One of Coupeville’s most historically significant structures will get some TLC during this year’s Ebey’s Reserve Preservation Field School.

The Thomas Coupe House, built in 1854, will be the focus of a two-week effort to restore windows and siding and to apply a fresh coat of paint.

The school will also focus on clearing access to a historic fruit orchard on the property.

The house is the oldest wood frame structure in Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve and the first known frame house constructed on Whidbey Island, according to Reserve staff.

“There’s been a lot of interest in the Thomas Coupe House,” said Sarah Steen, preservation coordinator for the reserve. “It’s the town founder’s house.

“It’s garnered a lot of interest.”

Capt. Thomas Coupe commanded sailing ships out of New York in the 1840s, coming west to work the “coasting trade” along the Pacific Coast in the early 1850s, according to reserve research. While picking up spars for the building of San Francisco wharves in the first years of the California Gold Rush, Coupe became familiar with Whidbey Island.

Coupe settled here in 1852, claiming 320 acres along Penn Cove, including the land where Coupeville now stands.

Though he promised his wife that he’d give up the sea, Coupe continued to captain lumber schooners through the 1850s, delivering loads from Utsalady sawmill on Camano Island to as far away as Brest, France.

After retiring from coastal shipping, Coupe ran a small ferry and mail service between Coupeville and Port Townsend until his death in 1875.

The Coupe House is a fairly simple saltbox structure, similar in shape and detailing to many in the east coast of the U.S.

According to local historical records, Coupe brought from San Francisco the windows, doors, jambs, wainscoting and redwood lumber used to build the house.

Steen, who is running the field school, said samples of wood from the home will be sent in for testing to determine if the house is, in fact, built using redwood.

The field school runs weekdays Monday, Aug. 3 through Friday, Aug. 14.

There will be two shifts each day, 8 a.m. to noon and 1-5 p.m.

Volunteers can sign up for as many shifts as they’d like, Steen said.

Participants in the school will work alongside National Park Service employees to learn window restoration skills and other preservation skills.

Owners of the home, Margaret Hedgecock and Betty Whitaker, are paying for the repairs with the help of a matching grant using Ebey’s Forever Funds.

The couple purchased the home in 1988 with Hedgecock’s mother Dorothea Hedgecock, who lived in the house until her death.

This week the couple tested paint samples to determine what color to paint the home.

While scraping paint from the structure, they said they learned one of the early paint colors was a grey and the pair was leaning toward that option.

There will be two Brown Bag Lunch Lectures during the school.

On Thursday, Aug. 6 Island County Museum Director Rick Castellano will discuss the shifting physical and social landscape on Front Street.

Now located on NE Ninth Street, the Thomas Coupe House used to be located on Front Street.

Years of erosion caused that portion of the road to disappear and it was diverted to its current location.

On Friday, Aug. 14 Laurie Thompson, a historic orchardist from the National Park Service, will explore the rich history of the Reserve’s orchards, using the historic Coupe orchard as a model.

The field school was established in 2008 to provide technical support to owners of the Reserve’s historic buildings and to give community members an opportunity to help preserve nationally significant buildings for future generations.

Led by National Park Service preservation carpenters, this small hands-on program attracts a diverse group of volunteers — historians and handymen — all interested in preserving buildings that contribute to the historic landscape of Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve.

To sign up, call 360-678-6084 or email sarah_steen@partner.nps.gov Steen said participants can also show up at the job site during the week. Volunteers are asked to park at the boat launch by the water treatment plant.