RED HOUSE — Thanks to a grant written by the Friends of Allegany State Park, the Red House sawmill is now sporting a new metal roof, helping assure preservation of the mill for decades to come.
Paul Crawford, president of the Friends, said the grant was provided by Parks & Trails New York in the amount of $21,555 with a 10% match of $2,395 from the Friends for a total of $23,950.
Crawford said the grant was announced earlier this year, but it took several months to get the roofing project underway because of the scarcity of contractors.
“I called the contractor and he said they were booked solid for most of the year, which meant they might be installing the roof after the first snowfall,” he said. “Luckily, it was beautiful that week, which was just a couple of weeks ago.”
The new roof was completed by House of Steel and Aul Construction, both located in Springville, on Nov. 10. Once the contractors started work, the job didn’t take long, Crawford said, but it takes six months to a year to realize a grant.
Crawford said New York’s State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), part of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, came to the mill site in 2015 when park officials asked the Friends group to tackle the sawmill job. At the time, the existing shingle roof had a life expectancy of five more years so the roof was coming due, he said.
Crawford had originally asked for a shingled roof in the grant but, after discovering photos showing a metal roof on the mill many years ago, he changed the request.
“While doing my research over the years, I came upon many photos of the mill with a metal roof on it. Another piece of evidence was the piles of old metal roofing found on the site when the Friends were cleaning up,” he said. “I thought, if SHPO wants historic authenticity, we’re going to have to go with a metal roof to satisfy that requirement.”
The cost of a metal roof was marginally more than a shingled roof, Crawford explained, but it will have a longer lifespan of probably 30 to 40 years.
The mill site it’s a maintenance area and no one besides the construction workers are allowed back there. When the Friends group re-opens the mill, all are invited to see it.
“This brings us one step closer to opening the mill,” he said. “We are currently in the midst of research and a possible grant application to replace the mill’s float pond. It will be the most challenging and ambitious grant to date.”
Crawford said the mill pond has been mulled over for a couple of years now. He has consulted with park carpenters, park engineers and other people with detailed drawings, and they’ve all come to the conclusion that the mill pond will be a huge undertaking.
“The mill pond project will be costly due to the materials and labor because it will probably have to be rebuilt in its entirety,” he said. “It’ll have new 6-inch walls, not 4-inch, and a new floor.”
The state has doubled the $75,000 grants given to Parks & Trails New York to $150,000, but Crawford suspects the mill pond will cost more than that, and the Friends group doesn’t have that kind of matching funds. He’s cautiously optimistic that a $150,000 grant will cover the project, but he thinks it may be something in next year’s agenda.
“We also have to shore up the boiler, sandblast and paint it, but it’s basically for aesthetics,” he said. “It’s part of the SHPO list and the other part is a handicapped accessible ramp which, believe it or not, is about a $10,000 build.”
Crawford said the Friends group thanks everyone for their support, be it donations or “Save the Sawmill” raffle purchases. If anyone would like to donate to the restoration of the mill, they can do so by check or credit card with details on the Friends website at friendsofallegany.com.
