Robert Reintgen and his crew of contractors spent the better part of Friday removing eight large glass windows from the Baltzer Meyer Historical Society’s Hempfield schoolhouse.

He had one goal in mind, maintaining the integrity of the 1881 structure.

“You don’t want to embarrass the building,” said Reintgen, a Derry contractor and woodworker who specializes in rehabilitating historic structures to their former glory.

The retired Derry Area High School teacher has restored more than 42 historic buildings. This is his second schoolhouse project.

The historical society owns two properties along Baltzer Meyer Pike, the schoolhouse and an 1884 church across the street. It purchased the schoolhouse in 1996, taking nearly a decade and $62,000 to restore the dilapidated structure to historical accuracy, President Nicholas Kayhart said.

It now serves as a staple field trip location for Hempfield Area’s third grade students.

As the structure continues to age, the historical society plans to refinish the schoolhouse’s windows and floors, redo the trim around the doors and install a new stove, Kayhart said. This round of improvements will cost between $6,000 and $7,000, he said.

Reintgen expects the window repairs to take up the most time — about a month, if everything goes smoothly.

“I will have to sand down the outside of the window,” he said, “and we’ll have to take chisels and take the old glazing out that’s cracked and worn out.

“Once we get all cleaned out where the old glazing was, we have to put in new glazing.”

It could take four days just to handle the glazing on all of the windows before reinstalling and painting around them, Reintgen said.

“If we’re really lucky and we get a good thing going and we’ve really winded ourselves,” he said, “we could get two windows done (in one day).”

A second phase of restoration will take place in the fall, Kayhart said. Crews will replace the schoolhouse’s 20-year-old furnace, redo the stone seals around the floors and windows, and repair brick damaged by a tornado that whipped through Hempfield in 2011.

“(The furnace) is on its last legs,” Kayhart said. “It’s going to have to be replaced, probably not going to make it through next winter.”

This phase of the project will cost about $2,500, he said.

The historical society is seeking grants and community donations — which can be dropped off in person or sent via mail to 642 Baltzer Meyer Pike — to help cover the project cost. Kayhart estimates they are $10,000 short.

Patience is key to historical rehabilitation, Reintgen said.

“They’re dirty because they’re so old and they take a patient attitude because the work is so meticulous,” he said. “You just have to take your time.”

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