Roof Restoration

In 1992, Robert Raleigh Jr. established Renaissance Roofing, Inc. in St. Louis with his sons, Robert Raleigh III and James Zipse. Over the past 25 years Renaissance Roofing, has restored more than 1,000 historic roofing systems nationwide, utilizing a variety of materials including slate, copper, wood, metal, and tile. Combined with superior craftsmanship, high-quality materials, and service, Renaissance is one of a few companies that actively pursues and stocks historical roofing materials in order to ensure the correctness of their clients’ preservation projects.

A few high-profile restoration projects of Renaissance Roofing include the residences of Frank Lloyd Wright, David Adler, HT Lindberg, Howard Van Doren Shaw, Weber and Groves, and Eames and Young. Additionally, Renaissance has been featured on the History Channel’s “Back to the Blueprint.”

Tony Raleigh, Historical Roofing Systems Specialist, is the resident expert in slate, tile, and copper at Renaissance Roofing. Tony, Kai Loema, Field Operations Manager, and their crew began work on the Schifferdecker carriage house in August 2018. Tony (no relation to the company founder) says the Renaissance team is made up of professional craftsmen—experts in their field. He explains, “Renaissance is an amazing company to work for because their body of work is so impressive. It is incredible to work for one of the leaders in the industry—a leader for over a quarter of a century.”

One reason Tony is proud to be a part of the JHN project is because he’s used TAMKO building products throughout his career. He says, “It gives me great satisfaction to be involved with the Humphreys family, not only for their philanthropy work but for the quality building products they have sold for decades.”

Additionally, Tony is passionate about historic preservation. “The history surrounding the [JHN] buildings is overwhelming,” he explains. “The more I delved into the history of Charles Schifferdecker and Edward Zelleken, the more I realized how America was built during the turn of the century.” He says their historic significance is important not only to Joplin and Missouri, but to the nation as a whole. He adds, “It is tragic that in America we are losing historic homes every day. It is our job to be a leader by providing solutions to keep these historical structures. We must leave the next generation hope and examples of our past. How else will they know who came before them, and more importantly, who they can become?”