GORHAM — Mopping-up a splotched renovation, the University of Southern Maine hopes its art gallery retains historical status while it asks the Maine Historic Preservation Commission to defer restoration of some original window sashes.

The commission three years ago had granted the university until Oct. 13 of this year to restore significant details destroyed in an art gallery renovation that began several years ago. Restoration work has cost about $500,000, according to the  university.

The building is listed by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Register of  Historic Places. The preservation commission is the agency that oversees the registry in Maine and determines eligibility.

The preservation commission asked the university to provide photographs of the restoration work. Kirk Mohney, commission director, said Wednesday in an email that the photos are now available to review.

“I expect that members of the staff will begin a review of the National Register status of the Art Gallery in the very near future,” Mohney said.

Robert Stein, spokesman for the university, said Dec. 7 that the photos were taken by an architectural photographer.

The art gallery, built in 1821, was transferred to Gorham State Teachers College in 1961 by heirs of a Gorham benefactor after the town of Gorham no longer needed it for a meeting hall.

A Gorham resident complained in 2014 that significant historical features had been lost in an exterior renovation. The complaint stirred public outrage and triggered a review by the commission.

The university scrapped its plans to replace vintage clapboards with vinyl siding.

The university said in a letter to the preservation commission on Oct. 25 that column bases have been repaired and window shutters replaced as required by the commission.

“USM also has undertaken the restoration of all windows that are visible from either the interior or exterior of the building,” wrote M.F. Chip Gavin, chief facilities management and general services officer at the university.

To preserve artwork displayed in the gallery, some interior window openings have been walled over and shuttered on the exterior. Gavin said the restoration of remaining windows would not be visible.

“Rather than spend scarce public funds on such work at this time, USM proposes to retain the windows in storage and to defer restoration,” Gavin wrote.

If the university were to change use of the art gallery, Gavin wrote, it would then revisit restoration of the windows.

“We look forward to working with the MHPC to allow the university to take this approach and to the facility’s continued listing in the National Register of Historic Places,” Gavin wrote.

Robert Lowell can be reached at 780-9089 or email [email protected]

The Maine Historic Preservation Commission will review renovation work done at the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery on the Gorham campus.