As reported in The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa. by
Marcia Moore,Mon, June 23, 2025 at 8:59 PM PDT
NORTHUMBERLAND — Owens Historic Preservation Services Ltd., of Freeburg, is in the midst of a four-month restoration project at Joseph Priestley House in Northumberland.
For company owner Bobbie Owens, the $145,000 project is more than a job.
“I went to school in Northumberland, and I was always over here,” she said, referring to the museum she and her crew are working in.
The project is a first for Owens, who has run her Snyder County-based business for 13 years mainly restoring exterior facades and windows on buildings in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and Philadelphia, including Historic Hope Lodge and Brandywine Battlefield historic site.
“I’ve never done an (extensive) interior project before,” she said as six workers toiled away, scraping off layers of paint with dental tools, heat guns and infrared strippers to unearth original woodwork on moldings, staircases and fireplaces and repairing plaster in several rooms of the building Joseph Priestley spent four years constructing as a home and laboratory between 1794 and 1798.
The English chemist, known for discovering oxygen, lived and worked there until his death at age 70 in 1804.
All of the home’s interior was locally sourced during construction, except for the ornate staircase which was built in Philadelphia, Owens said.
“We want to unveil the detail that’s been lost over the years. I love peeling back layers to reveal what was done years ago,” she said, pointing out the intricate detail put into the home more than two centuries ago. “We were not expecting the scallop detail in the dentil molding.”
Kevin Amey, a Cochranville furniture and wood restorer hired by Owens for the Priestley project, recognized the carved detail as “very English.”
Nearly all of the original work will be saved and restored, Owens said.
Building restoration was not always a career goal for Owens, who majored in English and history at Bucknell University. Following graduation in 2003, she worked with area counties serving children and families.
She relocated with her husband to Ipswitch, Massachusetts, where she responded to an “interesting description of a job” posted online by a start-up window restoration company run by Alison Hardy.
“I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot,” said Owens, who volunteers with her former mentor on the Window Preservation Alliance while growing her own business that she started in 2012. “I love this because it uses my background in American history and English literature.”
In 2015, Owens was approved by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) as a specialty trades contractor.
PMHC is funding the $145,000 restoration of Joseph Priestley House, focusing on the library, dining room, parlor, hallways and a second floor bedroom. Much of the work has involved “painstakingly” removing decades of paint accumulation and “meticulously” repairing damaged plaster, PHMC Communications Director Jay Losiewicz said.
Following Priestley’s death in 1804, the home was privately owned until 1955 when the property was transferred to the borough of Northumberland. PHMC took ownership in 1965 and designated the home as a national historic landmark.
The interior hadn’t been painted in more than 40 years and no historic analysis of the paint had been done before the latest project, Losiewicz said.
Owens’ “diligent work has unveiled remarkable discoveries consistent with the Georgian era and hints of Victorian-era faux wood graining,” he said.
In a first-floor hallway, Owens discovered what is believed to be an original gray-green color on the walls. Each room is being painted with historically accurate shades of the gray-green as well as gold-beige and pale gray paint colors.
“This project will bring crispness and elegance back to architectural details, presenting visitors with an interior that largely mirrors its appearance during Priestley’s time, unseen for nearly two centuries,” Losiewicz said.
The restoration is expected to be finished in July, with the museum reopening soon after. Last year, Joseph Priestley House had 975 visitors during its 250th anniversary celebration of Priestley’s discovery of oxygen, operations manager Murrie Zlotziver said.
