The widest photograph in Orange County is still safe in its frame after Harvey flooded the office of the Heritage House Museum office.
The panoramic view of downtown Orange in the 1890s is about eight feet wide and was kept on display in the 1940s cottage that serves as the administrative office and meeting room.
Volunteers and board members of the museum worked Sunday afternoon cleaning out the office-conference room building for a restoration crew to begin work. The cottage on piers had about six inches of water during Harvey.
The group hauled file cabinets and files of photographs to a climate-controlled storehouse on the museum grounds.
The main house museum, the 1902 J.O. Sims House, did not have water inside, but sustained water damage underneath the piers where the HVAC system is installed. The house is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Board President Leslie Williams said tours of the house have been temporarily suspended. The office has been moved into the kitchen of the Sims House and is open only a couple of days a week until further notice.
The majority of historical photographs, newspapers and publications were preserved. Most of what was lost in the building were furniture like desks and book cases. Some books on lower shelves had to be discarded because of water and mold.
Even with the damage and delay in programs, the museum board has agreed to go ahead with the Second Annual Historic Ghostwalk in the downtown area. The ghostwalk will be Saturday, October 28, and include true stories about Orange through two centuries.
“The ghostwalk was so popular last year when we first did it, we want to do it again to share our fascinating local history,” said Board President Leslie Williams.
Williams is the daughter of the late Dr. Howard and Elizabeth Williams, two of the founders of Heritage House in 1976. Dr. Williams collected photographs and history of Orange, plus wrote two books published in connection with Heritage House.
A 1920s on the museum’s campus is named in their honor and holds the doctor’s archives. That building, too, had some water, but none of the displays were damaged.
Leslie Williams said Heritage House is the designated keeper of Orange County history. The museum has worked with the University of North Texas, which oversees the The Portal to Texas History, to preserve the vast collection of photographs online.
Hurricane Rita heavily damaged the Orange County History Museum in the 1890s Woodmen of the World lodge building.
The museum was repaired but then Hurricane Ike in 2008 twisted the two-story woodframe building off its piers. Orange County demolished the building, which was on the National Register of Historic Places. The county’s adult probation office was constructed on the site of the former history museum.
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