Mon, Nov 23 2009
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Group vows to rebuild historic Ritchey Mansion While many Newtonia homes need drastic repairs or even complete replacement, Russ Hively said historic homes must be handled with more delicacy.
“It’s a very different treatment,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is as little change as possible. There’s a pile of bricks there that will be put back on. You need a good mason who knows how to do it, to match the mortar color and consistency. They’re not a current standard brick — they were hand-made 150 years ago. They’re more fragile and look like the red clay found here. “Then there are the shingles. What would look similar to (the) period and what we can afford? That’s what you have to balance.” The Newtonia Battlefields Protection Association had just in the past year paid off a $300,000 loan it had taken out to buy the house and begin restoration. “We’ve got to pick up from here and get ourselves back on track,” Kay Hively said, with a job she figures will run into six figures. The group has hired a contractor to oversee the restoration and recently completed emergency repairs to keep out the wind and rain. Not all the news is glum, either. The home is insured, and the group has been talking to the adjuster. There was no damage to the slave cemetery near the house or the old Civil War cemetery in Newtonia where an unknown number of Confederate dead are buried, and where at least one Union soldier remained although other federal dead were taken to the national cemetery in Springfield after the war. And Russ Hively said much has been accomplished since the tornado. “We can get in and out, through the trees,” he said. “We can get access to all sides of the house now, and all of the broken windows are covered. We have a mason. ... We’ve salvaged most of the bricks and parts.” “I am so grateful we have something to go back to,” Kay Hively said. “We have been at this 12 years now. We are finally getting this to something we can really be proud of. It has been such a wonderful grass-roots effort. We’re just going to start all over.” Electricity One initial concern was how to supply electricity to the historic home in Newtonia. The corner of a nearby barn that fed an electrical line to the home was destroyed during the storm. Along with it went the electrical box. 
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