ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Orange Beach’s grand old lady is getting a facelift.

The circa 1910 building used through the years for everything from a school house to church to community meeting place and gathering place is undergoing some routine maintenance.

“It is definitely a gem to hold on to,” Parks and Recreation Office Manager Jeanne Fitzgibbons said.

It now houses the Orange Beach Indian and Sea Museum.

“The building’s over a 100 years old so there’s lots of upkeep to keeping something like that looking good but also preserving it,” Fitzgibbons said. “We’ve been kind of watching some of the areas that were getting rotten and such as that.”

Mike McMillan of McMillan Construction has been all over the outside performing the restoration and cleaning up the look of the structure.

“He’s replacing some of the planking and some of the boards and such as that matching the type of wood that was used on it when it was first constructed,” Fitzgibbons said. “He’ll be sealing it and painting the whole thing, just trying to spruce it up and keep it from deteriorating any. He’s going to be out there several weeks. He’s been out there for about a week, going on two weeks.”

Recently McMillan was captured on a cloudless day using a lift to work around the front steeple, appropriately using a beach umbrella to catch some shade.

“This is the perfect time of the year to do that because it’s typically dry,” Fitzgibbons said. “So far we’ve had nice dry weather and he’s moved on pretty good with it. The height of it we’re having to use the lift so he would be secure in getting up there.”

The city will spend close to $5,000 on the building, an item that was included in the 2012 annual budget.

“This was something that was planned in,” Fitzgibbon said. “Each year when we are preparing our budget we kind of look ahead and foresee the things that are going to need to be done. This is one of those things that we’ve been kind of watching for the last several years especially as our budgets were so tight for so long with the economic downturn.

“As we were going into this year’s budget it was one of the things that we had in as a building and maintenance and repair line item. We have that in pretty much every budget for whatever the department. So it was one of the things that we had factored in.”

Fitzgibbons said the building is like a community heirloom and keeping it in good shape is important to the city.

“Considering the age of the building and trying to preserve it and that is what we are charged with as far as making sure that building is here for a long time to come so that people can enjoy what’s in it and what it means to the community, it’s well worth it,” she said.

The museum is only open two days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, but is still a popular stop for tourists. Field trips and special tour groups on off days are scheduled and welcomed.

“I had a call just this morning form a Boy Scout group that is interested in coming and it will be at a different time than when the museum is actually open,” Fitzgibbons said. “With the limited hours and in the month of February and March we were at about 300 people per month. If you break it down to two days a week, you can figure out how many we have per day.”

Winter can be especially busy with the snowbird crowd coming in with time on their hands to explore the local cultural.

“Typically, during the winter time we have folks that like to stop by and talk,” Fitzgibbons said. “They may be there an hour or two, just really going through there and perusing the information that’s in there.”

The summertime crowd is usually in a bit more of a hurry.

“During the summer people pop in and the visits are usually not as long then because you’re dealing with a group that doesn’t have as much time on their hands,” Fitzgibbons said.

But no matter the season, Fitzgibbons said, the visitors enjoy coming by and taking in a bit of Orange Beach history.

“We get great comments from people,” she said. “Certainly, they’d like to see it open more hours and hopefully one day we’ll be able to move back to that level.”

See gallery of photos of the work at the Museum at: http://www.gulfcoastnewstoday.com/gallery/collection_75fc539e-192b-11e2-840e-001a4bcf887a.html