Restoration expert helps renovate Senator Theatre
Growing up in west Baltimore’s Sandtown neighborhood in the late 1940s, Norman Wesson realized, “I was blessed with artistic ability. I could always draw.”
At 19, Wesson met Steven Pace, a well-known upholsterer, renovator, refinisher and cabinet maker.
“He was my mentor,” Wesson says.
Pace, who owned the Steven Pace Co. on Frederick Road, has since died — but his protégé is alive and well, and has been handpicked by Senator Theatre operator James “Buzz” Cusack to help restore the landmark cinema house at 5904 York Road.
Cusack and his daughter, Kathleen, have invited the public to the Senator on Oct. 7, at 6:30 p.m., to hear about their plans for the theater and the progress they’ve made. When those who attend walk through the lobby, they’ll see Wesson’s work, such as long-wallpapered walls that have been stripped down to the original walnut finish.
Now 68, Wesson works with Herman DeShazo, Pace’s son-in-law, who has taken over the family business. Wesson is also well-known, and highly regarded, in the community of Evesham Park, near the Senator, where he has spent so much time restoring homes that he has often been invited to live in the houses while he is working on them.
“We consider him to be a part of the family,” says longtime resident Patricia Bramlet, lead compliance officer for the Maryland Board of Physicians.
Wesson is so beloved in Evesham Park that the residents worry about him, especially because they aren’t always sure where he lives and because he has experienced grief in his life. He was watching the inauguration of President Barack Obama on TV on Jan. 20, 2009, when police came to tell him that his son, Norman Wesson Jr., 45, a retired police officer, was shot to death in Aberdeen. He says he’s still trying to find out what happened.
Residents have offered to put him up at a nearby apartment complex, but he says he would feel too retired there.
Besides, Wesson says, he stays with his son, Cottrell Wesson, in northeast Baltimore.
Charles Bramlet, who sometimes gives Wesson a ride home, says Wesson appears to have bounced around some but isn’t homeless.
“He’d live with us before he was homeless,” Bramlet says.
Wesson says he appreciates everyone’s help and concern. But he says since his son’s death, he’s thrown himself into his work.
“I dealt with grief a lot and that was my way of dealing with it — working,” he said.
Evesham Park resident Ann Costlow, who is opening Sofi’s Crepes in the Senator, was so impressed with work Wesson did for her that she recommended him to Cusack.
Wesson is a specialist in the art of faux finish. He repaired a mouse-sized hole at the base of Bramlet’s stairs, then painted it so well that she and her husband, Charles, had a hard time spotting where the hole had been.
Wesson proudly shows photos of his work in the area, including one of a picturesque window that isn’t really there: He painted it on a wall, complete with the view.
Residents say Wesson is both honest and humble. Leslie Wietscher, past president of the Evesham Park Neighborhood Association and an aide to Baltimore City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, said she and her husband, Craig, gave Wesson an antique mahogany secretary with a broken leg to fix. When he did, they tried to give it to him.
But he told them, “It’s too valuable. I can’t keep it.”
“I’ve been doing this since I was 15,” Wesson says. “At some point, it becomes more than about money. A good reputation is better than fine gold.”