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Lighpainting of Haldeman House in Bonita Springs.

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Progress is defined as forward or onward movement toward a destination.

For Christian Busk, a 53-year-old landscape architect and preservationist, progress means honoring the past.

Progress is restoring the Haldeman house.

The home, which is named after Walter Haldeman, the owner of the Louisville Courier Journal newspaper in Kentucky, was built in 1886. That was a year after his first visit to the undeveloped part of Florida with friend and senator, Confederate General John S. Williams. The two built vacation homes on the Naples coastline and soon after hired a Fort Myers firm to build the Naples pier.

Since moving from its original location next to the Naples Pier to an 18-foot perch on the banks of Oak Creek in Bonita Springs, the Haldeman house has gone under a major face lift. Busk, who has moved and restored several other historic homes to the same street, focused on keeping the Haldeman home indigenous to its Florida heritage.

“These are like my children.” Busk said about the landmark homes. “I get them like foster kids, and you start taking care of them. You give them a new life.”

New life for the Haldeman house meant reconnecting roofs, combining rooms, tearing up floors and redoing framing.

“We had to put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” Busk said.

But the effort hasn’t come without its setbacks. Before the roofs were attached after the move, rain seeped in through the tarps covering the home. Busk said there was mold inside almost every wall, and two inches of water on the floor. Restoration nearly had to start from scratch.

After a year and a half, Busk and his team of carpenters are still working to write a new chapter in the history of the structure. They’re undoing over 120 years of wear and tear on the Naples beach.

A master carpenter on the project, Terry Schmidt knows the significance of working on such a historic home.

“It was lived in by the family that basically started Naples — or who had a hand in getting Naples off the ground,” Schmidt said. “It is a significant house to the area even though we did move it from Collier County to Lee County.”

Schmidt knows the move was necessary.

“Had we not, it would have ended up in a dumpster. A lot of people these days just don’t appreciate these old structures. That is what makes this area what it is.”

Now Haldeman house is nearly ready to entertain guests again.

“It never looked so good,” Busk said.

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E-mail Greg Kahn at gkahn@naplesnews.com, David Albers at dnalbers@naplesnews.com, Lexey Swall Bobay at ljswall@naplesnews.com and Courtney Potter at capotter@naplesnews.com