The historic home of former Alabama governor George S. Houston is undergoing much-needed renovations, but the work is slow.

Anita Raby, president of the Houston Memorial Library board, and her colleagues have been petitioning for funds from local government agencies and residents of Limestone County to fund the restoration process of the 176-year-old home.

It’s a slow process, she said, but the work is coming along.

Raby told The News Courier on Friday that crews had finished work on the back of the home, where a chimney had been retrofitted to fit into the house. This led to some structural and water damage and took workers several weeks to repair in order for the backside of the home to look as it did when Houston lived there.

Contractors are now working around the facade of the home which, according to bylaws of the Athens Historical Society, must look as close as possible to the original.

Raby said carpenters were able to save some boards from the back side of the home and will replace some rotten boards on the front side with originals.

Some hidden improvements include insulation in the rear of the house, where there had been none before, and some electrical improvements.

Raby said many structural additions to the home over the years and the installation of electricity made for a jumble of wires, fuseboxes and other electrical fixtures. Contractors are laboring to unify the system into one breaker box, which will be safer and look better.

The bathroom is also being brought up to code and after the library-museum reopens, will be accessible to those with disabilities.

Other inside work is not going as quickly as the board would like, but changes are being made, Raby said. She, the board and some volunteers moved all the books stored in the parlor to another location. Workers scraped away decades-old layers of wallpaper and will soon paint the parlor in a color appropriate to the time period of the Houston residency.

The focal point of these changes will be the parlor room, which Raby said the board has decided to restore as a showcase for potential donors to see the vision of a fully finished home.

Eventually the goal is to revive the whole house as a museum celebrating the early history of Athens-Limestone County and the lives of the Houston family. This would be educational for local students reading Alabama history, but could also act as a draw for tourists, Raby said.

“We’re hoping within the next month to three months to reopen,” she said.

Some of the artifacts housed in the museum portion of the library are currently in safe storage to protect them while the house is renovated. This includes an official portrait of Gov. Houston, which has been professionally restored by a Huntsville artist.

Three original artworks by renowned political cartoonist Charles Sykes, who was born in Athens in 1882, are also in the museum’s collection, but Raby said they’ve never been displayed because they aren’t period-appropriate. The library board is working with a broker to possibly auction the drawings to fund the restoration project.

Not all the work will be done when the museum reopens, but the changes will be a definite improvement and hopefully show the public what the museum could be with more financial backing, Raby explained.

Donations are still being accepted and can be mailed to Houston Memorial Library Museum Foundation, 101 N. Houston St., Athens, AL 35611.