Giving 50 West New England Avenue Worthington, Ohio 43085-3536 (614) 885-1247 Fax: (614) 885-1040 Worthhsoc@aol.com

You are invited to preserve and share in Worthington’s past.

For over 50 years, the Worthington Historical Society has collected the artifacts and objects that embody Worthington's past, to ensure that the stories they tell are shared with future generations. As the WHS collections and programs grow, so does the need to care for, exhibit, and share the treasures and stories of the city's past and to prepare for its history yet to come.

We invite you to help us meet this challenge by supporting the Worthington Historical Society through a variety of giving opportunities we have available.

Support our newest project, the Bricks and Mortar Campaign for the Orange Johnson House
or
Make a Gift to our Annual Fund

When you make a tax-deductible gift of any size you are keeping history alive!

Annual Fund

By interpreting Worthington's history and the role the city has played instate and local history, the WHS enables its visitors-on-site, on-line and from across the state and country-to understand their own place in the world.

The Worthington Historical Society's Annual Fund represents contributions above and beyond membership dues. These contributions provide the funds necessary for the WHS to present and expand its educational programs and exhibitions, maintain and improve its facilities, and preserve and interpret its extensive collections.

The society possesses a significant collection of Worthington cultural artifacts and historical material and an extensive collection of books, manuscripts, photographs, and genealogical records in our library and archives, the society serves as the leading authority on Worthington's past.

Committed to fiscal responsibility, the society relies on the generosity of its community to meet the gap between earned revenue and expenses. Education programs, outreach services, permanent and changing exhibitions, collections preservation, and publication projects - all of the society's primary methods of communicating Worthington's history and enriching the citizens it serves - would not be possible without Annual Fund support.

Some of the ways Annual Fund gifts are used:

• Education - to facilitate over 200 3rd grade students participate in Old Worthington Days and welcome hundreds of visitors to the Orange Johnson House Museum and Old Rectory Doll Museum each year, in addition to offering historic lectures and tours.
• Museums - for exhibitions, and to enhance the preservation of the permanent collections, including the moving of the extensive costume and textile collection to quality storage boxes and an expanded storage area.
• Publications - to produce the excellent and informative Worthington Neighborhoods book and Historic Walking Tour.
• Facility - To support operations of the Orange Johnson House Museum, The Old Rectory and the Jeffers Mound.

Bricks and Mortar Campaign

Our beloved Orange Johnson House is approaching its two hundredth year in 2011...and we have become acutely aware of the need to address the deteriorating brick and mortar that is missing, spalling, crumbling or poorly repaired previously. Do you remember our Conservation Assessment in 2002? Linda Grubb, our preservation architect for the project, noted we had areas of missing and powdering mortar, and needed to repoint. Also noted was the brick efflourescence in the Worthington Rooms (basement museum areas) and on the east basement wall underneath the work room. We also need to repair window sills, re-caulk and re-glaze many of the windows.

In the long list of recommendations, addressing our brick facades was the most complex and ex­pensive. As stewards for our structure, we need to maintain the house and its original fabric to the best degree possible. Work will entail matching our lime mortar for content and color, and matching our bricks where spalling has occurred with like material. Special caulk is specified to replace missing seals around the windows, or removing and replacing several cracked layers around others. This is our biggest challenge since the restoration forty years ago.

A special mason, licensed to do restoration work that we need has been identified thanks to Steve Frazier. The Board of Trustees has reviewed the excellent proposal from Oakstone Renovators of Mansfield, complete with detailed descriptions of processes and many photographs of the OJ facades. Oakstone is a specialist in church restoration and has worked on many central Ohio structures.

The total cost of the project is $22,900, which we hope to address in four years or sooner. Currently we have signed to do emergency repairs early in the spring to fill the largest holes in the mortar and replace missing brick, and thanks to funds already accumulated, will proceed with at least once facade. Every year we fundraise to take care of our properties but this campaign is a special challenge. Please let us know how you can help.

Making Worthington a Special Place!