caption, page 2:

 

Finished

Members of O.K.C. Painting stand in front of the repainted Boxcar Museum in Putnam. Left to right: Mike Shong, owner Obie Hewitt, Marshall Lambert,  and Matthew Shong. Linda Lemmon photo.

 

Boxcar

museum's

fresh face

By Linda Lemmon

Town Crier Editor

PUTNAM — As it was for the Alden children in The Boxcar Children book series, good things happen by happenstance.

In the Boxcar series, written by Putnam native Gertrude Chandler Warner, the right people appeared and help.

And so it is with the Boxcar museum, on the railroad tracks adjacent to Union Square.

The museum, housed in an old boxcar, was in need of some TLC. 

Obie Hewitt of O.K.C. Painting, who worked with one of the museum’s supporters, offered to paint the boxcar museum. He asked Sherwin Williams in Putnam to donate the paint and the caulk needed for the project. Sherwin Williams donated caulk and 5 gallons of an antique red paint. 

June 30 O.K.C. Painting started at 6:30 a.m. and to maintain the antique feel of the boxcar, used clear caulking first and then followed with two coats of the antique red paint. 

“It’d been quite a while since any painting had been done,” Hewitt said.

In addition, Hewitt’s company offered to install the new air conditioner in the museum.

Not only did the company paint the boxcar and install the AC, they also painted the sign post for the museum and painted the picket fence at the entrance to the museum. 

Hewitt said they fixed a few of the pickets and he then asked a friend to reproduce a picket.