© 1997 - 2008 Kalona Cooperative Telephone Co., All Rights Reserved.
©Mary Zielinski for The Kalona News
The Kalona Historical Village, especially its main Wahl Museum, has a clean shining face for visitors. A massive cleaning and refurbishing took place at the museum during January and February. Last spring and summer an equally massive facelift was done throughout all the Village buildings. Thanks to hundreds of hours of volunteered time, exhibits were rearranged, cleaned and changed, buildings were painted (inside and outside), grounds tidied and the Kalona Depot repaired, refurbished and repainted.
Not only was the Wahl Museum re-carpeted and painted this year, but exhibits also were changed, moved and regrouped. In the process, much of the museum's collection was catalogues and identified so visitors can learn what use a specific tool or object had.
The work at the Depot represents the first full-scale effort since the building arrived at the site 25 years ago. While not as monumental as the work done in 1970 to save what many though should have been razed and forgotten, the general "going-over" on the Depot amounts to a full scale "facelift."
The exterior was sandblasted and repainted in the bright red that was its first color back in March, 1879. Prior to the painting, the exterior was re-shingled, repaired and re-caulked. Repairs were made to the exterior stairway and upstairs porch.
Similar efforts took place throughout the main building at the Village.
The Society also arranged for new signs to be installed at all buildings, although that aspect of the facelift could not be completed prior to this year's Festival. The signs identify and describe each of the historic buildings. All are in gray and burgundy, a color combination chosen to harmonize with those on the Wahl House.
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