Circle B Co. Inc. completed ornamental work for the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis.

Plastering is a dying art in the United States, but one Indianapolis contractor is working to keep it alive. Circle B Co. Inc. works throughout Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, typically on large projects that require elaborate plaster work. The company is one of the last large plastering contractors in the country, says President Steve Yeager.

Founded by three carpenters in 1959, the company now offers drywall, acoustic and fireproofing services in addition to plastering.

“We serve a large market, in which we are considered one of the top contractors,” Yeager says. “We probably have six major competitors in our area, and we’re among the bigger of the [group].” Circle B’s full-service operations set it apart from th competition, he says.

He attributes the lack of plastering contractors in the market to a decrease in demand and expertise. “A lot of architects don’t even design with ornamental plaster anymore because they don’t think there are people available to do it,” he notes.

Skilled Work Force
The company maintains a skilled work force with constant training and relationships with tradespeople in places outside of its market such as Chicago.

The biggest challenge, he says, is getting the message out to architects and designers that plastering services are available, and that they’re often more price competitive than other alternatives. Unlike many other materials, plaster hasn’t experienced any significant cost increases in recent years, Yeager adds.

“We’re not a professional marketing team, so we use word-of-mouth as much as we possibly can,” he says. “We also try to get involved in as many design meetings as we can with architects.”

Leaving a Legacy
As Yeager looks at the future of the company, his biggest goal is to increase the company’s presence in the minds of architects and designers. “I’m in the autumn of my career right now,” Yeager explains.

“The legacy I’d like to leave is to have all the designers in our area aware that we’re the leader in plaster, and that we have capabilities most aren’t aware of.”

Unlike other plastering contractors in the Midwest, Circle B operates its own 3,000-square-foot plastering shop and can tackle virtually any restoration plaster project, Yeager says.

Indiana Historical Society
Several of Circle B’s recent projects included a wealth of ornamental work. In 1998, the company completed work for the Indiana Historical Society (IHS) in Indianapolis. Yeager says $3 million of the total $50 million project was dedicated to interior plaster work, including large cornices and a groin vaulted ceiling. A groin vault includes multiple arches tied together. This type of ceiling – first used by the Romans – is difficult to build, and few companies have the expertise to pull it off, Yeager notes.

IHS joins a list of structures featuring groin vaulted ceilings that dates back to the Middle Ages, including Baths of Caracalla in Rome; Charlemagne’s Palatine Chapel in Aachen, Germany; and Muchalls Castle in Scotland; and the New Orleans Mint.          

Since 1830, the IHS says, it has been “Indiana’s Storyteller, connecting people to the past by collecting, preserving, interpreting, and disseminating the state's history.”        

IHS is a nonprofit membership organization. Its operations include:
• Books and periodicals
• Teacher workshop sponsorships
• Youth, adult and family programming
• Support to local museums and historical groups
• Maintenance of “the nation's premier research library and archives on the history of Indiana and the Old Northwest,” IHS notes.

The IHS collections include:
• 33,000 digital images online
• 5,000 processed manuscript collections
• 1,100 cataloged maps
• 575 broadsides
• 14,000 pieces of sheet music
• 1.6 million photographs (500 visual collections)
• 45,000 cataloged printed items (books and pamphlets)
• 3,300 artifacts
• 60 paintings

The IHS is located in the Indianapolis canal cultural district.

Stand-Out Work
Circle B rarely works on projects that are less than $10 million in total value. The company’s most recent project was the Lindenwood estate in Indianapolis, which included $4 million of interior plaster and $1 million of exterior plaster.

The private estate features “miles of ornamental plaster; thousands of linear feet of huge cornices, barrel-vaulted ceilings and groin ceilings,” Yeager says. “It’s old world from beginning to end with plastering. That house rivals the old mansions of the Gatsby era.”

Yeager, who leads the company alongside his partner, Vice President of Operations John Abbott, says he expects the company to see continued growth in the years to come.