Porcher House
Cocoa, Florida
Built in 1916, the historic Porcher House in Cocoa, Florida, is an excellent example of twentieth century classical revival architecture, adapted to the Florida climate.  Built by Edward Porcher, a pioneer in the Florida citrus industry, the ten bedroom house is composed of native coquina rock, and finished in the interior with teak, oak, and cedar.  In the 1950’s, the city of Cocoa obtained the house from the Porcher family and turned it into the City Hall. 

With the assistance of state grants and city funding, we performed extensive renovations to this house including:

• structural stabilization of studs in walls and roof rafters
• restoration of wood windows and trim
• restoration of trim in wood cornice
• installed new veneer plaster on walls and finished to match existing
• refinished wood floors and replaced installed new parquet floor
• installed a new roof
• installed a new widow’s walk at top and curved balustrade in front replicating the details found in historic photographs
• waterproofed foundation
• new kitchen cabinets
• re-painted interior
• installed new chandelier

  On the National Register of Historic Places, this Cocoa landmark is now open for public viewing and special occasions.

	The perimeter was excavated to allow waterproofing of the foundation with a Carlisle waterproofing system.
	Structural stabilization was performed on all the exterior walls and roof rafters.  The sill plate was also replaced due to deterioration from moisture and termites.
	It had been determined from historic photographs that in the past these ionic columns had been replicated but installed ninety degrees off from original.  To correct this, we disassembled and refurbished each of the capitals, and then reinstalled them, rotated to match the original installation.
	All of these windows were restored and the front curved railing and upper widow’s walk were replicated from historic photographs and installed.
	The floors shown here were re-finished and the outside walls were reinforced with new wood studs and all-thread rod running entire height of the exterior walls.  The outside walls were then refinished with veneer plaster to match the original texture finish and painted.
	These floors were refinished.  The wood windows were restored and a new chandelier was installed.