After helping save and relocate the 1846 Blodgett House, the hard work is just beginning for the Downers Grove Heritage Preservation Corp.

Once the home is lowered onto the foundation at 831 Maple Ave. Tuesday, the three-phase project will enter the second half of phase one.

Preservation member Charley Smart said exterior fix-ups will soon become a main focus. Those will include putting up similar siding to the home’s, but in brown, and installing period-style windows.

Smart said the entire cost of the project from moving the home to setting up the exhibits is $700,000. So far, the group has raised about $150,000 and funds from the Heritage Concert on Thursday, June 26, will go toward Blodgett House renovations.

“You forget with all the details and fundraising that’s why we’re doing all of this. It does very much personalize the history and heritage of what went on. We’re not just trying to make an old house look nicer,” Smart said. “It’s to be able to express those kinds of feelings and images.”

Smart said the group made contact with one of Avis Blodgett’s relatives and obtained a picture taken in 1874 of Avis and her sons sitting in the front yard of the house. Smart said this photo has provided the group with knowledge of what the home originally looked like and what they aim to reproduce.

“Our point is to restore to the period of significance being 1846 to 1865,” Smart said, adding the home’s basement will be the focus of the interior renovations given its ties with the Underground Railroad.

According to group members, the Blodgett House was documented as being used as a stopover for slaves traveling on the underground railroad.

The historic 1846 Blodgett House was transported from 812 Randall St. across a grassy lot to the Downers Grove Park District Museum campus last week.

Preservation member Kimberly Thompson, also a member of the 1846 Blodgett House on the Move group, said the home will be restored “to a style that it was when the Blodgett’s lived there when they were abolitionists.”

“And getting it ready for the final phase, which will involve exhibits and education and getting the people to see what a wonderful historical legacy the Blodgetts left for us,” she said. “This will be another asset to the children in the local area and nationally because many study the Underground Railroad.”