Norwich ― It is often said of historic homes, “If only the walls could talk.”

The walls didn’t talk at the shuttered 1675 Leffingwell House Museum Sunday morning, Feb. 5, but the recently installed emergency water sensor rang out. A second-story bathroom pipe above the first-floor kitchen had frozen and burst Saturday, Feb. 4, when temperatures fell below zero degrees that weekend.

As temperatures warmed and the ice in the pipe melted that Sunday morning, water shot from the pipe, cascaded down the wall to the kitchen floor and seeped down the basement walls.

“Fortunately, we have a water sensor,” Greg Farlow, vice president of the Society of the Founders of Norwich, which owns and operates the museum. “We just put it in eight months ago. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have known for a month.”

Society President Dayne Rugh got the water alert and went immediately to the museum. He opened the door and could hear water spraying from the burst pipe.

“It could have been much worse,” Rugh said. “We didn’t have any damage to any artifacts or historical items. We just had to clean up a lot of water.”

The museum is closed for the winter but was scheduled to reopen for an April 2 afternoon tea event. Society Treasurer and program director Cam Fowler canceled the event, but still hopes to reopen at least partially for the season April 22, even if the museum must rent portable toilets if water is not yet restored.

The Fowlers kept their docent skills sharp last week, giving impromptu tours to insurance adjusters and contractors arriving to inspect the damage and provide estimates.

The water that weekend was an inch or more deep on the asbestos tile basement floor. The historic wooden walls were stained but can be scraped and painted, said Rob Ladd, a society member and member of the Yantic volunteer fire department, which helped the society remove the water using wet vacuum cleaners.

Servpro Cleaning Service was hired to dry out the kitchen and basement.

“And of course, with historical buildings, when you discover one problem, you discover other problems,” Rugh said.

The plumber advised the group to test for asbestos in the pipe insulation, which it has. The asbestos tile basement floor, installed in the 1960s, must be removed using state environmental regulations. The centuries old wide-board wooden kitchen floor is not damaged.

The basement also houses a collection of antique farm and trade tools hanging on walls and on wooden workbenches. A large weaving loom and a giant wooden chest that belonged to Revolutionary War surgeon, Dr. Philip Turner stand on the floor.

Glass cases hold a collection of historic firearms manufactured in Norwich, and tall wall cases display antique dishware, dolls, dollhouse furniture and board games. Framed original letters, money, maps, drawings and photos hang on the walls.

Ladd said plastic sheaths with paper write-ups on the displays that hang on the walls where water streamed down were full of water.

“We lost things that are replaceable,” Rugh said, “old frames, cardboard boxes of non-artifacts materials.”

Rugh said there is no overall cost estimate yet, but insurance will cover much of the cost. The museum has a $2,500 deductible, Treasurer Cam Fowler said, and there will be other costs.

The society is not planning fundraisers to help pay for the repairs, but it is accepting donations to cover the insurance deductible and other costs not covered by insurance. Donations through PayPal can be made at the website, www.leffingwellhousemuseum.org. Checks can be made out to Society of the Founders of Norwich and sent to Society of the Founders, 71 E. Town St., Norwich, CT 06360.

Mostly now, the society is grappling with logistics. The group needs a moving and storage company that specializes in historic items to clear out the basement for the asbestos floor removal. The corner of the modern kitchen ceiling plaster, dating to about the 1950s, must be removed to get at the damaged pipe.

Society leaders hope to line up contractors and begin work soon so the museum can open fully for the season on April 22.

Greg Fowler hopes the workers uncover a hidden more historic and interesting ceiling structure above the plaster.

Cam Fowler noted that it was the modern renovations that suffered the most damage in the pipe burst.

“The first part of this house is post-and-beam, solid as a rock,” Cam Fowler said. “The first addition is the same.”

c.bessette@theday.com