Imagine being sent to a town, far away from home, for a nine-month job that has you climbing up 60 feet of scaffolding to restore a historic architectural gem of a building that was built in the 1870s.
Well that’s exactly what 45-year-old Florencio Avina and his team of workers have been doing since the January start of a $3 million project to restore the old Merced County Courthouse in downtown Merced.
“It’s an impressive building,” Avina told the Times during a tour this week that led to the top of Courthouse cupula. “When I first saw it, I was like, ‘This is gonna to be something.”
Avina is the lead foreman for the crew that was sent by Spectra Historic Construction, a company contracted by Merced County to perform the critical upgrade. The Courthouse is celebrating its 150th Anniversary this year, and a lot of effort in recent years has gone toward securing the federal, state and local funds to make sure the landmark is standing like it should.
A community celebration and unveiling of the exterior renovation will be held at Courthouse Park on Oct. 4, along with a special anniversary banquet fundraiser that is detailed on Page 3 of this newspaper.
Expect to see a bright, shiny, new white exterior because painting was a large part of the project, but so much more work over the months was involved with delicate repairs to architectural elements such as vintage woodwork, decorative moldings, cast iron designs, widow frames and roofing materials. They also added much-needed new storm drain pipes — but not before removing about a dozen massive bee hives that were encountered in the process.
Most of the extensive restoration was focused on the cupula that was considered to be in great disrepair. Windows were broken, woodwork was rotting, and moldings were deteriorating. The cupula restoration is still ongoing but they are close to preparing everything for a final coat of paint. The coating is going to be “grafitti resistant” too.
On Tuesday, Avina led a small group of observers on a tour of the building’s exterior. They climbed ladders and navigated wooden scaffolding, and went up about 60 feet to the top of cupula where the statue of the Roman goddess Minerva stands watch over Merced.
Museum Director Sarah Lim was there, and she was overjoyed.
“I’m really surprised to see Minerva completely intact,” she told the Times. “It’s amazing. She’s on top of the world, and exposed to all of the extreme weather, and yet look at her. She’s basically all there. She’s got all her fingers and toes. She still maintains her girlish figure. There was only a portion of her hair that was missing, but they have replace it now, and she looks great. ”
Avina explained that his team made every effort to preserve existing material, though some decorative pieces had to be refabricated. They were able to rescue portions of rotting wood, and saved original glass from window frames that needed extensive work. Workers were also surprised to uncover granite in very good shape that had been painted over under the exterior of the bottom floor windows.
The experience is something Avina said he won’t soon forget. The County Courthouse is not the largest historical site he has worked on (that would be a structure in old town Eureka), but he said it’s one of the most impressive.
“Let’s hope it lasts for another 150 years,” he said.