Among the many things required in preservation of historic assets is patience. Justin Wetenhall, executive director of the Whaley Historic House Museum, noted that the current restoration of the home’s front and side porch that is expected to be completed this summer has actually taken about three years to get to this point.
“It’s not just like your modern deck you’re redo,” Wetenhall said. “You have to do certain things like get permission from the Historic District Commission and organizations like that. You have to look at pictures, if there were any pictures, of what the porch looked like. And thankfully for us in our archives, we do have a cadre of photographs that the Whaleys took while they lived here between 1885 and 1925. The era the home is portrayed as is from around the late 19th century, we are portraying the porch as it looked around 1880 to 1890. One of the other problems we have is matching the paint color. That’s sometimes kind of difficult. Another issue is that it’s not just restoration, it’s also a safety issue. This is a public space, you have guests coming onto the porch, so we do have to have that proper maintenance. And the problem with historic preservation is that there’s a fine line between (modern) maintenance and safety, but also preservation of how something looked in the era it was originally from.”
Intricate details like working with materials that meet historic specifications and handcrafting things like the intricately designed pillars on the house’s porch also require specialized skillsets that only a handful of contractors have the ability to do, which can also sometimes create a backlog for similar projects in historic spaces around Michigan.
Wetenhall has been in his role as executive director for three years, but his experience at Whaley started as a volunteer when he was a student at the University of Michigan-Flint.
“I’ve always been very interested in local history, especially the 1800s, the Gilded Age, that time period,” he said. “So I’ve always had a relationship with this house, and about three years ago they were seeking a new director, and I threw my hat in the ring. And by some stroke of luck, I wound up getting the position here.”
He’s excited to see the porch restoration come to life. The last time the porch was restored was 2006, and Michigan winters have taken a toll on the paint and wood itself in the years since. It is moving forward in part due to a donation from the Nartell Family Foundation, which helped the organization purchase a high quality cypress wood that should hold up well over time.
“It is a really good type of wood that will sustain for a long time, so hopefully we won’t have to do this for another 100 years,” Wetenhall said. “Our plan, hopefully by the end of this month even, is to have the porch completely restored to how it looked circa 1886, when the Whaley family had already been living here for about a year.”
The Whaley Historic House Museum is a restored Victorian-era home that preserves the history of the Whaley and McFarlan families, two influential families in Flint during a period of major growth and change in the city. The family members who originally lived in the home were Robert Whaley and his wife Mary McFarlan Whaley, their daughter Florence, and Robert’s half-sister Laura.
The home and museum includes historically furnished rooms and original artifacts that provide visitors with a look at life in late 19th-century Flint. The Whaley family also made significant philanthropic contributions to Flint, including providing monetary donations that established what is now the Whaley Children’s Center, a nonprofit home that provides care for children who have experienced abuse or neglect, and the McFarlan Home, a nonprofit organization that provides affordable housing for women over 60.
Now, the Whaley Historic House hosts a wide range of events throughout the year which are advertised on their website and Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok pages. Those include a monthly Gilded Game Night in conjunction with Flint Art Walk, Saturday Salons that feature songs, poetry, and other discussions, and other creative ways to activate the space.
Recently, Whaley Historic House partnered with Buckham Alley Theatre and will host outdoor performances of Lysistrata June 18-20 on their lawn. There is also a performance group called the Whaley Players that has performed old radio-style performances.
The main goal is to honor the tradition of the Whaley family, who Wetenhall noted were supporters of arts and creativity.
“Mr. and Mrs. Whaley were big proponents of the arts and philanthropy, so these are neat ways to honor their legacy by bringing live arts to the home,” Wetenhall said.
There is also a ribbon cutting ceremony for the renovated porch planned for August 15 at their America250 Garden Party.
“We invite the public for that, it will be a fun family event,” Wetenhall said. “We just want to say thank you to everyone who supports us. We want to encourage people to come see Lysistrata and support the arts, and we want to thank everyone for supporting public history and historic preservation in our community.”
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