Battling the Basement

Hello from Philadelphia! This week at Independence National Historical Park I began work on a large conservation project. A basement that was previously the headquarters of Region One of the National Park Service had been neglected for years, and it was my job to clear it out.

The basement had collected a lot of stuff throughout the years – manuals, handbooks, parts, tools, hundreds of light bulbs – and had dust and dirt over everything. Due for a complete

overhaul, the basement needed someone to go in and clear out what was no longer needed and make an inventory of what was down there. So ProRanger Hannah Moore and I, accompanied by another intern Nick Baltera, spent the week clearing out and cleaning the basement while listing everything we kept.

Progress was slow at first, but as the trash bags piled up we steadily made progress. By the end of the first day we had the messiest room completely cleared out. Initially we had only grabbed six trash bags from maintenance, completely underestimating the size of the job. By the end of the day, we had used 14. Day two saw us cleaning the bathrooms. It looked as if the bathrooms hadn’t been touched in the last 30 years, so we scrubbed everything from the walls to the sinks to the floor.

 

By day three we were working on inventorying the basement. Although this wasn’t asked for by our supervisor, ProRanger Moore and I thought it would be helpful to anyone coming after us to have a good idea of what is in the basement. Day four was spent moving all the trash and debris out from the basement and into the lobby for the Motor Vehicle Operations crew to collect and doing our final sweeps of the basement. We also found a very large stash of fluorescent light bulbs that we used to replace all the bulbs in the building that were going bad.

Overall, it was very hard work but was very rewarding. To be able to help restore a building that is not only a part of Independence Park but also was very important to the function of the entire region was exciting. I am still having a great time in the park and I am looking forward to the academy!