Scaffolding shrouds the tower of the Victoria Mansion from view while members of a work crew from the Massachusetts-based Consigli Construction Company work to replace the brownstone that bore the wear of 140-odd Maine winters, springs, summers and falls. All that wind, water, ice and sun took its toll and the old stone was in bad shape.

A team of architects, engineers, and a stone consultant from Einhorn Yaffee Prescott took a good look at the Mansion and told the curators that the tower had to be fixed right away. After three years of fund-raising the Project began this spring. Early this summer, workers removed the roof - after several tries. The roof, it turned out is much heavier than anticipated, and the company wound up ordering a bigger crane. Removing the roof removed an overhang that would prevent the construction crew's use of a crane to hoist the huge chunks of new stone up to the tower and set them in place.

Today, Museum Director Robert Wolterstorff says the stone has been repaired up to about the line of the rest of the roof, at the top of the buildings third floor. All that remains is the part that extends beyond the rest of the building. Wolterstorff says now the work becomes even more delicate, because now they’re dealing with a structure that is riddled with windows, and now they’re working on four sides rather than two.

Wolterstorff expects the last part to go quickly, because the stones used in the top of the tower are massive, including the piers that constitute the corners and the arches over the windows. As these are put into place the remainder of the surface of the tower exposed earlier this year will be covered and the roof should be replaced on the tower around the 12th of November. Finish work and painting will continue for a couple of weeks after that. A six-foot wooden spire is being constructed by the Museum’s master woodworker Caleb Hemphill for the top of the tower, replacing one that appears in period photographs. The entire project is scheduled to be finished in early December.

The museum’s neighbors will be watching with interest. They’ve been very supportive of the project, and assistant director Julia Kirby says, “We’ve had no complaints…What I get now is people asking ‘when are you going to be done. Are you ever going to be done?'”

That won’t be the end of the story, however, “Have you ever had construction work done in your home?” Wolterstorff asks. Often you wind up saying, “While you’re here why don’t you look at this…” The Museum administration asked the construction professionals to look at the front stairs, which show some signs of wear and may ultimately pose a tripping hazard if they are not fixed. The construction people responded very strongly that the stairs should be a priority. Additionally period illustrations of the house show handrails, sweeping brownstone balustrades, on both sides of the staircase with carved urns on each side. “We would like to restore all of that.” The Museum has one urn in the basement, but the other is missing.

Wolterstorff says, “It makes sense to move forward with the stairs right away,” while the professionals are on site. The total price tag for the stair repair is $150,000. The Museum already has a $25,000 challenge grant and Wolterstorff is confident after raising ten times that amount for the tower repair, they’ll be able to raise the funds for the stairs.

Wolterstorff says they’ve learned a lot about the house while going through this process, “(We’ve had) constant revelations about how thoughtful the builders were originally and how carefully the building was made. The original stone work is so beautiful.” He’s visited the quarry in Portland, Connecticut where the stone originates, and he’s seen it carved at New England Stone in Kingstown Rhode Island. They’ve had to reject some stones that contain gravel – a typical occurrence in this sort of stone, and Wolterstorff points out that all over the building, you don’t see any original stone marred by gravel layers, so the original builders went through the same process of selecting and probably rejecting pieces.

“This is one of the great architects working in America at the time, Henry Austin. To our knowledge he never built another building with a stone exterior – it’s expensive to build in stone, so this is the most expensive, swish, fancy house he had a chance to build and the quality of the finish of the exterior is to the level of the quality of the finish inside.”

When the scaffolding comes down, one of the first things people might notice is the new stone is much lighter than the rich chocolate brown of the old. That color is the result of a patina that develops over time, perhaps quite a bit of time. Wolterstorff believes it might have taken decades for the old stones to achieve that color.

To see what's been going on inside the tented scafolding around the Victoria Mansion click here to visit our photo gallery, including before and after images.

To see what the inside of the tower looked like before the construction Click here for IPIX