Steeplejacks & Machinists: Restoration Efforts at Hall of the Above

As one would expect with a building that’s nearly 100 years old, the Sonoma County National Bank has many beautiful features, many of which are also in various states of disrepair. In addition to the construction related to raising the occupancy of the building, we’ve been undergoing restoration efforts for aforementioned special features, and thought we’d share some details.

the flagpole

High atop Hall of the Above stands the original Douglas Fir flagpole, installed in 1925. You’d think it would have rotted out by now, but the wood is so exposed that it dries out almost immediately after storms.

When we first saw the flagpole, we thought, “Wow, we’re gonna have so much fun with that. But look at it—there's hardly any paint on it, and the ball at the top is askew…” We knew we had to fix it, but how on earth are you supposed to find someone to replace that or repair it? And then we found somebody called a Steeplejack.

Despite the flagpole’s appearance, Jim Phelan (the Steeplejack), was so sure of its integrity that he climbed all the way up to repair the finial at the top. He learned the trade from his dad, and is now passing it on to his son, Kells. They change light bulbs in the baseball stadiums, and fixed the clock at the ferry terminal. He says “It’s not like I'm not afraid of heights, I just know how to deal with it.” In addition to repairing the finial, they sanded it, repainted it, and fitted it for two flags.

The first time we flew a flag was on Flag Day, but we realized Juneteenth was only a few days later, so we ordered a Juneteenth flag that came in time. But long-term, there are 365 days in a year, and that’s a lot of different flags you could fly. We love the idea of people being able to fly custom flags for their events—imagine your daughter has a birthday and she wants to make a tie-dye flag to fly, or if you want to design a flag for your wedding—the possibilities are endless now that the pole is up and running.

the elevator

The next order of business was this charming elevator, an original 1925 Otis, with a lot of personality, housed in the machine room above the event space. One September morning, Danny (who a history of claustrophobia) spent two hours in the elevator because it overshot the floor by 18 inches and got stuck…

Enter Rob Cotton, machinist, antiquarian, and our elevator whisperer, shown here with the beast. It’s the real deal; we’re not sure we want them to make them like they used to, but they sure do look great.

Other Building Features of Note

Mezzanine

In addition to the first mezzanine with the papal balcony you can see from the main event space, there’s a second mezzanine above, which is going to be “back-of-house,” as the stairs are not to code, so there are limited things that we're going to be allowed to do. You can see it’s in a state of disrepair, but we're doing what we can to bring some of these things up to speed.

Roof

And then you have the roof. Anybody who goes up there asks us, “So are you gonna have a cafe up here?” And the short answer is no, because we only have one stairway. So unless somehow, somebody can introduce us to the owner of the clock shop next door, and we were somehow able to acquire that space to build a stair and a kitchen, then maybe. But one thing at a time. 

Underneath that roof is this beautiful space. It lives in between the roof and the ceiling of the space below. And you'll notice that the florets in the ceiling are actually vents—they’re registers. And there's a huge turbine in the penthouse that draws air from the top of the space and remixes it.

The basement

This is the gorgeous stair to the basement. Code requires us to put handrails on not one but both sides (which is really a heartbreaker).

The Murals

Above, you'll notice the beautiful mural on the ceiling, painted by the Seed Bank folks, along with several other beautiful murals throughout the basement level, which we intend to preserve and maintain.

Next to the vault is this mural, sort of the Mona Lisa. If anybody can figure out what she’s thinking, let us know. Regardless, she’s obviously staying.

The Vault

This is the vault door, built in the roaring 20s.
We’re not sure what this space is going to be used for, but is it cool, or what?