NORWAY — The top priority for the Norway Landmarks Preservation Society rehabilitation of the historic 19th-century Gingerbread House will be replacing the roof and repairing a few walls to keep water out.

“The first priority is to stop any deterioration,” Margaret Gaertner, an historic building consultant at Barba & Wheelock in Portland, said.

She  laid out a three-phase rehabilitation plan before several dozen people  at the Norway Historical Society on Tuesday night. She was hired by the Norway Landmarks Preservation Society last year to develop a preservation and rehabilitation plan that she called a “road map” identifying the work needed to be done and organizing those tasks into phases in order to be cost effective.

“We do it to save money,” she said.

Pat Shearman, president of the Norway Landmarks Preservation Society, said there is enough money to do the first phase. The other two phases can not happen until more money is raised.

An anonymous donor provided a $100,000 and scores of others from the community contributed amounts ranging from 50 cents to several thousands dollars, Shearman said. There has also been many volunteers who have done everything from society member Jim Boyce jacking up the side of the building to allow the completion of the brick foundation to local high school students taking measurements of the building.

Although the building will have many original features, such as windows, doors, millwork, casings and even 1880s radiators preserved, the project will be more of a rehabilitation than preservation project, Gaertner said.

For example, the original roof is wood shingles but asphalt shingles will replace them.

As the work on the roof and repairs to the wall take place, the society will be identifying the future use of the building in order to prepare for the next phase which involves electrical, plumbing and other system upgrades.

The society  is looking for more volunteers as the work continues. All volunteers will have professional guidance.

Gaertner said there are energy-saving aspects to the building, including its narrow width that allows for optimum sunlight in the winter and a porch that provides shade in the interior in the summer.

She said rather than replacing the original windows with new ones that may last 20 years or a maximum of 40 years, the 132-year-old windows, which are still in fine shape, will be reused and have storm windows added for the winters.

One of the unexpected delights in the house, Gaertner said, was that she was able to stand inside and only hear the rush of water from the nearby Penneseewassee Stream and not the traffic on Main Street on the front side.

“It just felt really calm,” she said.

Originally known as the Evans-Cummings House, the Gingerbread House and its octagonal tower has graced the entrance to Norway from the north since 1851. Its elaborate trim was added in a late 19th century renovation.

In November 2009, the Gingerbread House Task Force officially incorporated as a nonprofit organization with a new name, the Norway Landmarks Preservation Society, doing business as Friends of the Gingerbread House.

In June of 2011 James G. Merry Building Movers of Scarborough moved the Gingerbread House from its original site behind the Advertiser-Democrat Block at Pikes Hill road and Main Street to its new home 950 feet up Main Street by Butters Park after the Friends of the Gingerbread House banded together to save the building.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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