SNOW HILL, Md. - Five months ago, vandals severely damaged portions of the Furnace Town Historic Site in Worcester County. Now, work is underway to repair everything that was broken. The park hopes to have it all fixed and be back open by April.
Thousands of dollars of damage was done. However, there is light is at the end of the tunnel. Workers are busy replacing windows, fixing floors, and repairing all the damage vandals left behind.
Damaged Doors and frames have been taken out and lie on the ground. Boards are covering windows and doors in need of new glass.
Furnace Town Historic Site's Executive Director, Claudia Nagle, says all the costly repairs to fix the vandalism are moving along.
“So all the materials are arriving and in the next few weeks there will be a flurry of activity from painting and installing new floors and windows. We’re fixing all kinds of parts to our buildings to make it ready for everyone to arrive and help us celebrate the fact that we're able to reopen,” says Nagle.
Some of these buildings are more than one hundred years old and play a vital role in Worcester County's history. Elijah Miles is the museums Program Director. He's happy for people to come back to get a flash from the past.
“It's a pretty great feeling. The vandalism happened back in September of 2021. So to be almost 6 months later and finally feel like we can see the light at the end of the tunnel is amazing. We're only a couple weeks to a month away from being fully back to what we were then and also reopening for a new season,” says Miles.
Still to this day, there have been no arrest made in this vandalism case.
Furnace Town's Executive Director tells WBOC they have installed surveillance cameras and upgraded their security system to ensure vandalism does not happen again.