VINCENNES, Ind. (AP): A more than 150-year-old house in southwestern Indiana once owned by the founder of the now-defunct Gimbels department store chain is being prepped for a restoration.

The two-story home was purchased last month by Robert J. Ford, a professor of music at Vincennes University. He plans to stabilize the house, which has been vacant for years, before beginning major restoration work on the old Vincennes dwelling.

Ford tells the Vincennes Sun-Commercial that he'll tackle the restoration project “little by little.”

Local historian Richard Day says he's thrilled by the news that the home has a new owner with restoration plans.

The house about 40 miles north of Evansville was once owned by Adam Gimbel, a Bavarian immigrant who founded what eventually became the Gimbel Brothers department store chain.