Repairs to the carriage house in the Wellman Heritage Park, which began last fall, concluded on April 13, giving new life to a piece of the town’s history.
The process began last year with …
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Repairs to the carriage house in the Wellman Heritage Park, which began last fall, concluded on April 13, giving new life to a piece of the town’s history.
The process began last year with adjustments to the building’s concrete base to prevent it from settling into the asphalt. Operations were suspended due to winter weather before resuming in the spring to replace damaged roofing, siding and windows, according to Larry Rediger of Rediger Construction Co., who performed the repairs.
Rediger gave the previously unpainted house a coat of white synthetic paint during the operation, designed to expand and contract with the wood to prevent future weathering.
Despite its small size—roughly 20-by-20 feet—the historic house posed unique challenges to the construction company.
“It’s such a small building so you wouldn’t think, but the building was set so awkwardly, we had to start from the bottom and take care of the base first,” Larry Rediger said.
Although the building’s age is unknown, Barb Troyer of the Heritage Society said the organization documented an interview with Irma Kauffman Ropp, who recalled her great grandfather, Eli Stutzman, owning the house in 1937.
The building has two stories. The ground floor is an empty flat space which served as a parking area for a horse-drawn buggy. The upper floor houses a small one-room apartment, which residents furnished with a bed, a sewing machine and a kerosene stove.
Over the years, the carriage house has served as a home, a guest bedroom and a space for kids to park horses they rode to and from Mid-Prairie West Elementary School nearby.
Kenny Miller donated the building to the Wellman Heritage Society, at which point it was moved across the road, from 713 Seventh Ave., to the Wellman Heritage Park at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Eighth Street. While the structure survived the move, the new foundation over the park’s asphalt was dubious, one of the reasons for the repairs.
The organization paid for the recent renovations with donations from the late Murval Weidlein and Pat Vorup. Tours can be scheduled through the Wellman Heritage Society.
