Restoration of fire-damaged Museum at the Portage continues

Theres not so much of a smell of smoke about the Museum at the Portage now.

Two months into repair and restoration work at the fire-damaged former home of Zona Gale, there is a new sense of freshness.

The building was damaged by an electrical fire on April 13. The area around an upstairs window in Gales former bedroom was heavily damaged by fire, and other places in the building especially in the historic study, directly below the bedroom, was damaged by water and smoke.

The 1912 brick structure at 804 MacFarlane Road in Portage was once home to author and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Zona Gale, and was the former site of the Portage Public Library. It is now a museum of artifacts important to Gale and to Portage.

The repair work involves freshening the woodwork in the study, including cleaning all surfaces and restoring the look of the varnish in areas where it is cracked and faded with age particularly around the windows.

The water damage on the woodwork above the studys fireplace and on the fireplace itself is now gone. The ceiling plaster in the study was restored last month.

Wood restoration specialists Jerry Pauk of Spring Lake and John Dehling of Wautoma have put in more than 20 hours of work into the study.

There was residual damage of water and smoke, in the room, Pauk said, as well as years of weathering, sun and moister damage to the woodwork surrounding the windows.

Around the windows, the varnish had faded to a gray color. It was treated with oxalic acid, then sanded before finishing with a matching color of varnish.

As a woodworker himself, Hauk fully appreciates how unique and beautiful a space the study is. While the windows need re-glazing, with good maintenance of the outside of the windows, Hauks and Dehlings efforts to restore the interior woodwork should last decades, he said.

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Restoration of fire-damaged Museum at the Portage continues