Lee Kennedy Co. celebrated the completion of the Old State House tower restoration with The Bostonian Society, representatives from the National Park Service and secretary of the interior Dirk Kempthorne at an official ribbon cutting ceremony.
The ceremony marked the completion of a complex $1 million historical restoration of the tower atop the nearly 300-year-old building.
Over a four-month period, the Lee Kennedy Co. team re-gilded the gold dome, restored the windows, applied new copper roofing and wood siding and performed other repairs to make the structure watertight. The team also re-gilded the original weather vane atop the tower, which dates back to 1713 when the Old State House was first constructed.
This project is the contractor's second project at the Old State House following a masonry restoration in 2006.
"Lee Kennedy Co. has been the ideal partner for this project," said Rainey Tisdale, director, Old State House Museum. "There were so many unknowns regarding the tower's condition. Their expertise in historical restorations, and the way they worked with us every step of the way to identify the best course of action has been a large part of the project's success."
The tower restoration is the first construction project completed as part of the National Park Service Centennial Fund.