Saving the Susan Marr House - Developing Strategies for Stabilization

The Susan Marr house is contributing structure to Virginia City’s National Historic Landmark district and locally known as “the worst looking house with the best looking yard”. It is not far from the Dr Daems-Corbitt residence, where HCN volunteers worked in 2007. Highlighting the great backlog of work facing the Montana Historic Commission and the Virginia City Institute, the building has been left in a state of advancing decay for the past 60 years. Fortunately, all the house’s walls, room configurations and chimneys remain intact, though the roof has more or less disappeared. The challenge for participants at this year’s workshop may include restoring the roof pitch utilizing the existing gables and shoring the entire structure for future work. The exact nature of the work will be determined once warm weather returns to the region. For this workshop, much of the work will require climbing and working from scaffolding, and some basic understanding of construction technology would be helpful, though specific experience is not required. The goal of the workshop is to demonstrate a variety of approaches to mitigating critical stabilization issues; participants’ efforts will also go a long way to ensuring the survival of the Susan Marr house.