We learned in Friday’s Butler Eagle about the hopes of the Friends of the Saxonburg Museum to save an endangered historic icon.

The John Roebling Wire Rope Workshop was the site where Roebling, who helped found the borough in 1832, perfected wire rope, one of the engineering advances that helped make the Brooklyn Bridge possible.

The building, which was moved from its original location to its current spot in Roebling Park in the 1970s, has started to sink. Its foundation on one side has dropped as much as four degrees.

The group, and particularly Fred Ceasar, who serves as the volunteer curator for the Saxonburg Museum, has gotten plenty of bad news over the summer. Ceasar’s efforts to use part of the proceeds from the 5% county hotel tax in June met with no success, for example.

At the time, he pointed out the difficulty of doing real restoration projects when having to find grant funding. The $5,000 grants available from the Butler County Tourism & Convention Bureau, for example, don’t offer much assistance when faced with a project like the wire rope workshop, which needs foundation repairs that could cost $250,000.

Many historic preservation grants require the recipient to match the money given, which further limits how much money the Friends can apply for and receive.

The fact that we have an estimate on the cost is actually a testament to the dedications of the Friends. They raised the more than $28,000 that it cost to commission an engineering study to determine the cost.

In the months since, they have kept up their fundraising efforts and have collected about $25,000, and mostly from smaller donations.

“That's a lot of $20 and $50 checks,” Caesar told the Eagle. “A lot of people have contributed to that $25,000.”

But $25,000 is a long, long way from $250,000, and the clock continues to tick — while the building continues to sink. Caesar expressed concern that a wait of a few more years might cause severe damage to the building.

This is a difficult problem, and it can be discouraging. But there is a lesson for us in the item that started the whole thing: wire rope.

Like all rope, it’s made from thin individual strands wrapped around a core. The lesson is that those strands of wire that would be far too weak individually become strong enough to support the Brooklyn Bridge when joined together.

The same is true of us. Saving Roebling’s workshop would be almost impossible for any one person, but the combination of a community’s effort makes such a goal much more attainable.

Saxonburg’s focus on the history of their community is admirable, and Roebling’s wire rope workshop is an irreplaceable part of that history. Preserving it will take all of us.

For more information or to support the project, contact the Saxonburg Museum at 724-841-5084.

— JK