HALLOWELL ― The Dummer House, Hallowell’s oldest still-standing home, could be in for much-needed renovations over the next two years.

The 1792 house once sat on Water Street and faced Hallowell’s bustling downtown, but has since decayed, sitting empty on the corner of Second and Central streets after being moved there in 2018. Paint has peeled off the facade, and furniture and decorations are strewn across the inside of the house, which has been split into two units.

Linda Bean, L.L. Bean’s granddaughter, had owned the building for decades and left the building to Row House, Hallowell’s historical preservation society, when she died last year.

Bean wanted the Dummer House to become a museum, Row House President Larry Davis said. But the organization didn’t want to get into the museum-running business and decided to negotiate with Bean’s estate to preserve the building in its current state — as a duplex.

Row House hopes to then hand the building over to Hitchcock & Co., a Hallowell-based historic restoration contractor, to own and to complete renovations. Hopefully, Row House President Larry Davis said, work on the house can be completed in the next two years.

That work is extensive.

“It’s got three floors, and there’s an attic up there that you could play basketball in,” Davis said. “But they’re going to put a new roof on it, new windows. It’s not insulated, there’s no plumbing, there’s no electricity. It’s a beast.”

Row House recently launched a fundraising campaign to pay legal fees on the property transfer. The organization hopes to provide Hitchcock & Co. a list of conditions for the property.

Most importantly, Davis said, those conditions include a strict two-year timeline for completing work: one year to complete the exterior, and two to complete the interior. The project has already “been a long time coming,” he said.

Hitchcock & Co. did not immediately return a request for comment.

The house, originally built at the intersection of Water and Central streets in 1792, was home to Judge Nathaniel Dummer and his family.

Dummer owned several other buildings downtown, and in addition to serving as a small-claims judge, he operated a post office out of a general store downtown for several years.

“Judge Dummer was one of the real important people in Hallowell history because he was the first postmaster in Hallowell, of the first real civic leaders,” Bob McIntire, chairman of the Historic Hallowell Committee, said.

Much of the credit for the eventual restoration of the building should go to Bean, who bought the property in the 1960s, was a founding member of Row House and advocated for other historic preservation projects in Hallowell, McIntire said.

Bean helped compile a local historic building catalog and developed the city’s historic building ordinance, which the Hallowell Planning Board still uses today.

People interested in donating to the Row House fund can visit its website. In addition to simple donations, the organization is also selling postcards depicting downtown Hallowell.