NORWAY — A Lewiston company has been awarded a contract to replace the roof of the historic Gingerbread House on Main Street.

Above and Beyond of Lewiston, which does commercial, institutional and residential roofing, siding and windows, bid $54,370.

“It’s really exciting; this is our first major project,” Albert Judd of the Norway Landmarks Preservation Society said.

The project will get underway April 1 and is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

“The board was very impressed with the thoroughness and expertise in all the bids that were received,” said Joan Beal of the Norway Landmarks Preservation Society, which is doing business as Friends of the Gingerbread House. “We anticipate the highest quality of work from Above and Beyond Roofing and are happy to be able to do business with a local company.”

Mike Mathieu of Above and Beyond, project manager for the job, said it is not a typical roofing job but one that his team of carpenters, roofers and sheet metal mechanics are well-equipped to do.

Judd said the six bids ranged from $28,500 to $66,200, and Above and Beyond’s proposal got a unanimous vote.

“Above and Beyond came in with what we thought was a reasonable amount,” Judd said. He praised the company for its complete proposal, including information about all of its workers.

The 80- by 20-foot, two-story house has a gabled roof on its main section with a cross gable next to the turret. The exterior has elaborate millwork.

According to the bid documents, the work will include replacing shingles on the main house and turret roofs, structural repairs where necessary and flashing. Due to evidence of leakage, it is assumed a small portion of the roof framing and sheathing may require repair, according to the document.

The work will include the four-story turret. The iron fence around the top of it is built in sections about 3 feet long and 12 inches tall. It has to be removed, restored, painted and reattached.

Mathieu said they will remove the old shingles and install a new layer of plywood on the roof before reshingling it with a brownish shingle that will give the appearance of wood shingles.

The Norway Landmarks Preservation Society has been raising money for several years to rehabilitate the downtown landmark. The home, which has a finished attic and full basement, was built by Richard Evans and later bought by Charles Bradley Cummings, founder of the C.B. Cummings & Son dowel mill on Pikes Hill Road, according to a report by Andrea Burns of Norway to the Maine Preservation Society in Portland. It became commonly known as the Gingerbread House for its elaborate trim added in the late 19th century.

Robert Sallies and Howard James eventually took ownership of it while they were publishers of the Advertiser-Democrat, Burns wrote.

In 2008, C’s Inc., a real estate holding company affiliated with Sun Media Group, publishers of the Sun Journal and Advertiser-Democrat, agreed to delay demolition of the house if someone could move it. Friends of the Gingerbread House, who later formed the nonprofit Norway Landmarks Preservation Society, banded together to save it. In 2011, the house was moved about 950 feet up the street near Butters Park.

Judd said the group has a $20,000 grant from the Davis Family Foundation and $8,400 from its Buy-A-Bundle campaign, which will start again next month to raise another $10,000.

Donations can be made to Friends of the Gingerbread House, P.O. Box 525 Norway, ME 04268 or on the website www.gingerbreadhousenorway.org.

ldixon@sunjournal.com