The University of Southern Maine announced on Monday that it now plans to install wooden siding to replace original clapboards stripped last month from the two sides and rear of its historic art gallery on the Gorham campus.
A public uproar ensued when original siding and windows were removed from the art gallery, with university plans to install vinyl siding and eliminate vintage windows under in a renovation costing $320,000.
Judie O’Malley, university spokeswoman, said on Monday that the vinyl siding has been switched out under revamped plans.
“We’re using wooden clapboards with a 3-inch reveal,” O’Malley said.
Plans for possible reuse of the vintage windows were unclear on Monday afternoon. Earlier plans would have replaced the windows with exterior shutters.
O’Malley said last week that the university’s project manager met on July 28 in Augusta with Earle Shettleworth, director of Maine Historic Preservation Commission, to discuss the art gallery renovation. The 193-year-old building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The structure was built in 1821 as a religious meetinghouse and later used for Gorham’s town meetings. The building and its lot were transferred to the state in 1961 and it has been utilized as a college art gallery since 1966.
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