While working on a different project at the historic Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs, we received word that a basement storage space operated by New York State was about to be cleared out. The space was crammed with old hotel property soon to be transferred to a Dumpster. Did we want to take a quick look around to see if there was anything worth salvaging?
Wearing headlamps, we descended to the basement where we perused dozens of headboards, nightstands, side tables, and chairs – guest room furnishings discarded during a previous remodel. We rescued several useful table lamps – including a pair of tall milk glass lamps that we recognized from archive photos as having been specified by famed designer Dorothy Draper – one of the most successful interior designers of the 1930s and 40s with a long list of impressive credits.
We moved toward a dark corner, crunching over broken glass, and discovered deep stacks of framed and matted artwork propped against masonry walls. They were prints of orchids — watercolors that had also once decorated the guest room walls.
Crouching down for a closer look, we flipped through the frames the way you might look through old record albums in a thrift shop, expecting to find six or eight prints repeating in multiples. Except that there were no repeats. Amazed at the breadth of the work, we had the pieces transported back to the hotel for a closer look. There, we laid them out on folding tables in a banquet room; except for dirt and dust on the frames, these reproductions lithographs were in excellent condition. Recognizing that the strength of the work was to see it as a collection, we cleaned the pieces with spray bottles and rags, then proposed to hang the work, gallery style, in a wide, blank connecting hallway between the original hotel and the banquet space addition – a move that transformed a featureless space into a destination.
We researched and wrote an interpretive panel on the artist – H.G. Moon – and hung it with his work. We suggested the space be re-named “The Gallery,” which the sales department did and began marketing immediately. By taking a look at the “trash”, we repurposed an existing asset, transformed a space, added historical interest, and created a new revenue opportunity – all at zero cost to our client.
