66 MOTOR PALACE

We’re taking a look back to when we purchased the Motor Palace, the former Jennie’s site and some of the progress we’ve made.

Jennie’s building

One of our first projects was replacing the roof on the old Jennie’s Bar building next door.  Water and animals flowed freely and it was forty to fifty years old.  During the roof project, Marshall (Winslow Building Inspector) suggested we build a “cricket” between Jennie’s roof and the mud-room to control drainage.  His advice proved valuable in the next phase of work.  Our intent was to use the Jennie’s building for shop space and storage while working on the Motor Palace.  So far, we aren’t. We’ll post more on Jennie’s later.

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Motor Palace mud-room

Here’s a look at the mud-room, where we sleep now.  The mud room was a dirt floor covered entrance with access to the basement attached to the back of the main building.  It’s not part of the original Motor Palace structure but pictures from before 1904 show it in place.  We were allowed to save it since it was here before there was such thing as a “Historic Register” or just about everything else in Winslow.

The main walls in the mud-room had cracks big enough to provide light in the daytime and the door frame was separated from the masonry wall.  It looked like the south wall was collapsing away from the rest of the structure.  In reality, the north wall was collapsing from years water draining between the mud-room and Jennie’s, undermining the foundation. (Thanks Joe and Marshall for catching that one)

Basement steps and south wall area

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Bathroom and north/east corner

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East, south/east wall and door

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East wall exterior

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We still have a long way to go but the work in the pipeline will be more impactful and of larger scale.  Most of the demo and groundwork is laid.  Except for the tuckpointing and masonry repair.  If all goes as planned the Motor Palace will look the same but be preserved and protected for another hundred plus years.

Read what we really did on our last stay in Winslow

…and why it all started