GORHAM – Buckling under pressure, the University of Southern Maine on Tuesday temporarily halted repairs on a landmark after critics claimed the work spoiled the historical significance of the 193-year-old art gallery building on its Gorham campus.

Repairs to the landmark, built in 1821, began last year. Under the university’s renovation, windows were removed last week from the sides of the building, along with its wooden clapboards. The university plans call for replacing clapboards with vinyl siding. The plan is to store the windows and window sashes.

But, the repair project, costing $320,000, came under fire last week.

“They’ve destroyed the exterior fabric of the building,” Thomas Johnson, chairman of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, said on July 11, when he viewed the scene.

The sides and rear of the building were wrapped in Tyvek sheeting. Some molding pieces and broken clapboards with vintage nails were strewn on the ground near by. Johnson analyzed a strip of broken, milled wood.

“This was cut from virgin forest,” said Johnson, who is also director of the Victoria Mansion in Portland.

Bundles of new replacement materials were stacked behind the art gallery.

Gorham resident Adam Ogden said placing synthetic materials on the landmark is “totally inappropriate.” Ogden raised awareness of the project after seeing the building minus its siding and windows.

“This is a crime,” Ogden said on July 11.

Now, university officials, delaying renovation, want to talk.

Judie O’Malley, university spokeswoman, said the university’s chief financial officer, Dick Campbell, on Tuesday ordered the work suspended pending a meeting next week with interested individuals and groups. That meeting will be held Wednesday, July 23, at 11 a.m., on the Gorham campus.

O’Malley cited misinformation being distributed about the project as the reason for the meeting.

“We’ll get everyone on the same page to let them know we’re not destroying the building,” O’Malley said.

The hullabaloo unrolled as the town readies to celebrate its annual Gorham Founders Festival next week. This year’s celebration marks the 250th anniversary of Gorham’s incorporation as a town in 1764.

“It’s very ironic it’s happening a week and a half before the festival,” said Michael Phinney, chairman of the Town Council.

A former Gorham town house, the art gallery on College Avenue was built in 1821 as a religious meetinghouse before its use evolved as the town’s house for meetings. After the town no longer needed the building, it was transferred to the state in 1961. The university’s forerunner, Gorham State Teachers College, first utilized it as a student chapel before its conversion to an art gallery in 1966.

A plaque on the building says it had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Gorham Town Councilor Bruce Roullard said the art gallery is located in a Gorham historic district on the campus.

The town’s Civil War monument, dedicated in 1866 in a ceremony attended by Maine hero Joshua Chamberlain, is located in front of the art gallery and adds to the historical significance of the site.

Roullard, chairman of the Gorham Historic Preservation Committee who lives in a historic home near the campus, said he has a difficult time understanding how vinyl siding fits into historic preservation.

“Vinyl siding is a problem,” Roullard said.

But, the university defended its decision.

“We are using high-quality vinyl siding with a wood grain that best matches the original siding,” O’Malley said.

O’Malley also said trim will be custom-milled from wood. She said the windows, which are being stored, were not operational and were covered over inside by walls for the gallery. Exterior shutters that, she said, “best match” those once on the building will replace the windows that were removed.

From the street, O’Malley said, the building will look much the same.

“I think were good stewards,” O’Malley said. “It had real structural problems.”

O’Malley said those problems were discovered in August 2013. She said trusses and columns needed work, and a new roof was installed in December.

As work continued last week, siding and windows were taken off. Some window sashes were left leaning against a tree on Friday.

“It’s amazing how this could have occurred,” Roullard said.

The university has faced budget woes in recent years, and O’Malley said the university unsuccessfully tried to secure grants for the project.

“We are not made out of money,” O’Malley said. “It’s as close to historically accurate as we can afford to be.”

O’Malley said that the university’s architect, Timothy Smith of Vermont, contacted the Maine Historic Preservation Commission in September 2013, “and learned that, although the building is on the National Historic Register, it is not on Maine’s inventory of historic buildings, and therefore USM was under no obligation to follow any rules or regulations with regard to the renovation.”

Earle Shettleworth, director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, said on Wednesday there is not a separate state-developed inventory listing. However, there are private preservation groups with listings of endangered Maine buildings. Shettleworth said the university’s architect was invited to submit plans but didn’t.

Shettleworth said the university did not violate any regulations. He said the university is using state funds with no requirement of a review from his office.

“In the past, we’ve had very good cooperation,” Shettleworth said about rapport with the university. “I don’t know what happened in this case.”

O’Malley said the town of Gorham issued a building permit for the project.

“We’re doing due diligence with that building,” she said.

Johnson called removal of the landmark’s exterior covering disturbing.

“This all could have been avoided with one phone call,” Johnson said.

Ogden, who lives in a home in Gorham’s South Street Historic District, contacted the Gorham Historic Preservation Committee about the art gallery.

Town Manager David Cole said historic preservation committee members first heard at their July 10 meeting about work being done by the university on the art gallery. Cole said the committee discussed inviting someone from USM to attend its next meeting to discuss the work.

“The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 14,” Cole said.

Roullard , a university alumnus, is urging the University of Maine System to develop a policy about its historic, state-owned buildings on campuses.

Earlier this week, as the university had planned to forge ahead with the renovation, Ogden scolded the university.

“Their whole attitude has been, public be damned,” Ogden said.

Ogden has requested under the Freedom of Information Act copies of all communications from the university about the project.

The university’s decision to temporarily suspend work on the art gallery followed an email Monday from Roullard to the University of Maine System Chancellor James Page.

“I am requesting intervention by the chancellor’s office and ask that construction be halted until a complete review of the project by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission and Greater Portland Landmarks has taken place,” Roullard wrote.

But, O’Malley said that the chancellor’s office did not stop the project. She said Campbell had made the decision Tuesday morning and made plans for a meeting. It will be held next week on the Gorham campus.

Sen. Jim Boyle, D-Gorham, plans to attend the meeting to address concerns of constituents and Boyle said he has contacted university officials.

“I’m trying to keep the lines of communications open,” Boyle said.

Ogden said the meeting would offer an opportunity for community input.

“It’s a teachable moment,” he said.

Shettleworth lauded the university’s decision to halt the project and to meet with interested parties. Shettleworth said the need now is to determine whether the building is past the point of no return regarding restoration.

“I’m hopeful it can be restored,” Ogden said on Tuesday.

Gorham resident Adam Ogden, above, on Friday checks out clapboards removed from the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery.   A rear view of the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery, at right, as it looked Friday without clapboard siding and window sashes left stacked against a tree. The landmark was built in 1821 and is undergoing renovation. A view of the art gallery as seen from College Avenue.Thomas Johnson, chairman of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, left, and Gorham resident Adam Ogden on Friday discuss the University of Southern Maine’s renovation of the historic art gallery on the Gorham campus. “They’ve destroyed the exterior fabric of the building,” Johnson said.