The Bruce B. Bates Colonnade Restoration

Project Dates: Completed June 2021

The Bruce B. Bates Colonnade provides the only interior route between George Eastman Museum’s main entrance and galleries and the historic mansion and gardens. The museum undertook a major restoration and renovation of the colonnade to complete essential structural repairs and to provide a more hospitable experience for visitors. 

The Colonnade’s floor structure, which had deteriorated because water has infiltrated the steel-reinforced concrete,  has been replaced. New gutters and downspouts were installed to protect the structure. The five wooden columns that were had been installed after a fire in 1949 have now been replaced with Indiana limestone columns that match the originals. The Colonnade roof was replaced and its support structure restored. The previous single-pane windows provided poor insulation and their wooden sashes were not air or water tight. A new insulated glass system and a new heating and cooling system are being installed to will ensure visitor comfort year round.

The Colonnade restoration project was supported by benevolent contributions from Bruce Bates and Georgia Gosnell and by the Save America’s Treasures grant program which is funded by the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Additional funding has been provided by a grant from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation through Title 9 of the Environmental Protection Act of 1993 under Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Council Initiative and by a Vitality Grant in Historic Preservation from the Rochester Area Community Foundation.

Updates

Last Updated: Wednesday, September 2, 2020

• Director’s Note: The Bruce Bates Colonnade (Bulletin Article, July 2020)