People coming to town this year for Olde Glory Days will find a special attraction. For the first time in two years, the Dorman House will be open to the public.
“We are hoping to have it open by Olde Glory Days, so people can go through it,” said Suzanne Bush, director of the Henry County Historical Museum.
Built in 1852, the Dorman House was closed in June of 2021 because of structural problems. Now, work is going ahead to put it back on a firm foundation. To help cover the costs of the first two phases of the project, the Henry County Historical Society, which manages the museum, has launched a campaign to raise $250,000.
The first phase started in March. In order to secure the walls, builders had to remove wallpaper, and in some places, replace bricks in the interior walls with concrete blocks. Steel lintels were installed over doorways, pier supports were placed under the east and north sides, and a concrete floor was poured under the living room and music room. New ducts for heating and air conditioning hold metal rods, which tie the inside walls to the outside walls to prevent bowing.
Workers also removed the front hall staircase, and installed steel posts to support a new staircase and the upstairs landing. The work revealed the old strongbox, built of brick into the floor of the office. The box was found years ago, so held no secrets, Suzanne said. A plexiglass-glass cover will be placed over it, she said, so it remains in view.
By next fall, the Historical Society hopes to be entering the second phase of the Dorman House project, putting the interior back together.
To help pay for the project, the Historical Society has planned three fundraisers —a chicken dinner and auction on June 10, a hamburger and bratwurst cookout on Sept. 23, and a Murder Mystery Dinner on Oct. 2. The chicken dinner and the Murder Mystery Dinner will both be held in the Delozier Building, 101 N. Washington. Tickets to the chicken dinner are $20 ($25 at the door). It will include live music and a silent and live auction. The Delozier Building was built in 1874 as the First National Bank of Clinton, which Judge Dorman helped organize.
The Homestead, across from the museum annex, will be the site of the Sept. 23 burger and brats cookout, which will be held in conjunction with Old Settlers Days. A free family event, Old Settlers Days will include demonstrations of pioneer crafts.
“Murder at the Masquerade Ball,” a murder-mystery dinner, is on Oct. 2, is a lead-up to Halloween, with participants in masks and costumes, and actors from the Levity Players Group in St. Louis.
Suzanne estimates that it will take another $50,000 to complete the third phase of the project, preserving the exterior of the Dorman House by sand-blasting and applying a treatment that allows the bricks to breathe but keeps moisture out.
Most of the bricks of the Dorman House are sound, she said, but parts of the walls had to be tuck-pointed because the mortar between them had dissolved.
“People don’t realize how much maintenance is needed for a brick building,” she said.
Cracks and gaps in the interior walls, slumping exterior walls and soft floor joists prompted the museum to have an engineer come and evaluate the house for safety.
After examining the house, the engineer asked if it was still open for tours. When Suzanne said yes, he replied “It shouldn’t be.” The city inspector seconded the judgment. So the Dorman House was closed and the furnishings removed — the antique settee and Victorian occasional tables in the parlor, the desk and law books from Judge Dorman’s office, the carved wood furniture from the upstairs’ bedroom where Jerubial and Udolpha slept, connected to the bedroom where they raised six children.
After the last Dorman to live in the house moved to a nursing home, caretakers lived in the house, according to Thom Knott, a Dorman descendant. But by that time, the house was in such a state of disrepair that he invited engineers from the state to give him options of what to do with it. Their conclusion:
“They said it would have to be rebuilt brick by brick,” Thom said.
In 1996, he sold the house to Clinton Main Street for the price of the lot, he said. Main Street has used the Dorman House for its offices. Volunteers who spent the next six years restoring it included Dr. Glaspy, Barry Glasscock, Jerry Mosley and Dwight Whitten.
In 2008, the Henry County Historical Society acquired the Dorman House, and the house, in the second block of Franklin, became part of the complex of historic buildings on Franklin Street, just off the Square. The stone horse trough from the yard of the Dorman House, which was a stage-coach stop, is on the museum grounds.
In 1983, the Dorman House was placed in the National Register of Historic Places, the fourth of eight landmarks in Henry County to have that honor.
In the fall of 2021, the Henry County Historical Society applied to Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation to have the Dorman House named to its “Place in Peril” list of historic sites in need of rescue. It made the list, but the honor didn’t attract any funding, so the Henry County Historical Society was thrown back on its own resources.
In addition to the fundraisers, the museum started a Go Fund Me Page, “Help Save the Dorman House,” and donations have been coming in, Suzanne said. The HCHS has also received donations from members.
Every contribution helps, Suzanne said.
“It’s okay if it’s just a little bit at a time,” she said. “It adds up over time.”
