Longmont’s storied Callahan House will get $240,000 in upgrades to improve the looks and durability of the 130-year-old landmark.
The City Council this week approved an agreement with the Colorado State Historical Fund for a $180,000 grant that will be matched by $60,000 from the city’s capital improvement fund.
The funding will expand the scope of the existing renovation work at the Callahan House, located at 312 Terry St, said Kathy Korpela, Callahan House manager.
“The funding from the grant is extremely important for us to be able to do some much needed restoration and preservation at the Callahan House,” Korpela said.
The funds, she said, will allow crews to:
- Repair the curved leaded glass window of the house’s library, which was T.M. Callahan’s home office.
- Remove the discolored and scratched Plexiglas from the leaded glass windows and protect them all with tempered glass. “This will vastly improve the appearance of the house and the view out the windows as well as protecting them for the future,” Korpela said.
- Do a paint analysis to determine the house colors circa 1906-1908. That is a period of true historical significance, Korpela said, when the house truly reflected the structure as it exists today with all the additions and improvements that the Callahans added in the early 1900s.
- Repair the exterior woodwork and paint the house and auto house.
- Make significant repairs to the historic concrete driveway which was built for the first car in Longmont. The Callahans purchased the automobile in 1902, the first of many Callahan autos, according to the Callahan House website.
Work on the house will begin once contractors with restoration and preservation experience are picked and their availability is scheduled, Korpela said.
The Callahan House was built in 1892 and T,M. Callahan bought the home in 1896. The Callahans later gifted the house and its garden to the ity of Longmont after they moved to Nevada in 1938, according to the website.
“Their wish was that it be used by the women of Longmont as a meeting place and social center,” the website states.
