Window Restoration in Arthurdale

During my time serving at Arthurdale Heritage, Inc., I have had the opportunity to learn many different methods of historic preservation, the most notable being window restoration. In October of 2023, Arthurdale Heritage hosted a two-day Window Restoration Workshop taught by Derrick Smith. Several PAWV AmeriCorps as well as other community members showed up to learn and try their hands at restoring windows that were taken from Arthurdale’s historic high school (built in 1935). Topics that were covered included glazing, wood repairs, glass pane cutting, and installation. 

Inspired by this workshop, I began planning my Civic Service Project with the goal of reglazing the windows in Arthurdale’s historic Blacksmith Forge. Built in 1934 as part of the nation’s first New Deal Homestead, Arthurdale’s Blacksmith Forge served as a place where homesteaders could learn blacksmithing skills in order to build tools and other things they needed to run the homestead community. In 1986, Arthurdale Heritage, Inc. bought the historic Forge and restored it to its original state. Today, it is still a working forge and is used as part of Arthurdale Heritage’s historical tour and as a space for blacksmithing demonstrations and/or workshops.

In an effort to engage the community in this restoration project and to reduce Arthurdale Heritage’s expenses, I reached out to local businesses to see if they would donate supplies. Sunbelt Rentals and the PPG Paint Store in Fairmont, WV, generously donated a wallpaper steamer and a gallon of exterior paint towards the project. Other supplies, such as paint scrapers, putty knives, and window glazing, were donated by Preservation Alliance of WV or items Arthurdale Heritage already had on hand. 

On May 17, 2024, a group of AmeriCorps members and a few community members gathered at Arthurdale for a full day of restoring the Forge windows. Our contractor, Jeff Zinn, kindly deinstalled the windows from the Forge beforehand. Since it was raining, I prepared the Tractor Bay to be a workspace by laying plastic on the floor and setting up the windows on tables. Some volunteers took over scraping the old paint from the window frames while others used the wallpaper steamer to remove the old glazing. By lunchtime, we had the windows stripped and deglazed with only a few broken panes. The rest of the day was spent reglazing the windows. By 4:00pm, all eight windows were glazed and set to cure in the Forge for a couple weeks before being reinstalled. Visitors taking our regular historic tours enjoyed seeing evidence of active historic preservation at Arthurdale. 

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The week before our annual New Deal Festival on July 13th, my two coworkers and I painted the windows and Jeff reinstalled them in the Forge. When they were first repaired in the 1980s, the windows were not put in correctly and would not swing open to allow for ventilation in the Forge like they were designed to do. This time, however, Jeff was able to reinstall two sets of windows properly so that they open. 
This project would not have happened without AmeriCorps’ volunteer assistance because Arthurdale Heritage could not afford to pay to have the windows restored. This project ensured the preservation of this historic site and helped to continue Arthurdale Heritage’s educational efforts (such as historical tours, blacksmithing demonstrations, etc.) that happen in that space, fulfilling a community need. This project impacted both locals who benefit from Arthurdale Heritage’s heritage programming and other visitors who tour through this historic building.

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Mary Linscheid

Mary served with Arthurdale Heritage, Inc. during the 2023-2024 Preserve WV AmeriCorps service term.