The front wall of Greensburg's YMCA is being renovated for the first time in its 102 years.

Workers constructed scaffolding covering the front of the building last week. They started by power-washing the exterior, and over the next few weeks they will grind, sand, refill and weatherproof the century-old masonry.

“Anything that has years of damage to it will be restained and repainted to look like it did 102 years ago,” said Greensburg YMCA CEO George O'Brien.

Once they're done, sometime in early August, they will demolish the front porch to begin a long-awaited replacement project.

The cost of the work is about $270,000 — $200,000 for the porch, and $70,000 for the rest — O'Brien said.

The YMCA was about $70,000 short of its budget for the porch project in April. O'Brien said he may not yet identify the donors who provided the remaining funds.

The porch project has been in the works for a long time, but repairs to the exterior resulted from a more recent decision, O'Brien said.

The need for the work was discovered in a facility assessment done over the winter.

“One of the concerns was the outside of our building,” O'Brien said.

YMCA officials decided to take care of the exterior renovations on the front of the building before replacing the porch, to keep debris from soiling or damaging the new one.

“Can you imagine having a beautiful front porch done and then doing all this work?” O'Brien asked.

Musgrove Masonry is handling the front wall restoration and the porch replacement. It takes careful work to restore century-old buildings, said owner Russell Musgrove.

“We work on a lot of historical buildings,” he said.

New Way Scaffolding is assisting with the work.

The YMCA will not be closed during the project. Visitors are asked to use the side entrance on East Pittsburgh Street. The gym entrance on Maple Street will be used for child care.

The YMCA's new porch will be designed to match the classical look of the 1913 original, which was replaced sometime in the past century, O'Brien said. It will have better drainage and a heated sidewalk.

Jacob Tierney is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-836-6646 or jtierney@tribweb.com.

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