Please Touch Museum Memorial Hall Floor Renovation

In winter 2024, Please Touch Museum began a project to renovate the marble flooring in its historic Memorial Hall to prepare for its 150th Anniversary in 2026.

From our client’s website about the project:

Memorial Hall is an early example of monumental Beaux-Arts architecture. The floors are original to the building, and are comprised of white, red, and black marble. Ulysses S. Grant, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Edison, and John Wanamaker are just a few of the famous figures who might have trod Memorial Hall’s marble floors during the Centennial Exhibition in 1876.

Underneath the marble is the building’s original mortar substrate, which has deteriorated over the decades and lost its adhesive powers, leading to wobbly and broken tiles.

Over the past 150 years, wear and tear has necessitated the replacement of many of the original marble tiles. Some replacement tiles are not close matches to the original tile grain. Many of the remaining original tiles are cracked, chipped, or otherwise damaged.

Please Touch Museum began the floor renovation project in Winter 2024, working in stages to preserve the floor’s original design.

Project managed by Aegis Property Group and conducted by Knapp Masonry, the renovation process will take place one 200-square-foot section at a time. The marble will be removed one tile at a time, and replaced with tiles that are close matches to the original in both appearance and origin, coming from quarries nearby the originals in France, Spain, and Italy.

The Museum remains open to visitors for the duration of the project, allowing families to view the construction and renovation work up close. The construction materials will be removed from the floor completely during all private event rentals, so that weddings, proms, special occasions, and corporate events are not impacted.