150-year-old Gehl Home vandalized

The Marysville Historical Society faces a tough situation as graffiti has appeared on the 150-year-old Pioneer Gehl Home.

The Gehl Home is a historic building that the Marysville Historical Society preserves and is kept at Jennings Memorial Park, between the park’s master garden and Rotary barn.

On July 15 the home was vandalized.

“Thursday night they came out and put graffiti on two of the planks of the home,” said Morrie Sachsenmaier, president of the Marysville Historical Society.

The Rotary barn near the Gehl Home also received some graffiti the same night.

The news came as a shock to many of the members.

“We were all sick,” said Sachsenmaier. “This is a historical building and it’s going to be tough to restore. It’s so sad that something historic like this could get ruined."

Because of the age of the building, traditional methods of removing graffiti will be difficult.

“They got our museum building last year [with graffiti], but that was easy to remove because it was just metal siding. This is going to be more of a challenge,” said Sachsenmaier. “We’re really struggling on figuring out what to do."

Pressure washing the building would likely ruin the cedar wood siding of the building, so that is likely not an option.

Sanding has problems as well.

“It’s been weatherized for 100 years and so if we sand it, that will make that come off,” said Sachsenmaier.

The organization may need to proceed with a professional who knows how to carefully remove the graffiti without ruining the cedar planks underneath.

Sachsenmaier said that many people want to know how they can help and donations may be needed to eventually pay for that kind of professional work.

The home was originally built in the 1880s of cedar trees cut down on Getchell hill and caulked with deer moss.

The house stayed on Getchell hill for about a century.

“In the ‘80s we had found this Gehl Home in north Marysville,” said Sachsenmaier, and members of the Marysville Historical Society decided it would be good to preserve the house.

The organization purchased it and helped to restore it at the time.

“We made a deal with the city to keep the building on their Jennings Park property,” said Sachsenmaier. “We took it apart piece by piece and then rebuilt it at the park."

It took about 300 hours of volunteer labor to put the house back up at the park.

Those who wish to donate or learn more about the Marysville Historical Society can go to marysvillehistory.org.