Historic preservationist enjoys repairing structures that provide link to past

By Lauren Brown
Burns Times-Herald

The best compliment one can pay historic preservationist John Platz is to not notice his work.

Platz and his wife, Lorraine, run Pilgrim’s Progress, a business that strives to preserve historic buildings. They are currently working on restoring the roof at the Pete French Round Barn. Subcontractors include Rainbow Contracting out of Hillsboro and Budd Landon Masonry out of Kuna, Idaho.

Platz noted that the hardest part of historic preservation work is trying to find appropriate materials with which to repair the rotted or deteriorated originals.

For example, the 80,000 shingles on the round barn roof came from a mill in Washington that produces perfection grade shingles, which have no knots. Platz noted that roof and rafter repair on the round barn has not been done since the late 1800s.

In addition to replacing the roof, masons are also working on repairing some of the structure’s stone walls.

They had to test 30 samples of adobe-style mortar to find the right color and consistency specific to the round barn. In fact, they ended up using soil for the mixture that was not far from where the round barn sits.

Platz has done quite a bit of work on the Pete French Round Barn, as well as other barns in Harney County.

He did the initial stabilization work back in 1995. The current project started on June 24 and Platz expects the crews to be done with work by the end of July. The entire project will cost about $241,000.

Platz truly enjoys historic preservation. He grew up in a family of builders and has a civil engineering background, which he utilized as a forest architect for the Forest Service. Along the way, he discovered the Secretary of the Interior standards for historic preservation, and it sparked his interest in the field. He put together a team of people and became one of the only historic preservation services in the nation. “The credo that we adhere to is that we repair rather than replace,” he said. “The greatest compliment a historic preservationist can receive is for visitors to come look and say, ‘I don’t know what you did,’ ” Platz said.

Platz and his wife have also provided instruction for college master’s students in field schools. He said that over the years, they have trained more than 1,500 students in historic preservation techniques.

He estimates that in total, he has spent a total of one year and nine months on various projects at the Pete French Round Barn. “It’s a wonderful building,” Platz said. The structure has lasted more than 130 years on the high desert thanks to the dry climate. “Over in the valley, this kind of building would last 60 to 70 years tops,” he said.

It’s fun for Platz and his fellow workers to speculate on the round barn’s original purpose. He noted that he has heard that it was used for training horses in the winter, hay storage and animal husbandry. He wonders if there used to be any other outbuildings that simply deteriorated over the years.

Platz said that he enjoys the collaboration of historic preservation. He has known Bob Schmaltz of Rainbow Construction for more than 40 years. “The common thread is that people do care about preservation,” he said.

Pilgrim’s Progress is a dream job for Platz. “We have a lot of fun,” he said. “For my wife and I, it’s an honor to work on these structures.”