They’re “razing” the roof at the Cracker House.

The group hoping to convert the home into a museum announced the hiring of GDS LLC to remove the badly-damaged roof. The first day of that phase of the project brought with it a “good news, bad news” situation. The weight of the heavy equipment broke open a water pipe on the property. In a social media post, officials said the lead pipes date from 1892.

“The good news is we will get new, non-lead water service run to the property,” according to the Facebook posting.

The group hopes to have the roof removed by the end of the week, and then they’ll sort through the debris.

“We will hopefully have a work session either this weekend or next to sort through the debris, pile the salvageable lumber, pull square nails for souvenirs, and put the rest in the dumpster,” according to the Facebook page of “The Cracker House Project.”

The house, at 914 Main Street, was once the home of Frank L. Sommer, the inventor of the saltine cracker.