Commentary by Neil A. Lieb, photo from his archive

In a telephone interview July 22, 2014, Neil describes this dramatic scene:

Everything is in place, I can tell you that. This is all ready to go. The big long ones are jack rods. if you follow them down you can see the jack. One-third into the picture from right, you can see the jack heads. You turn those a quarter turn at a time.

An interesting thing about jack rods, to impress the new hires, the old timers… They were eight-foot-long, one-inch cold-rolled steel weighing about 65 pounds. The trick was that you pick up the rod and put it in the jack with one hand. it was something you just did. Just to demonstrate ability, I guess. Everybody on the crew could stab a jack rod one-handed.

Around the outside wall, the thin rods are vertical rebar. If you look in the middle, you can see the hold that the concrete goes in.

Bracing for the hoist is what cuts across the roofline of the house.

Wayne Baker, foreman, is probably the one striding through the middle. Baker never bought cigarettes. When I worked in construction, everybody smoked. I don’t ever remember seeing him pull out a pack of cigarettes.