Fairmount Historical Museum

Man restores piece of Dean history

07-06-2006

BY MISHELE HUNT

This article was originally published on July 6, 2006, and appeared in the Marion Chronicle-Tribune

FAIRMOUNT - A portion of the cantilever roof that was attached to the second-story home James Dean was born in has been restored and now is hanging in the Fairmount Historical Museum.

Museum director Gale Hikade said the Queen Anne style house that Dean lived in three to four months after his birth was at the corner of Fourth and McClure streets in Marion.

"It was demolished in February 1975," he said. "Museum board member Ann Warr was driving by the house during the demolition, and she rescued four pieces of the roof."

Hikade recently contacted Cole Reaves and asked him to restore the parts of the house. Reaves refurbished only the damage that was done to the piece while it was being torn down. No effort was made to repair age- or weather-related damage.

The piece of the roof appeared to have seven to nine layers of gray, black yellow, green and white paint, Reaves said. He first scraped the loose paint, and then stripped the layers of paint using commercial heavy paste stripper. He then sanded the wood to remove the grain. Finally, he repainted the wood, applying three coats.

"The whole process took about two weeks," Reaves said.

Reaves was chosen to restore the piece of the house because he makes and restores furniture and works at the museum occasionally.

Even though the house was torn down in 1975, the finished piece of the roof did not go on display at the museum until this May because Hikade wanted the museum building itself to be restored first, he said.

Hikade thought about putting the piece of the roof in a case to display in the museum, but he did not have a big enough case for it.

"We decided that it would be a good idea to hang up the piece so that it represented where it actually had been on the house," he said.

The piece is hanging above a door in the museum.

The other pieces of the roof that were saved are in the upstairs of the museum, in storage.

The piece of roof is a popular attraction at the museum, Hikade said. When people first see the piece hanging in the museum, they want to know for sure that it is authentic. Then they're surprised that the piece has survived and is hanging in the museum.