Paintings conservator Corrine Long, left, of Gianfranco Pocobene Studio speaks with a guest at Victoria Mansion as she restores the paintings on the historic building’s walls. Contributed / Gianfranco Pocobene

Portland’s Victoria Mansion is undergoing three major restoration projects that will bring the National Historic Landmark closer to its original state: the elaborately decorated Italian Villa built for Ruggles Sylvester Morse and his wife, Olive, as a summer house to escape the heat of New Orleans in the 1860s.

The large restoration projects consist of replacing stone on the front façade and bay window; recreating missing balustrades on various rooftops; and restoring the decoratively painted ceilings and walls inside the mansion.

“It’s the case for the expression, ‘Where the sum is greater than the parts.’ We’re trying to return it to its 1860 appearance, because that’s when we can really be in touch with what the interior decorator, the painters and the architect were trying to do with this building,” said Tim Brosnihan, executive director of the Victoria Mansion nonprofit.

While the three restorations are now visible to the public, the work has been ongoing for many years. Both the stone façade and the wooden balustrade updates have been in the planning stages for nearly 10 years, said Brosnihan.

“There’s been a lot of behind-the-scenes work and planning, and suddenly we’ve entered the really visible portion for a lot of these projects and the really active part on-site too,” he said.

Scaffolding on the front of Victoria Mansion covers the disassembled section of its front façade.  Contributed / Photo by Bob Parker

Father-and-son preservation woodworkers Bob and Sebastian Cariddi have been crafting the balustrades in their workshop in Buxton for two years. They modeled the balustrades off photos and sketches of the building taken 50 years ago, carving them out of mahogany and covering them with sand finish paint made from stone from the original Victoria Mansion.

“That hasn’t been there for 70 or 80 years. Very, very few people living have ever seen the building with all of these balustrades in place – and they will, before too long,” said Bob Cariddi.

“We’ll put the final piece in place, and people will see the façade of the building like it’s never been seen before by modern people,” he said.

Bob Cariddi has been restoring woodwork on Victoria Mansion for over 40 years. His first project was replacing a rotting windowsill in a tower that was letting birds into the building, he recalled. He described Victoria Mansion, like the care of any historical building, as a project that never ends.

“It has been a great pleasure of mine,” he said. “It’s a living building again.”

The restoration projects will be completed on various timelines. The front façade and balustrades should be largely finished early this winter, while conservationists from Gianfranco Pocobene Studio are not expected to complete restoring the section of wall and ceiling paintings until August 2025, with another year and a half of work in another section of the mansion to follow. Brosnihan described the painting conservationists as going “inch by inch,” brushing on missing sections of the elaborate design and reattaching individual flecks of paint that are peeling off the wall.

The three restoration projects currently underway will cost a total of approximately $1.7 million, said Brosnihan. The restoration of the wall paintings in the stair hall was partially funded by a federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services that the Victoria Mansion nonprofit received a year and a half ago and matched. Contributions also came from other grants from private foundations and individuals donors, said Brosnihan.

Despite the ongoing restoration projects, the Victoria Mansion will remain open to the public according to its regular schedule. It was open daily from May through October, and beginning the day after Thanksgiving, tours will be offered of the festively decorated mansion through the first week of the New Year.

“We planned in the ability for visitors to see the work happening in action. A lot of times, conservation work happens in a studio setting away off-site, and people don’t really get to watch it. But we find it’s a terrific learning opportunity for the public and helps them become more interested in the work we’re doing,” said Brosnihan.

“I think it opens their eyes a bit to how important we think a lot of this art and architecture is, that we’re willing to give it such comprehensive care,” he said.