EASTPORT – In 1999, Hugh French asked architect Ken Schiano whether or not he should buy the hulking brick building in the middle of town. He wanted it to house the Tides Institute and Museum of Art, a historical and cultural resource for the region. Schiano, a longtime Eastport resident who now lives in Bangor, tried to talk him out of it.

The former Eastport Savings Bank building had suffered from years of neglect. There was serious water damage. The walls were bowed out. In 1997, it made Maine Preservation’s endangered building list. But French, an Eastport native, wouldn’t be discouraged. He bought the structure and began to court donors.

Since February, mason Gerry Drake of Dixmont and his crew have worked to dismantle and rebuild the entire north wall of the building. At the end of May, the first phase of the Tides’ massive restoration project will be complete, just in time for summer.

On a recent sunny morning, the building sat in the middle of town like a giant present, waiting to be unwrapped. A plastic tent encased an elaborate scaffolding system, which in turn encased the new facade. It looks just like the old facade, only this one won’t fall apart – unlike its predecessor, the outer wall is tied to the inner wall with steel cables and interlocking brick.

Inside, a layer of fine, red dust covered every surface. A team of men worked rhythmically, dipping their trowels into a wheelbarrow full of reddish-brown mortar and slapping it onto the windowsills.

For Drake, who has restored old buildings for the last 27 years, it was business as usual. He’s used to unpleasant surprises, like the fact that the inner and outer walls of the structure were joined together by thin strips of metal that corroded long ago. He’s used to intricate brickwork. And he’s used to quirks, too, like the Gothic arches in five different sizes. In a stroke of luck, French found the original wooden arch molds in the attic, which is highly unusual. But for Drake and his crew, this project stood out for other reasons.

“The challenge was this building was so close to being condemned,” Drake said.

It has stood in the heart of downtown, relatively unchanged, since 1887. A great fire swept through Eastport in 1886, taking most of the wooden buildings with it. A year later, architect Henry Black came over from Saint John, New Brunswick, with a barge full of Canadian brick and plans to rebuild the town in the Second Empire style. Many of the Victorian buildings remain today, but the Tides was in particularly bad shape.

“I can’t say enough about this kind of work,” Drake said at the nearby Wa-Co Diner, cradling a cup of hot coffee in his red-stained hands. “When you can take something that’s ready for the wrecking ball … when you get into it. … when you have a building that’s going to fall down and you can turn it around and make it a viable part of the community … it’s more fun, more challenging.”

Earle Shettleworth Jr. of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission said the project is unique because of its scale and French’s attention to detail.

“The Tides Institute is doing this in a very careful and accurate manner,” Shettleworth said. “It is more unusual than usual in seeing this level of commitment. Many people do a fine job of renovating historic downtown buildings. … This one stands out because it’s really a combination of a commitment to the building and a broader commitment to the community and the region.”

Next spring, the masonry work will commence to correct the remaining, less pressing problems. A new metal roof and copper gutters will be installed. And the interior restoration will complete the transformation of this former bank into a gallery, archive and work space worthy of the Tides’ historically and artistically significant collection.

“Once the shell of the building is done, there’s still a big design project ahead of us all,” Schiano said. “How do we make this building work as a museum and a community resource?”

For more information about the Tides Institute, visit www.tidesinstitute.org or call Hugh French at 853-4047. Kristen Andresen can be reached at 990-8266 and kandresen@bangordailynews.net.