JMJ Construction

John from JMJ came out and looked at the house from top to bottom.  After about an hour he thought that the flashing around the chimney may be at fault, or there were some outside brick areas that needed patching which could also be letting in moisture that was causing the one wall to feel moist.  With water, he explained, it's best to tighten everything up, wait until a decent rain even occurs and then reassess.   John brought a large hoist (the house is 3 1/2 stories tall) and did the flashing work and chimney work and also identified the rake boards were too short and replaced them on both sides of the house.  He sealed much of the brick areas that he thought may let moisture into the wall, and then scraped and skimmed the plaster walls inside. 
This seemed to do the trick as no more moisture seems to be getting into the walls and the plaster is still perfect even after multiple rain events.  Johns approach was the right one the first time, and after measuring and looking over the house from top to bottom gathered enough information to fix the issue the first time.  His crew was prompt, reasonably priced and they did a great job on a historic house that's got many decades left in it.
JMJ left me with confidence that the job was done right the first time and his knowledge and crew did a fantastic job.  He provided me before and after pictures of the work done so I can add this to the history of the house and we stayed within the historical society's guidelines and did not have to change the outside of the house cosmetically.   An excellent experience!  I'll be calling John back to do the painting on the outside and inside repaired walls to finish off the work.