NORWAY — The Friends of the Gingerbread House are looking for sponsors to restore the 65 windows in the landmark Gingerbread House on Main Street.
The idea came to the group after they received a donation of a restored window by Above and Beyond of Lewiston. The contractor, which provides residential and commercial building services, was awarded the bid to repair the gabled roof and the elaborate millwork on the 80- by 20-foot, two-story house in March.
Their work was so highly regarded by the Friends of the Gingerbread House, who raise money for the restoration under the Norway Landmarks Preservation Society, that member Albert Judd said he went to them again.
Judd said he was able to negotiate a free window restoration and, in turn, information about what a window restoration would cost for sponsorship.
“The window looks fabulous,” Judd said.
Judd said the group hopes to get sponsors for complete window restorations and continue to receive donations for the popular Sash for Cash program that was launched in June and has been one of several successful fundraisers for the building’s restoration.
Each donor of $50 or more has received a token knot of sash cord, some from the original window sashes.
The window restoration began on May 17 when Pat Shearman of the Friends of the Gingerbread House and volunteers removed the first window from the back of the building. Each window will be restored with its original glass, sills and frame.
Volunteers are removing the windows and preparing them to be steamed. They are scraped clean, reglazed, primed and repositioned as part of the second phase of the renovation project. The work is intended to seal the exterior of the building.
The project is part of a three-stage, multi-year renovation effort. The Friends of the Gingerbread House, under the name of Norway Landmarks Preservation Society, has been raising money for the past several years.
The 80- by 20-foot house was built in 1851 by Richard Evans and later bought by Charles Bradley Cummings, founder of the C.B. Cummings & Son dowel mill on Pikes Hill Road, according to a report by Andrea Burns of Norway to Maine Preservation in Portland. Elaborate trim was added in the late-19th century by John Hazen.
Robert Sallies and Howard James eventually took ownership of the building, which was behind the Advertiser-Democrat building.
In 2008, C’s Inc., a real estate holding company affiliated with Sun Media Group, publishers of the Sun Journal and Advertiser-Democrat, agreed to delay demolition of the house if someone could move it. The Friends of the Gingerbread House banded together to save it.
In 2011, the house was moved about 950 feet farther up the street, near Butters Park.
Interested donors may mail checks to Friends of the Gingerbread House, P.O. Box 525, Norway, ME 04268 or make a donations online at www.gingerbreadhousenorway.org.
- Kevin Chase from Above and Beyond of Lewiston stands next to the restored window he donated to the Gingerbread House in Norway.
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