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PARKERSBURG – Work to restore two porches that used to grace the front of the Wood County Courthouse finally got underway this week.
A crew working with David Stone of Marietta was on site Wednesday morning with the handcarved limestone balusters.
“It’s exciting they are getting started. Looking at it once the project is complete, the porches should look just like they once did. Slowly, but surely, we are putting the courthouse back the way it was,” Wood County adminstrator Marty Seufer said Wednesday. Seufer said the crew currently working on the porches is the same one that worked on the earlier courthouse step restoration project.
The county received a $28,400 West Virginia Courthouse Facilities Improvement grant for the porch project. There is a 20 percent local match required for the grant.
“The work just has to be completed by Dec. 31, 2013, for the grant, so we have plenty of time, but I’m sure they will be done long before that,” Seufer said.
The bid for the work was awarded earlier to David’s Stone LLC for $33,711.47.
“We are delighted to be working in our own backyard again.
All the workers that will be used on the job are West Virginia masons. Our children and grandchildren will see the work we do for years to come, and we want to make sure it’s done right,” David Paige, owner and general manager of the firm, said earlier.
The handcarved limestone that is being used on the new third floor porches is the same Indiana limestone that was used in the Empire State Building and on the courthouse steps, according to Paige.
Paige told the newspaper earlier he plans to use a manlift and not have scaffolding to try and reduce disruption to traffic around the building.
The porches, on the fountain side of the historic courthouse, are outside the third-floor offices of the building. The original porches had apparently become deteriorated and were removed during 1983-1984 renovations. Restoration plans call for a stone rail on the top and bottom and balusters in-between.
Paige said he utilizes a fifth generation stonecutter for the stone carving work.
The courthouse was completed in 1899 and is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The courthouse took nearly two years to complete at a cost of $100,000.
Paige’s firm was the successful bidder for the earlier renovation of the courthouse steps.
The county was awarded a $62,400 West Virginia Courthouse Facilities Improvement Authority for that project.