NORWAY — Work has begun on the Gingerbread House to build three layers of exposed foundation that will eventually be covered with brick.
Randy Wells of Wells Masonry in Turner said Thursday that some 500 cement blocks will be built up on three-tiers over the next week.
“I have to leave some holes,” Wells said, to accommodate crossbeams that hold up the house. The holes will be filled in once the house is on its foundation.
The in-ground footing was set by Henry Hudson, owner of Henry’s Concrete Construction in Harrison, in late July.
Once the block work is completed, the house will be lowered onto the foundation by James Merry & Sons Building Movers of Scarborough. The house is 17 feet wide in the back, 29 feet in the front and 88 feet long.
In June, the Merrys moved the historic building 950 feet up Main Street to its new location by Butters Park at the western entrance to the National Historic downtown district. The site was then prepared for the foundation by local excavator Scott Roberts.
Bricks will eventually be placed over the cement blocks to restore the original look of the foundation.
Originally known as the Evans-Cummings House, the Gingerbread House and its octagonal tower has graced the entrance to Norway from the north since 1851.
The house’s builder was Richard Evans, who was considered an important contractor who also built the Nash house on Pleasant Street, in Norway and the passenger railroad station at South Paris.
ldixon@sunjournal.com
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- Randy Wells of Wells Masonry in Turner applies mortar to lay one of blocks that will eventually be covered with bricks for the Gingerbread House’s foundation in Norway.
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