A Window to a Rescued Past

What’s new with old buildings? Restoration! Oklahoma has plenty of aging buildings, and yet Old Home Rescue stands alone as specialists in repairing wood rot, restoring architectural elements, and rescuing old doors and windows.

“My favorite part of the job is getting to hear stories about the old buildings, as told by the people who live and work in them,” said Morgan Reinart, co-owner of Old Home Rescue. “The stories I hear aren’t written down in history books.”

Morgan admits that his construction career has converted him into a historian. His project resume actually reads like a romp through early Oklahoma history: Will Rogers’ birthplace in 1879, Edmond’s 1889 Territorial Schoolhouse, the State Capital Publishing Museum where President Roosevelt sent a telegram announcing Oklahoma statehood in 1907, and so the stories go.

History of Old Home Rescue

Old Home Rescue began as a window restoration company in 2016. Ty McBride, the founder, grew up around house construction. It was a job in Mesta Park’s historic neighborhood, however, that opened Ty’s eyes to the need for repairing old window sills, rather than forcing new windows into old houses.

Ty shifted focus, honed his craft, and named his company Wood Window Rescue. He brought Morgan on as his business partner. Morgan, who had spent ten years as a firefighter and earned a biology degree, wanted to return to his construction roots. “I grew up doing construction jobs and remodeling. When my parents bought our old house in Okeene, everyone in town expected us to tear it down and start over,” Morgan said. “Instead, we restored it.”

Disaster Becomes Opportunity

Wood Window Rescue began to thrive. Ty was featured on an HGTV pilot show, and the company won a national award for a window restoration project on a house in Edmond’s Fairview Farms. Then, two major events caused Ty and Morgan to rethink their business.

First, they lost a large project. “One night, I saw on the news that St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee was closing unexpectedly,” said Morgan. “That was supposed to be our next big job.”

Second, Covid hit, and all projects shut down. “So, we looked at things differently. We weren’t just window experts anymore. We’d become
experts in many aspects of historic structures, and we were the only ones out there advocating for repair instead
of replacement,” Morgan said. “It’s more cost effective for customers to do small wood-rot repairs than to take on a big unnecessary replacement.”

Old Becomes New

By late March 2020, Ty and Morgan had rebranded their company as Old Home Rescue. Historic property owners began seeking their expertise for the repair, maintenance and restoration of homes, buildings and museums. With communities across America showing interest in saving and revitalizing historic places, the demand has skyrocketed. So, just three years after launching Old Home Rescue, Ty and Morgan are now opening franchises for their wood rot repair company, Preservan, teaching others to preserve homes in a new way.

For Morgan, each day continues to bring new wonder as he explores old buildings. He loves to discover their timelines, repair history, and construction secrets. “I was working on Oak Grove Schoolhouse in Kansas, where Laura Ingalls Wilder hid from Osage Indians. The attic had old school board ledgers where the board voted to stop the boys and girls sitting together at school. There are bullet holes in the school’s front door! Old structures hold so many stories, so restoring them saves our history.”

Visit OldHomeRescue.com to learn more.