Restoration of the Magoffin Home
A large part of the story of the Magoffin Home is the long continuity of family occupation of over 110 years. The home had two distinct interior styles during its long occupancy: aesthetic reform of the late Victorian period and Santa Fe style during the Spanish Colonial Revival era.

After years of discussion and debate and decades of research and study, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department hired Lonn Taylor 1[1] in 2003 to research and document a furnishing plan which detailed specific needs for restoration of the site. The finished product called for restoration of five rooms to the period of Joseph and Octavia Magoffin circa 1898 while the balance of the rooms would remain 1930s Santa Fe style created by Josephine Magoffin Glasgow.

In the summer of 2004 work began to restore five rooms to 1898-1900 era. The work included re-introduction of canvas ceilings, period wallpapers, and Brussels's carpets. Because room use evolved with the family, the restoration project has placed the original furnishings in the rooms as they were at the turn of the century. The project was completed in the summer of 2005. The formal parlor, the family parlor, and three bedrooms have been restored to 1898 reflecting the home life of the Magoffin family at the peak of Joseph's political influence. The entry hall, Casa Magoffin Compañeros Gift Shop and office, as well as the dining room and staff offices retain the Santa Fe style room finishes.

Largely  funded by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TWPD), the $150,000 project through various programs including Interpretation and Exhibits Branch, Minor Repair Program, and State Park Austin Headquarters Accounts. The Casa Magoffin Compañeros contributed $12,000 directly to the project. CMC also funded key components of research in the years leading up to the restoration, including paint analysis and wallpaper studies.  

WALLPAPERS
The process of selecting wallpapers for the historic Magoffin Home was a process that began in 1977. In the late 1920s, Magoffin's daughter remodeled the house; she removed all wallpapers and canvas ceilings in favor of plastered walls and exposed ceiling beams. Research then and in the following twenty-five years revealed that most rooms had multiple layers of distinctive papers. Fragments of wallpapers were retrieved from behind baseboards, doorframes, and window frames. These samples were collected over several years and are archived on site.

In 1996, a study on the fragments, conducted by TPWD staff, revealed that the vast majority of the papers were machine print, standard stock items for the time period. Fragments from each room were compared to historic photographs of the rooms. The staff corresponded and then met with curators at Scalamandre 2[2] corporate offices in New York. Fragments were also compared and matched to historic photographs taken in the Magoffin Home in the 1880s and 1890s.

Lonn Taylor researched multiple sites that have reproduced historic wall papers and found that Carter and Company [3] in Vallejo, California have long specialized in papers found in the western half of the United States dating from 1870-1910, the exact time period of focus in the Magoffin Home. Furthermore, their papers very closely match the fragments and photographs of papers in the Magoffin Home, more so than any other company contacted. 

With custom ordered, hand printed, and historic wallpapers, it is crucial to find a qualified paperhanger. Jim Yates, president of Historic Wallpaper Specialties, Johnson City Tennessee, a master paperhanger, was contracted to install the papers at the Magoffin Home. He has studied period paperhanging techniques and has adapted conservation technology into the craft of paperhanging. Yates strongly believes that historic work is a craftsman's greatest challenge, that once the wallpapers are in hand, it's the paperhanger's task to animate paper and ink so that a replication of the past can be brought to life.  His web page has a link to the Magoffin Home project. (www.historicwallpapering.com)

CARPETS
Historic photographs of the parlor and one bedroom showed that the floors were covered with Brussels carpets in complex floral patterns, which did not have a border. In the parlor the carpet stopped approximately a foot short of the walls. There were also smaller throw rugs in both rooms. Brintons U.S. Axminster in Greenville, Mississippi manufactured carpets for four rooms at the Magoffin Home. Copies of the historic photographs were sent to the Brintons staff in Greenville and they were very helpful in working with Lonn Taylor to select patterns that were similar to the ones seen in the photographs.  

CANVAS CEILINGS
In 1977, shortly after acquiring the Magoffin Home, TPWD produced an excellent historic structure report, entitled "Preservation Plan and Program for the Magoffin Home State Historic Site." The architectural investigations revealed that in all rooms examined, the underside of ceiling beams or vigas showed clear evidence of having had canvas tacked to them. Cloth ceilings are known to exist in homes all around the world, and in the desert southwest they were quite common. Canvas worked well to hide irregularities in construction, gave the room a finished look, and was cost effective. Frequently the canvas also served to prevent dust and dirt from sod or adobe roofs from sifting down into the house. Three styles of finishing the canvas ceilings were used in the Magoffin Home. The canvas ceiling in the formal parlor was painted, probably the most common finish. It can be finished simply or can have elaborate hand-painted details. At present the ceiling is a solid color, but there are plans to add a floral detail as time allows. Using wood slats to frame the canvas, leaving the canvas its natural color, finished the family parlor. This finish is a more casual approach, which could later be "dressed up" according to taste and finances.

 In the three bedrooms that were restored the canvas was papered. Most visitors to the home are familiar with wallpapers, although younger generations are unaware there were coordinated ceiling papers. Ceiling papers tend to have simple overall patterns. Often ceiling paper design used metallic inks, which would help reflect available light.