NORWAY — Activity at the historic Gingerbread House is under way. With warmer temperatures and bright sunshine Monday, volunteers began painting the kiosk outside the house on Main Street by Butters Park.

Al Judd of the Gingerbread House Task Force said the kiosk, which was built by West Paris resident and Oxford Hill School District board member Nick DiConzo, should be completed by Wednesday. Information will be enclosed behind Plexiglass, and informational brochures will be available to the public in a slot below the kiosk.

Oxford Hills School District art teacher Sue Moccia, a member of the Gingerbread House Task Force, and volunteer Jessie Garcia are painting the kiosk in Victorian shades of gray and green. The task force incorporated as a nonprofit in 2009 under the Norway Landmarks Preservation Society.

Work will also continue on the installation of water and sewer pipes. The house now has water in the basement, said Dana Hemingway, who is working with Scott Roberts of Roberts Excavating on the project. A driveway leading to the basement of the building will also be installed, to be used this summer for volunteers working on the building’s window restoration.

The work on the kiosk, water pipes and other issues had been held up in part because of utility companies delaying the replacement of utility poles in front of the building.

A new pole was put in place last week. Judd said it is unfortunate that the lines could not have been cleared for a better view, but the new utility pole provides a neater appearance.

The Norway Landmarks Preservation Society is now preparing a request for proposals to install a new roof on the Gingerbread House as part of the group’s efforts to renovate the historic building. The society will raise funds to pay for the cost of the roof shingles.

The Norway Landmarks Preservation Society, dba Friends of the Gingerbread House, has been raising money for several years to rehabilitate the 19th-century building.

Judd said the Maine Historic Preservation Commission is still working to extend the Norway Downtown National Register Historic District to include the Gingerbread House and four buildings on Pleasant Street. The Gingerbread House was excluded from the Historic District when the building was moved out of the district’s boundary lines in June 2011.

James G. Merry Building Movers of Scarborough moved the Gingerbread House in June 2011 from its original site behind the Advertiser-Democrat building at Pikes Hill and Main Street 950 feet up Main Street.

Originally known as the Evans-Cummings House, it has graced the entrance to Norway from the north since 1851. It is more commonly known as the Gingerbread House for its elaborate trim, added in a late 19th-century renovation.

Concerned residents came together to form the Friends of the Gingerbread House to save the building.

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