A House of a Different Color!

It has been a busy summer at the Bush House Museum. In addition to the usual excitement around the Art Fair & Festival, the Museum has been surrounded by machinery, equipment, and people -- painters! The end result is a solid exterior with a high-quality paint job in a fancy new/old color:



Research indicates that the Bush House had been the same blue-gray color since at least the late 1970s, when it was placed on the National Register. However, an article written in 1878, just after the Bush family moved into their newly-built home, described the house as a "light mouse-brown" color. Also, during restoration of the porte-cochere in 2007 we discovered some remnants of what might have been the original exterior color, a greeny-browny-gray.

So, after consultation with the state Historic Preservation Office and the City of Salem, we decided to make a change, hoping that a different color will help folks see this old house in a new light.

What do you think?