Deconstructing Wilbur's

A shell of its former self – a partially deconstructed Wilbur’s on August 27th, 2014

If you’ve been around the Outdoor Center much this summer you may have noticed the slow disappearance of Wilbur’s, the building near the hoop houses at the end of Lemon’s Haunt. Wilbur’s is being deconstructed by ReSource and some of the salvaged material will be used by the Center while the remaining material will be sold to the ReSource Store, which provides families and individuals in crisis with building materials and reduces the amount of waste placed in landfills.

The Center purchased the building three years ago and reviewed options for its future. Ultimately, it was decided the building had issues that were hard to remediate: an outdated and energy inefficient construction style, it would have been difficult, and not cost-effective to upgrade to meet our needs.

The Wilbur’s site will not be vacant for long as the Center plans to start building cluster of 6 cabins there next spring. These cabins will be built to replace the accommodations currently offered by Tamarack. The cabins will be simple and energy-efficient and will support a variety of guest needs with single, double, and triple units currently planned for construction.

So what about Tamarack? With a bad foundation, inefficient heating system, and poor insulation, Tamarack is not in good condition. While Tamarack could be renovated, this very expensive proposition would still not address its location in the natural drainage path of the skating pond and the swamp feeding the pond. Thus, once the cabins are finished, Tamarack will also be deconstructed.

When you’re at the Center please feel free to stop by the Wilbur’s site and check out the changes taking place!

Wilbur’s one week later from the opening picture – just the foundation remains!

Some salvaged windows.