BY JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
A building that has withstood more than 150 years of Mother Nature suffered distressing damage due to the frigid and blustery weather over Christmas weekend.
The Wood County Museum, built in 1868 as the county’s poorhouse for the ill, indigent and homeless, is closed due to water damage that spread on all three floors of the sprawling museum.
Staff returned to work on Dec. 27 to find water ponding on some floors, leaking down through some ceilings, and running down some walls.
Wood County Museum Director Annette Wells said it was a heartbreaking sight.
“The wind was just right to blow the furnace exhaust back, and blew out the pilot light,” she said. “It was kind of an oddball thing that happened.”
The museum has approximately 80 radiators – eight of which burst due to the frigid conditions.
“We don’t have normal insulation,” Wells said of the historic structure. “It’s a lot of brick and plaster and wood.”
Five radiator units on the third floor and another three on the second floor of the museum froze, cracked and leaked water.
“It was so cold, it leaked out and froze,” Wells said on Friday. “As the week thawed, we’re still cleaning up water.”
By Friday, much of the carpet had been pulled up because it was beginning to smell and so it could be gauged how much of the wooden floors could be salvaged.
The elevator is no longer operable.
As for the exhibits, Wells said the artifacts in the current wedding exhibit and the Mary and Carl Bach display were rescued. But the museum remains closed to the public.
“As of right now we don’t have a complete exhibit” that is suitable for public viewing, she said.
The room being used for the Bach exhibit – which tells of the murder of Mary Bach in 1881 and the hanging execution of her husband, Carl – was heavily damaged by flooding on the floor and water on the ceiling. The artifacts from the court case were moved to a dry room, Wells said.
“It’s so sad,” Wells said.
The wedding exhibit also had to be packed up, she said. But the water did not get to the 41 wedding gowns worn by Wood County brides dating back to 1855, she added. Wells said families have been calling the museum to make sure the treasured wedding dresses from their ancestors are safe.
“None of the dresses in the wedding exhibit have water damage. That was just sheer luck.”
However, not all the exhibit items were so lucky. The explanatory panels on the walls were soaked, along with a few items like a hat box, pair of shoes and radio.
“We started hauling things out as soon as possible,” Wells said. “We stripped the room as fast as we could.”
On the third floor, the water damage could have been much worse, she said. A collection storage system was installed in the attic last summer, so the artifacts were not touched by water. Until last summer, many of the collections were stored in boxes on the floor.
“We would have lost tons of artifacts if we didn’t have those units,” Wells said.
The institutional artifacts that tell the story of the museum’s beginnings as a “poor farm” are the most complete of any county in Ohio, Wells said. Those were not damaged, she added.
In one archival storage area of the museum, staff found a radiator spewing out water.
“One was actually shooting out water. We got things out as quickly as possible.”
Museum board members came with armloads of towels and fans to help with the drying process.
“Right now, we’re trying to dry it all out,” Wells said.
The county has insurance on the museum, but the site is still waiting for the insurance company to visit to assess the damage, Wood County Administrator Carri Stanley said.
“Many places had their pipes burst,” Well said, so the county was still waiting as of Friday.
Museum staff is also waiting for a flooring restoration company to determine if the floors can be dried out and salvaged. Wells said it’s likely that most of the floors and ceilings will have to be replaced.
The exhibits will also have to be rebuilt once the building repairs are done.
“We knew that we had an old building,” Wells said. “We get really, really concerned when these kind of things happen.”
There is no cost estimate made yet on repairing the damage. Wells predicted the museum will be closed all of January and into February for the restoration.
