Vince Luce, Henry Zielasko & the Cupola at Seymour Hall

The recent death of Vincent Luce in Mantua at nearly 90 years of age, recalled the great project of restoring the cupola to the roof of Seymour Hall. This idea originated in 1984, and at first Headmaster Henry E. “Skip” Flanagan, Jr. explored having the cupola duplicated by a company in Kentucky. Trustee T. Dixon Long '51 mentioned in a letter to Skip that he was concerned about historical accuracy. 

The cupola atop Seymour Hall originated with the building in 1913, but benefactor James W. Ellsworth wanted it to replicate the cupola designed by Lemuel Porter (1775-1829), the master builder who had constructed the three earliest buildings on our campus. Ellsworth had demolished Middle College in 1912 in order to replace it with the much larger Seymour Hall. He wanted the same kind of cupola for his new building that graced the old Middle College. The cupola was built, placed atop the building, but in 1964 it came down, the victim of deterioration. Some twenty years later, the idea for a cupola came up again and an alumni donor was found who agreed to fund it. 

At this point, Headmaster Flanagan decided to look at his own campus crew who had the expertise to manage such a project. Henry Zielasko, a member of the crew who held a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Iowa, agreed to design the cupola based on the existing photos of the old building. He teamed up with Vincent Luce, the school’s best carpenter, and together they worked for more than a year on the cupola that would once again grace the roof of Seymour Hall. 

 

Vincent Luce as the cupola is moved
into place before hoisting in 1988

Vincent Luce, pictured around his
retirement in 1997

 

Zielasko worked out the design in decimals, and Vince Luce stated, “I converted his numbers. I knew it would work.” For more than seven months Luce (called “a talented professional” in one news story) worked exclusively on the 21-foot high cupola which was ready to be hoisted atop the roof of Seymour in early June, 1988. Vincent Luce, the craftsman with some 35 years of experience, told the Hudson paper “This cupola is made of the best grade of poplar and redwood…with the exception of two parts, the entire cupola was built right here on campus”. On the day of the raising of the cupola, crew member and designer Henry Zielasko was up in the attic of Seymour Hall, afraid that the roof might not hold the 6,921 pound cupola. 

“I didn’t know whether that old building was really going to support the cupola, and if it collapsed, I wanted to go down with it. I couldn’t have faced my friends.” 

Henry Zielasko, around 1986. Henry
designed the cupola.

Such was the devotion of both Henry Zielasko and Vincent Luce to this school, and the cupola on Seymour Hall is a tribute to their workmanship and ingenuity. May they both rest in peace.