Bedford residents continue the makeover process of a building central to the town’s history so it doesn’t become just that – history.

Volunteers recently added a tarp to the roof of the Stevens- Buswell School to assure that damage doesn’t continue while Historical Society members work toward their goal of raising $25,000 for initial renovations.

The site that formerly housed the Marconi Museum had a leaky roof, mold and asbestos, and within four days volunteers raised about $10,000 toward the project. The tarp on the roof will help preserve it until the remainder of the money is donated.

Historical Society member Greg Zimmerman said it is rewarding to see the number of volunteers who have backed the cause.

“It’s wonderful to see how many people have come out to support the building,” said Zimmerman. “We’ve had support from many different groups from the veterans and the VFW to local people.”

Originally, the building was built as the first two-room schoolhouse in Bedford, and the town recently gave the Historical Society permission to attempt to work toward finding a new use for it.

“We want to help stabilize the building so it can be used by the town or another group so it won’t be demolished or something similar,” said Zimmerman. “It’s important to help the old buildings because it helps us remember the history of Bedford and keep a feel for what we had in the past. It’s important to keep the old things, and the new things.”

The Marconi Museum formerly housed artifacts from Guglielmo Marconi’s past in the history of radio communications, but the radio equipment that had been in the building has since been auctioned off or given away.

Previously, the building has had a variety of uses in Bedford.

“It’s the last schoolhouse of that era that the town currently owns,” said Zimmerman.

“It was a town office building, a police department, a district court and other things, so it has a lot of history and importance through the years.”

Participating at Stevens- Buswell School tarping of the roof on Aug. 15 were Laurie Gott, Tim Guillemette, Eric Erickson, Andy, Becky and Ann Noyes, Skip Evans, John Bostwick Jr., Dana Boisclair, Derek Young, Laura O’Donnell and Bill VanAnglen; Town Councilors Mike Izbicki, Paul Roy and Bill Dermody; town moderator Ryk Bullock; and Stevens-Buswell sub-committee members Joan Shaw Reeves, Shirley Steele, Priscilla Currie, Greg Zimmermann, John Bostwick Sr. and Ellen Bostwick.