet center, the former Presidents continued to circulate through the crowd discussing various issues. A period accurate meal was served with several dishes prepared in the custom of that time including things like lamb with mint jelly, venison and black-eyed peas. Everything was quite good!
Thomas Jefferson pictured at Biography.com
After the meal, two videos were shown illustrating the public work that The Remnant Trust pursues. Interviews with grade school children in Fort Wayne that had been given the opportunity to touch and work with the documents was particularly interesting. From the video I learned that using the character actors to present their documents to the public is one of their standard practices. I can attest that it was effective!
James Madison pictured at Biography.com
The Presidents were asked to make comments on what they had seen there, which they did in historical context. Then questions and answers came from the audience. A couple of questions were obviously asked to test the knowledge of the actors and they rose to the occasion with admirable knowledge. I was quite impressed as several of the questions showed historical knowledge that was beyond me and the actors barely paused before giving eloquent responses.
All in all, it was an enjoyable evening. Educational and Fun! It was quite fitting just days before celebrating Independence Day. Thank you Kris and Miranda for including me!
Update on Kris Bex at Culver Kiwanis
Jeff Kenney
Just as an update to our previous post here, Jeff Kenney wrote a piece regarding Kris Bex’s presentation to the Culver Kiwanis Club in the June 14th edition of the Culver Citizen. (You can click on the article to the below to enlarge it.) Thanks for the plug Jeff!
I would imagine Jeff found a kindred soul in Kris Bex, knowing Jeff’s interests in writing and history. The Remnant Trust’s focused mission to preserve documents promoting Liberty and Dignity makes it a unique asset to Northern Indiana.
I will be attending a Remnant Trust event this evening. There will be a tour of the facility, some period character actors and a social gathering for local supporters. I’m looking forward to the event (even though I’m forced to wear a tie!). It is always interesting to go back to completed projects and see how they evolve from the original plans. The Remnant Trust is a particularly interesting example since the facility serves as somewhat of a museum and is constantly changing their displays and presentations.
Kris Bex at Culver Kiwanis
I had the opportunity to introduce Kris Bex of The Remnant Trust to the Culver Kiwanis yesterday. The Remnant Trust is an organization that collects and preserves documents from the 19th century and older. They concentrate their collection on documents that promote the concepts of Liberty and Dignity. They currently have 1206 cataloged works with more being added to their collection as important works become available.
Kris has been President of The Remnant Trust since its inception in 1997. He explained how the idea for the organization came about for this group in the late 80’s/early 90’s. He also spoke about how they came to be located in Winona Lake. It is obviously very much a personal mission for him and he explained how some of his family inspired the creation of the trust. He has board of directors that he reports to which he said, “Limits his Indiana Jones style adventures…”, but he does travel the nation with examples of the works held in their trust.
One of the unique things about their organization is their belief that these documents should be shared with the public. Members of the Kiwanis Club were afforded the opportunity to see some of these documents up close. The opportunity to actually see an original copy of the Federalist Papers is a unique and exciting event. That document was included in the samples brought for the club to examine. Authors represented in the trust include Aristotle, Adam Smith, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Milton, Plato and Alexis de Tocqueville among others.
The Book Vault at The Remnant Trust in Winona Lake
Kris spoke about the care that is taken in preserving and presenting the documents under his protection. He kindly acknowledged our help in creating their facility in Winona Lake and briefly discussed the systems in place to protect them. Not unlike the protection systems some of you may have seen in the movie Angels and Demons, humidity and temperatures are controlled tightly and a specialized fire suppression system is employed that will squelch a fire by removing oxygen from the room while avoiding any residual chemical damage to the books. Unlike those books and documents in the movie, The Remnant Trust believes their collection should be shared with the public. Access is obviously controlled, but they do hold public events. If you are interested in attending one, there is a list of public exhibit dates here.
You can find some additional information on our part in constructing The Remnant Trust facility in Winona Lake here in our blog. Just search for The Remnant Trust in the search box on the right. It was also interesting to learn that Kris attended Hillsdale College, though the group has no affiliation. Some of you may recognize the Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College that I have included in the miscellaneous links in the side bar of this blog since its origin.
This is a project we’re extremely proud to include in our portfolio and I was pleased to be able to bring a piece of it to Culver for my friends at the Kiwanis Club to experience. Thank you Kris for making yourself available to give an interesting presentation.
The Remnant Trust Open House
The Remnant Trust Book Vault
The Remnant Trust in partnership with OrthoWorx held an Open House for their Winona Lake facility on December 3rd, 2010. (See previous entries on this project here and here.) Unfortunately I was unable to attend, but Will and Kathy Pearson attended as representatives for Easterday Construction Co., Inc. The Open House was attended by various members of the Warsaw and Winona Lake Community. Brian Bex, one of the founding members of The Remnant Trust, was there signing copies of his book Summa Liberte’: The Unchaining of Ideas.
Exterior view of the Winona Lake Remnant Trust facility
This project began with bidding in the early Spring of 2010 and culminated with this Open House the first week in December of 2010. Finalizing funding delayed construction until Summer. While mainly an interior remodel, the project also included some minor maintenance and upgrades to the exterior such as the repair of rotted wood and the addition of security lighting.
The Vault Room in the new finished Remnant Trust facility in Winona Lake during the Open House
For this project, we took an existing building owned by Grace College and remodeled it into a storage vault and research facility for preserved documents. The interior of the building was tongue and groove wood siding that we had to match and blend with new. The existing open framework was maintained except in the vault room where walls were deepened to accommodate additional insulation and to allow us to make the room less permeable. All of our joints were either caulked or otherwise sealed. The new acoustical ceiling tile system was installed with clips to hold the tile in place. Pressure tests were completed at the end of the vault construction to verify that it was appropriately sealed. A specialized fire suppression system was installed, designed to extinguish a fire in the early stages without introducing water or other chemicals that could harm the documents stored within. UV protective film was installed on the windows and sensitive HVAC and alarm systems were installed. Additional security lighting was installed around the perimeter.
This ends another project that we are proud to have in our portfolio. Congratulations to The Remnant Trust and Kris Bex, Director of this new facility, for this new addition to their library system.
The Remnant Trust in Winona Lake
Remnant Trust Update
Demolition underway on the interior.
We are moving ahead with work at The Remnant Trust project in Winona Lake. Demolition is nearly complete and we have begun framing walls. An existing stage, an existing fireplace mock-up and miscellaneous display walls had to be removed. Most of the existing interior was finished in tongue & groove car siding. Let’s just say the original installer believed that if a whole lot of nails were good, even more would be better.
The Remnant Trust Building. Picture from Scearce Rudisel Architects Website.
Because of the type of protection for artifacts required here, special effort is being made for security as well as for Fire Protection and HVAC controls. The existing building previously housed the Billy Sunday Museum. The previous use has presented some challenges, but fortunately the original building construction was recent and most of the construction and existing systems are in good shape.
There have been a few changes as we’ve gotten into the project, but as always, the plans prepared by Scearce Rudisel Architects have provided the necessary guidance. Mary Ellen Rudisel Jordan is always a pragmatic Architect and she works well with us. We both maintain the goal of achieving the best possible project for our mutual client.
