Green Gables House more accessible thanks to P.E.I. carpentry students

The doors are wider at Green Gables House in Cavendish, P.E.I., thanks to the work of students from the heritage retrofit carpentry program at Holland College.

The project has taken more than four years, but by next month the entire first floor of the historic house will be accessible to people with mobility issues.

"If you look at the width of the door, we made the opening two inches wider than what it used to be," said Josh Silver, lead learning manager for the program.

"It's a little bit ironic — when we've done a really good job, it looks like we haven't been here at all. And I'm proud to say that it's really hard to tell."

Josh Silver, lead learning manager for the heritage retrofit carpentry program at Holland College, stands in one of the doorways at Green Gables House. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)

Silver said working on the historic house brought some added challenges for him and his students.

"There's a lot of stress. This whole building and everything inside of it is a museum," Silver said.

"So the walls, the wallpaper, the trim, all the dishes, furniture, everything is a museum-curated piece so we wanted to be very, very careful not to do any damage to that.

Even so, a bit of damage is inherent in the students' work, he said.

"I had to cut an inch or two off the wall here, and I had to be very conscious of of not damaging the wallpaper, not damaging any artifacts around it," Silver said.

"Kind of a very delicate surgery, if you will."

Iconic front door

Silver said they try to maintain the original heritage wood, but it's not always possible.

For example, when widening the doors, the sides remained the same, but the piece above the door, or header, needed to be longer because the door opening was wider.

"We made a new piece, tried to make it as identical as possible, and then we labelled it very carefully and put in storage the original piece should we ever want to bring it back," Silver said.

"The two main tenets are, disrupt the original fabric of the building as little as possible, and make everything reversible."

Students work on expanding the doorways at Green Gables House. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)

Silver said there were a a couple of small examples where the work impacted a piece of wallpaper and a tiny area of a rug.

But they were able to successfully replicate the thresholds at the bottom of the doors, scuffing them up to make them look as if they were more than 100 years old.

The work included the iconic front door to Green Gables that's featured in hundreds of photos every year, taken by the 150,000-plus visitors.

"It's such a sense of pride that my students and I take with this building," Silver said.

"We were entrusted to open those doors up, literally and figuratively, to even more people by making it wheelchair accessible."

The Holland College students had to create a new threshold after this door was widened. They scuffed it up to make it look as if it was the original from more than 100 years ago. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)

This is the fourth group of students getting hands-on experience working on the doors at Green Gables.

"It's a bit nerve-racking when you're about to cut something that's really old. We want to make sure you're doing it right, doing a good job, with clean cuts," said student Sam Westerblom, who's from Kensington.

"I think it's important that we're doing this so everyone can enjoy this piece of history."

Mandeep Singh, a student from Punjab, India, said he enjoys learning about the history and significance of the site.

"As far as I know, it's a very historic place and [an] important, well-recognized place by the tourists," Singh said.

"It's a great opportunity, and I'm really proud that I'm a part of this project."

Kassandra McKinnon, acting National Historic Sites manager with Parks Canada, stands in front of the iconic front door at Green Gables House. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)

'It feels seamless'

A Parks Canada manager said it has been been an "incredible experience" watching the project unfold.

"It feels seamless to a visitor's perspective. I don't think that folks will visually see that there's been a a difference," said Kassandra McKinnon, acting National Historic Sites manager.

"However, it will certainly be felt, especially for those with mobility challenges, to be able to come and experience Green Gables, to be able to view the first floor of the Green Gables House because this work [that] has been done is fantastic."

A student from Holland College works on the frame of one of the doors at Green Gables House. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)

Silver and his students have worked on similar projects in the past, including helping to restore the windows at Province House and restoring the sign from the iconic Peter Pan Restaurant in Charlottetown.

"We always kind of joke behind the scenes, my students and I, [that] this work isn't for the faint of heart," Silver said.

"These doors that we're going to finish in a week or two will be the culmination of four years worth of work. A lot of research, a lot of detail, a lot of preparation, maybe 90 per cent prep and research and 10 per cent using hammers."