NORWAY – A contractor said it will take a week to correct the schism between the front and back of the historic L.F. Pike & Son building on Main Street.

The rear of the building has been sinking over the years, but the first six inches supporting the front of the building is set on concrete and hasn’t moved.

Now the top of the wall leans out, the bottom has rolled inward and a front section of the building leans toward the rear.

Scott Cash, owner of Barn Wright Inc. in Harrison, said water had rotted the sills and the weight of the walls rolled it on the foundation.

He was called in to repair the building and began inspecting it Monday. Workers dug out around the foundation Tuesday.

“I was standing inside when they moved the dirt and that bugger slipped,” said Lesley Dean, manager of the store, about the front section. “It was giving me the jim jams.”

Cash said he plans to fix the studs and put in a new sill. He said he would be able to use the existing foundation and said it could last another 30 to 40 years when the job is finished.

Cash said the elevated parking lot next to the building pretty much “doomed” the sills. He explained water runoff from the roof and parking lot just ate the outside of the sills away.

Store owner Art Gouin said he was aware there probably was a foundation problem three years ago when he installed a new roof on the building.

He said merchandise was getting wet, so fixing the roof became a priority.

Dean said over the past nine months the changing angle of the corner and a shifting of the plate glass window could be noticed weekly.

“I’m going to have to fix the building crooked to make it look straight,” Cash said.

Dean said the building was originally occupied by the E.E. Millett Shoe Store in 1885.

It was purchased by Gouin in 1980.

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