Erik Genalo from Richardson Window Works out of Cooperstown holds an antique window in the former home and office of Edward Livingston Trudeau on Tuesday. Historic Saranac Lake is restoring this building to its historic look as it converts the structure into a second museum space. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Historic Saranac Lake’s rehabilitation of the former home and office of Edward Livingston Trudeau into a museum is moving forward, with the project recently getting a $400,000 grant from the New York Council on the Arts.

HSL Executive Director Amy Catania said this grant provides the last funding needed for the rehabilitation of the Trudeau Building on the corner of Main and Church Streets. While the bulk of the work will start later this summer, a historic window repair company was at the site Tuesday.

HSL bought the building from Jay and Dorothy Federman, who ran a medical office out of the building, in 2019 — right before the coronavirus pandemic. This put an immediate stall on the plans with a “log jam” of busy architects, designers and contractors.

Catania said now that a construction management contract has been signed, everyone wants to get the project done. The firm don’t make money with the building just sitting here. She said they hope to have all the construction done by the end of next year’s building season. Then, it will be time to start installing the exhibits.

Catania said they hope to get a price and schedule this summer and will hold a groundbreaking ceremony at a later date to be announced.

The first part of construction will be to remove most of what was installed in more modern times. Inside, there are signs taped on everything from shelves to doorway molding that tell contractors what should be saved and what should be removed.

Almost anything added after 1915 goes, Catania said. They’re keeping anything that was there during Trudeau’s lifetime while he was using the building — from its construction in 1894 to around 1915.

There will be practical upgrades — handicap accessibility and fire suppression — as well as aesthetic and historical ones — replacing the blue vinyl siding with wood clapboards painted in the original dark red, tearing out modern carpeting and uncovering boarded-up fireplaces.

The house has been modernized over the years. The original siding has been covered up, rooms have been updated and there have been several expansions.

But it isn’t just a vessel for the museum’s exhibits. It is an artifact itself, Catania said, with its unique wallpapers, doorbells, windows and cure porches.

“For local folks it’s really important to have a place that helps preserve our sense of who we are and where we came from,” Catania said.

They’ve been doing that for 30 years at the museum, but she said this new building will allow them to tell a broader history.

“I think people in the past have thought all we cared about is tuberculosis,” Catania said with a laugh.

She hopes to have more artifacts and information about Saranac Lake’s surrounding communities, and more history of the town before tuberculosis and even back when only Indigenous people were living here.

Catania said sometimes visitors want to see more. They have more questions and are asking “what else?” She said the bones of any museum is its collection and that HSL Archivist and Curator Chessie Monks-Kelly has done a great job at expanding it. But lots of this collection is in storage since the laboratory is only so big.

“You don’t want to keep stuff just for the sake of keeping stuff. You want to make it accessible,” Catania said.

The Trudeau building will bring a lot more space to share that stuff, and include a research room for further investigation.

HSL is contracting with Bishop Beaudry Construction of Schenectady to lead construction management for the rehabilitation project. Catania said representatives from this firm are meeting with HSL’s architectural team — Kim and Jack Alvarez from Landmark Consulting — to comb through everything, look for cost savings, and potentially solicit new bids and quotes.

“The costs right now for construction are just incredibly high and we want to be able to be sure we use the money that has been given to us as carefully as we can,” Catania said.

HSL has raised more than $5 million to buy, redesign and restore Trudeau’s former home and the neighboring Saranac Laboratory Museum. Catania said around $2 million of this has come from private donations and foundation grants.

More than a dozen state and federal grants, as well as historic preservation tax credits, have also played a big role — including $325,000 from Saranac Lake’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative, a $350,000 grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission, and a federal grant of $50,000 from the Institute for Museum and Library Services for exhibit planning.

“HSL works incredibly hard to preserve Saranac Lake’s history and tell the important stories of the many people who have called this place home,” state Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay Lake said in a statement. “I am pleased that they are getting the recognition they deserve. … I am proud to have helped secure funding for this transformation.”

They’ll still need to raise more money, Catania said — exhibits are not cheap. She said they’ve already been planning these exhibits and will have the first level of schematic designs available in a month.

She also said they’re also seeking grands and funds for a handicap lift at the Laboratory Museum. Right now, the John Black Room in the basement is the only handicap accessible room there.