Restored & Safe

Jul 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Erin Semple

Following completion of a $9 million restoration project, the Old Governor's Mansion in Milledgeville, Ga. — part of Georgia College and State University — reopened to the public in February. The newly installed security system seems to fit the museum's needs perfectly, says Matt Davis, assistant curator.

Milledgeville was the capital of Georgia from 1803 to 1868. The mansion was built in 1839. Eight Georgia governors lived in the mansion, and in November of 1864, General William Sherman used it as the headquarters for his campaign to “march to the sea.” Today, the mansion showcases a variety of 19th century artifacts and antiques, along with a plan to tell the story of the governors who once called the structure home. It was restored from 2001 to February of 2005.

While restoring the mansion, All-Phase Electric, Milledgeville, Ga., installed a customized motion sensor-based security system designed not to distract viewers from the artifacts.

“We installed with hard wires during the restoration to provide 100 percent protection of the building,” says Rusty Reed, estimator for All-Phase Electric. “This was a challenge on the building because of its age. We had to be careful.”

The Ademco system, supplied by Southeastern System Technologies of Atlanta, includes a central keypad Vista-128B, which is able to closely monitor motion sensors in the building. “This system fit our needs the best in terms of economics and the needs of the museum,” Davis says.

The motion detectors located throughout the mansion are engineered by Visonic. They come in two types: The wide angle variety covers 25 feet wide and 30 feet in length; and the long range type covers 17 feet wide by 90 feet long. The system in the mansion uses both types, says Allen Johnson, branch manager for Southeastern System Technologies.

“The (motion sensors) were chosen based on size of room and what was the focus of the room,” Johnson says. “Keypads allow individual areas to be armed and disarmed, or for all of the building to be armed or disarmed at once, by use of a code.”

Johnson added that the wires in the mansion run off a polling loop to the modules or detectors, which are addressable. “This allows you to know where the device is and allows for less wires,” he says. “The address tells you which room has motion. The addresses are programmed by layout for the building; thus, the system is like an upscale home security system.”

The mansion has three floors and two new separate buildings located behind it including the gift shop. The three floors include the basement, which was once a slave work area; the main floor, featuring formal rooms; and the third floor, consisting of the living quarters and offices for staff members. The building next to the gift shop displays artifacts found during agricultural digs, which began in 1996.

“To protect the priceless antiques in the building, the mansion itself, as well as the adjacent outbuilding, provided an interesting security dilemma that our system has seemed to handle,” Davis says.

The central keypad located outside of the gift shop activates and deactivates with a code. In each room, a half-dollar-sized motion detector can set off a silent alarm, which is relayed to the college's campus public safety department.

“They usually respond in two-and-a-half minutes,” Davis says.

The system is deactivated during the day while tours are being given, and it is reactivated at night. The system has only gone offline once due to a rather stormy night, Davis says.

“After installation, the new system needed to have its sensitivity adjusted,” Davis says. “In the beginning we had several phantom alarms.”

The mansion employs three part-time guides who give escorted tours. The tour begins at the gift shop where tickets are sold and collected. The staff also includes a director of the museum, a graduate assistant, a part-time gift shop manager, a curator and a grounds supervisor.

The tour guides are trained on how to receive guests, in theft prevention techniques and how to perform the tours. Each is taught to open a door to enter a room during a tour, to stay by the door when giving the tour and to close it behind them before moving onto the next room.

Davis started as a tour guide in 2000 and served as a graduate assistant throughout the restoration before becoming assistant curator in August of 2004.

“Before the restoration, the security systems were quite a distraction from our interpretation of the historic rooms,” Davis says. “They were large, bulky and quite obvious. To better disguise the current system, the sensors were designed to be small and painted the same colors of the walls to better camouflage the systems within the structure.”

The mansion has an intercom system, which runs through the phone system. Each tour guide and staff member carries a walkie-talkie with a six-mile range.

The buildings' exterior also has timed security lighting and security cameras monitored as part of the college's master system. The mansion has historical locks from 1839 on the main floor that are still in use today with the original keys. The basement-level door locks have historical exteriors, but modern-day interiors, since the original keys were never found. A latch lock on the white picket fence also protects the exterior.

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ABOUT THE COMPANIES

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Ademco	71
All-Phase Electric	72
Southeastern System Technologies	73
Visonic	74

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