Museum gets new roof, window replacement

Crews work to replace the singles on the roof at the Lennox Museum in late May. 

If you’ve driven down Main Street over the last two months, you’ve likely noticed some changes to the Lennox Area Historical Museum.

The re-roofing project began April 29. While the roofing project wrapped up this month, the Lennox Area Historical Society and Museum board hoped the window project will be complete by July 4.

Board president Mary Brass said the roof desperately needed to be replaced and while she isn’t sure, believes this is only the second roof on the building that was once the town’s hospital.

“All of it was in desperate need of being replaced, but they (contractors) were so impressed that the underlayment of the roof did not need to be replaced,” Brass said.

Board member Dana Haan noted that the shakes that they put on the roof are designed for longevity. Since the building is on the National Historic Register, the exterior of the building needs to keep the look of the time it was built.

“The company doing the work specializes in this type of work. They watch out for those kind of things,” Haan said.

Koch Hazard Architects is serving as the project’s general contractor, while Schwartzle Construction is responsible for getting the work done.

The roof needed to be replaced after some leaking into the music room and more and more shingles coming off the roof after various storms or windy days.

While the main roof’s underlayment was in good shape, the porch underlayment had rotted out. The roof of the carriage house was also replaced as an add-on to the construction contract.

Funding for the projects come from grants and the city budget.

The window project includes repairing or replacing the storm windows and repairing the windows on the inside. In order to get to the windows, they have to move displays out of the way, which means cleaning and rearranging displays, as well as replacing the roller shades.

The goal is to re-open to the public by the Fourth of July. If interested in helping clean or putting the displays back together, reach out to lennoxsdmuseum@gmail.com.

The property was built in 1915 and has various issues.

“It’s a classic old house always having issues,” Brass said.

The carriage house has a window with no frame on it, a missing rain gutter and a sliding door that does not shut properly due to shifting of the building.

“There’s a lot of work to do on the carriage house, but it was a bonus to get done what we did this year,” Haan said.

The historical society was organized in 1979. The museum started in 1984. The city took over the property in 2003.