The only mention of paint color in the contractor specifications is on page 19, which directs the dining room be painted with "old gold" tint. According to the Modern Painter's Cyclopedia (1910,1918), the formula for Old Gold was "White lead for base; add medium chrome yellow, French ochre and a little burnt umber." The Wikipedia entry has additional information and identifies it as the color seen to the right.
Directions for the Finishing Coat on page 18 specifies "Alpine Plaster," which was the name of a Los Angeles-based company. An 1890 Univ. of California analysis found its gypsum was almost pure and remarked, "The material is very slow-setting, and when mixed with sand makes a very fine wall plaster...for all practical purposes the material is plaster, pure and simple." The University analysis three years later, however, found the product was mixed about 5:1 gypsum and lime -- a blend, according to the The Old House Journal Guide to Restoration, that plasterers discovered was superior.
Jones was emphatic in the contract specifications that there should be no paint used on exterior wood. Although he capitalizes words sometimes, he only underlines on two occasions, both to specify NO PAINT (pages 9, 11). Today, almost all of the outside wood is painted a flat brown -- although the two doors on the front porch retain their original finish.
The specifications are clear that "all exterior wood work will have oil finish," which should be "one good coat of Pure Boiled Linseed Oil" before the wood is in place, and then a second coat of linseed oil, mixed 2:1 with turpentine (pg. 18) when the carpentry was done.
Our restoration will strip the paint and restore the oil finish.