There's a special place in many movie lovers' hearts, for the Wizard of Oz. We know of the movie's ties to Upstate New York, but did you know there's an effort to restore an old Syracuse mansion and create a museum dedicated to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its author? Author L. Frank Baum met his wife, Maud Gage in the old West Onondaga Street home in the late 1800s, which has now been vacant for years. And as Brad Vivacqua explains, the renovation project is getting help from a familiar face.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Marc Baum holds the same last name as the author of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
"So, I'm asked all the time if I'm related to L. Frank Baum, but the short answer to the question is no," said All Things Oz Historical Foundation member Marc Baum.
There is no relation, but Marc is a man with an interest in the great author's past. He is on the All Things Oz committee based in Chittenango, the location where L. Frank Baum was born in 1856.
That committee recently purchased an old vacant West Onondaga Street mansion in Syracuse built in the mid-1800s for $1 from the land bank.
"It's where Baum met his bride-to-be, Maud Gage, who is the daughter of activist Matilda Joselyn Gage who led the suffrage movement in Central New York," said Marc Baum.
After Baum and Gage married in the middle of the 19th Century they would stay here when the home was occupied by Baum's sister Harriet.
More recently, the house has been vacant for 20 years and used as office space for several years before that.
"We do want it to be a museum. We want it to be a place where we can learn about Frank and Maude and their life, and kind of outside and up to the Wizard of Oz becoming popular," said Marc Baum.
A roughly $300,000 project, which will give this home a complete makeover, is underway.
Much of the work will be done at no charge by community volunteers, while the project will also get help from one person you may be familiar with. Bronson Pinchot, the former actor known as Belky on the show Perfect Strangers, now has another career.
"He restores mansions like this and he's a big Oz fan, so he has signed on to do all the design work free for us. He's been here, he's spent a couple weeks here with us and kind of went through every piece of the house and noticed a lot of things," said Marc Baum.
The goal is to eventually open a community and reading room, which includes exhibits along with office space.
While the architecture and historic features will be preserved, the work will allow history to gain new life.
"Any Oz fan, anybody committed to the preservation to that history as we are, it gives you a feeling that's hard to describe," said Baum.
Although that feeling is hard to describe -- it will be a fulfilling one for sure.
Financial help and volunteers are needed to help the All Things Oz Foundation install a new roof on the home. To learn more about the project and how you can help, just visit www.AllThingsOz.org.