- April 16, 2024
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Elysha Petschauer is ready to rip up some carpet.
Since she took over as the executive director of the Ormond Beach Historical Society this year, Petschauer has been dreaming of renovating and restoring the MacDonald House into a museum. And thanks to the $70,000 that's been donated and pledged by society members and local residents, she might be able to do it.
"The terms 'renovate' and 'restore' are getting jingled up a little bit," said Jeff Blass, the new president of the society's board of directors. "We want to do some restoration, but we mainly want to renovate it so it can be operated and celebrated as one of our great historic buildings."
Bender and Associates, the Key West architects who will submit a complete report on the MacDonald House's historical value and refurbish cost to the City Commission at 7 p.m. April 5, previously estimated the amount to be in the neighborhood of $1 million to $1.5 million. Blass says there might be a more cost-effective way.
"While we support what they’re trying to do, we don’t need to do everything they say," he said. "A full restoration involves bringing every item in the building to its original time. Even the nails would have to be from the 1900s."
Petschauer, who has renovated historic buildings like the Athens Theatre in DeLand, said there's a middle ground they need to find.
"We can't bring it back exactly to 1905, but we can put hardwood floors back in," she said. "We think the second and third floors have all the original moldings, so there's just some touch up to do with that."
To maintain the home's historic value, both Petschauer and Blass believe the building needs to be left right where it is. Local investors have brought up the option of moving the MacDonald House south, but the Petschauer said that could interfere with the society being able to apply for grants, which would help them fund their vision for a museum.
"All the cities in Volusia have a separate museum that tells their history," Blass said. "We want to have something that our city can be proud of."
Currently, the society has some historical items on display in the front room of the MacDonald House, but most of the collection is stored at the Anderson-Price Memorial Building, 42 N. Beach St. If the society could renovate the building, it would be able to set out all of the artifacts and even have different time periods on different floors of the house.
Blass said the evidence for an audience that would be interested in a museum can be found in the popularity of the society's events. The lecture series hosted at Anderson-Price is usually attended by 100 to 120 people, and the bus tours are sold out weeks in advance.
"We're at the point now where we need to make some decisions," Blass said. "We're open to moving it if that's determined to be the best option, but we think the better choice is to leave it."
