Marble Doctor Is In the House
Jennifer Holder
Special Correspondent
When a landmark in Washington, D.C. needs to restore their marble, they turn to the Marble Doctor, a marble restoration, repair and maintenance company located in the D.C. Metro area.
Marble Doctor’s list of clients is impressive, including a number of embassies, art museums (including the Smithsonian), monuments and hotels around the D.C. area. The list also includes high-end homes around the area.
The most recent project Marble Doctor has been involved in was at Marsh Mansion, nestled in Heritage Hunt Golf and Country Club, an active adult community in Gainesville, Va.
The Marsh Mansion renovation included a complete overhaul of structure, focusing on little fixes like replacing carpet, painting and re-doing some of the hardwood areas. But Marble Doctor specifically focused on the marble foyer, which had very deep scratches caked with mud and dirt from years of wear and tear.
“It was a mess,” says Michael Bivens, Operations Manager at Marble Doctor. “They really didn’t think it was possible to save it. They were looking at tearing it out and right at the eleventh hour somebody mentioned our name.”
Lucky they did, as marble restoration is much cheaper than replacement, and Marble Doctor was able to get the job done quickly and effectively.
“Every time someone comes in, they’re just amazed at how different it looks,” Bivens says.
No one at the mansion was quite sure what type of marble the foyer was made of, but seems to be a Ming green marble with emerald green inlay. The floor was restored using the diamond polishing method.
Marble Doctor might be called upon again to renovate the five marble fireplaces located in Marsh Mansion. As renovations are funded by the homeowner’s association, it’s up to the residents to decide.
Marsh Mansion wasn’t always part of an HOA, however.
Originally built by Colonel John Marsh and his wife Hazel, Marsh Mansion was created as part of the Marsh Thoroughbred Farm for Marsh to raise and sell racehorses, and also operated as a rehabilitation facility for thoroughbred horses and growing hay.
Marsh wasn’t a Civil War-era colonel as the location would suggest - it’s just down the street from the Manassas National Battlefield Park, where the Battles of Bull Run took place. In fact, the house was built almost a century after the Civil War, in 1967.
The farm was so vast and full of life (including, but not limited, to the residence, pool, apartments for staff, a race track, barns, stables and pastureland) it was basically its own city, according to Heritage Hunt historian Karen Naylor.
Marsh himself was quite a character. He was described in his obituary in the Blood-Horse as a “nattily dressed little cigar smoker, posing as a curmudgeon.”
Born in 1907 in Atlanta, Marsh was first in the life insurance business in 1929 and became a lieutenant colonel in the Army Air Corps in 1947. When he saw the poor financial planning of his fellow servicemen, Marsh was motivated to reshape the concept of variable annuity life insurance, which landed him in Fortune magazine and the Wall Street Journal.
When he retired, he built the farm and grew it to hold 100 horses and 15 employees. He bred seven stakes winners in his lifetime. When Prince William County started to develop around him, he and his wife moved the farm to Boyce, leaving, of course, Marsh Mansion. Marsh passed away in 1987.
The property was purchased by U.S. Home to be developed, but continued to operate as a thoroughbred rehabilitation facility and hay grower until 1998, when the golf course construction began.
From there, Heritage Hunt was created.
Marsh owned such a large expanse of land, that's when Heritage Hunt started building houses they found a number of Civil War-era artifacts.
Oddly enough, Marble Doctor wasn’t founded too long after Marsh Mansion was built. The company started almost 30 years ago by George Reed and his wife.
Started as a small business run out of their house, Reed “grew it to be the name it is in this area,” says Bivens.
Reed, now retired and living in Mississippi, was originally taught marble restoration techniques by the Donatelli family out of Italy. He was close friends with the grandfather, Joseph Donatelli. The family taught him the diamond polishing method of restoring marble, and because the company adheres to the GSA Historic Preservation guidelines, they never use harsh crystallizers. Their methods continue to be used on every project.
Marble Doctor still does business with the Donatelli family, using their company, Eastern Marble based out of New Jersey, as suppliers for certain compounds used in marble restoration. Marble Doctor receives a lot of referrals from the company and uses Eastern Marble as consultants on certain projects.
One of Bivens’s most memorable projects was for the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in D.C.
When Marble Doctor was called on, the marble hadn’t been restored in over 100 years. Altars were discolored and the floor was in need of attention.
“There’s a lot of time and effort to get everything clean and looking the way it does,” he says. They continue to touch-up the monastery when called upon, usually before a holiday, such as Easter or Christmas.
For some projects, Marble Doctor has to sign a nondisclosure statement, although Bivens says the projects are interesting.
“Some of them we can’t even talk about,” says Bivens.
Although retired, Reed still likes to stay involved in the company. “He likes to hear the problems and kind of troublesome stuff we run into,” says Bivens.
“He has a mind for it, and he feels it keeps him a little young talking about it.”
Reed is also excited about where the company is headed.
“George was comfortable where it was as a small business,” says Bivens. “Something that he’s excited about is that we’re expanding and getting bigger and bigger every day... That’s why he doesn’t want to let it go; he wants to see it be something bigger than what he could achieve by himself.”
But Bivens says the company won’t be expanding outside of the marble industry.
“We pride ourselves on not going out and doing some of the stuff that other companies do just because we’re trying to turn a profit,” he says. “We want to go out there and give you the best possible thing that we can give you instead of extending into some other parts of the industry, like tile installation.”
As for future projects, there are some interesting things coming down the pipeline. And who knows? Maybe even five fireplaces in a mansion in Virginia.
For more information on Marble Doctor, please visit www.marbledoctorva.com or call 703-631-4625.