It looks like major repairs will come to Perkins House this year.
The museum has been closed since 2015 after it was deemed unsafe and repairs have been slow coming, starting first with a new drainage system around the house last year.
The museum missed both its 250th birthday and its 60th anniversary as a museum.
Patrick Shapiro, building manager for the western region with Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, says that’s because a lot of care has to be taken to get the job done right.
“There’s a lot of care required and just an example, when we were doing the drainage project, the contractor, when he was on site required an archaeologist with him all the time.”
The province will issue a public RFP this spring for a design with the intention to start repairs in the fall.
Shapiro says whoever gets it will have a lot of homework.
“The whole project will be based around the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada and that’s quite a detailed document,” says Shapiro referring to a guide from Parks Canada.
The consultant they hire will have to have a proven background in heritage projects.
“Well be looking for the company history, the key players in the companies, the resumes of the key players, any sub-consultants they’ll be using,” says Shapiro.
They’ll also have to thoroughly study previous reports done on the structure’s history and construction.
“The consultant we get will have a great deal of knowledge in heritage properties.”
Shapiro says the house’s unique build makes it a delicate task, one they don’t want to rush.
The home is a cape-cod style with post and beam construction but Shapiro says because it was built by ships carpenters, it has some issues additional issues including the way it sits on its foundation.
Shapiro says before jacks were placed inside, it was at risk of falling down.
The sills also haven’t been replaced in over 70 years either.
The structural repairs will likely cause more plaster to fall from the walls, so interior work will be necessary as well.
Shapiro says repairs will hopefully start this fall, finishing in December 2019.
Around $200,000 has been spent so far and he says another million dollars will likely be spent.
Built in 1766, the Perkins House is the oldest house in the Nova Scotia Museum system.
It was the home of Simeon Perkins, a well-known figure in Liverpool who wrote in his diary starting with his arrival in the area from Connecticut in 1766 until his death in 1812.
Perkins, a merchant, also served as colonel of the militia and a justice of the peace and was known as one of the first in the community to fund privateering.
His home became a museum over 60 years ago – a project author Thomas H. Raddall took the lead on.
