![]() ![]() The entire building including the main house is being rewired, to include bypassing actual glass fuses that had been used to provide electricity to part of the building. “It was clear to us that little fixes weren’t going to do it.” “There’s never been a complete redo,” said Lefever. But the lion’s share of the funds are being used to bring the Perkins House up to 21st century snuff. The first floor of that building will house the OYHS library and archives, now currently in the York Village building. OYHS is spending a total of $600,000 to renovate the Perkins house, as well as to retrofit a part of the organization’s curatorial center on Shapleigh Road in Kittery. Under terms of the sale, the staff is allowed to remain in the building until next May, to provide time for the renovations. The renovations are a long time coming for a great old house, Lefever said, made possible by the sale last summer of the current OYHS office building in downtown York Village for $675,000. Those who want a sneak peak at the servants’ wing, where the offices will be located, are invited to attend an open house this coming Sunday, Nov. Public tours of this iconic colonial period home were suspended.īut the house is getting a complete facelift these days, with the goal of moving the Old York staff there in the spring and opening the house back up next summer, said Lefever. In 2014, when it was discovered that the electrical system panels were dangerously corroded, the power had to be shut off. In recent years, however, the house that served as a cornerstone to Mary and Elizabeth Perkins’ lives in the first half of the 20th century has been shuttered. In the summer of 1905, when the Russian-Japanese Peace Treaty was being negotiated in nearby Kittery, they held a Japanese garden party for the delegations, in what was described at the time as the “crowning event of the memorable season of 1905.” Many women were in costume and Elizabeth wore “a white gown of Mexican drawn work.” In the attic of the servant’s wing a trunk chock full of costumes that Elizabeth often made herself from scraps of old dresses and other clothing was found, said Joel Lefever, director of the Old York Historical Society. YORK, Maine - Elizabeth Perkins and her mother Mary loved to entertain in their summer home on the banks of the York River, which they bought in 1898. ![]()
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