Summer 2020 Preservation in Progress Award Winners Announced

Our Summer 2020 Preservation in Progress Awards honor the renovation of a home on Rhode Island Street that LPA helped save, the rehabilitation of a mid-century modern home, the restoration of a 156-year-old bell at a downtown church, and a downtown retailer that has reclaimed its building’s past.

904 Rhode Island Street

Built before 1889, this beautiful brick house at 904 Rhode Island helps anchor one of the most historically important corners in Lawrence. Located at East Ninth two blocks from downtown and two blocks from nationally recognized St. Luke AME Church, a passionate local preservationist is making great progress with this award-winning renovation.

The home was most likely built by German–American members of the Turnverein community organization, who also built the Turnhalle next door. It is a contributing property to the North Rhode Island Residential District and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

904 Rhode Island before and after rehabilitation.

After stewardship by the Ernst family for 80 years, the LPA purchased the property to place covenants on architecturally significant features. Angie Blair, who has renovated other historic Lawrence homes, purchased the building in December 2018. Since then, she and her team have poured a love of preservation into every corner of the historically accurate rehabilitation.

Angie decided to save and repair the home’s original plastered walls because, she says, “plaster helps preserve the historic value of the home, and it’s a higher-grade product than commercial sheetrock because it’s stronger.” Angie worked with local plasterer Tom Wheat to remove countless layers of wallpaper and re-plaster every wall. Painting is now in progress. 

The elegant windows were painstakingly disassembled, repaired and reinstalled by Angie’s friend and master craftsman, Carl Arnett, to comply with the home’s architectural convenants. Missing pieces were replaced with sections cut from vintage salvaged wood.

Missing staircase balusters were crafted by Carl to match the originals. Rather than replace the wavy, well-worn stair treads, the team preserved them to tell the story of the passage of time. And the old hardwood floors were solid and plumb after 130 years, so they were simply buffed and finished rather than replaced. 

The team’s thoughtful approach is also evident behind the house. A new utility room was cleverly tucked into the rebuilt and expanded back porch, complete with period fixtures and a doggie door for Angie’s one-year-old Lab mix, Millie. The addition conforms to the historic preservation covenants attached to the house while creating new functionality for today’s lifestyles.

By making wise choices and taking extra care, Angie and the 904 Rhode Island team are stewarding the existing quality materials and construction to make this property a true preservation showplace. The LPA salutes their great effort!

408 Iowa Street

After deciding to move to Lawrence from Seattle, architect Roy Ley bought the house at 408 Iowa Street, sight unseen, while on a road trip in California in 2016. It was in need of much work, but according to Roy, “it reminded me of the house I grew up in and I knew it would feel like home, and it possessed pretty much all of the design characteristics I was looking for.”

The rehabilitation of mid-century modern architecture has its own unique demands, and 408 Iowa is no exception. The house, which was built in 1957, does not have a basement or attic, so replacing plumbing and HVAC that were not to code was a challenge. Replacement of the forced-air HVAC system with a mini-split system required cutting interior surfaces and the strategic placement of new closets and cabinets. Replacing obsolete plumbing was no picnic either. At one point, in the height of summer, Roy was living with a four-foot pile of dirt in the kitchen, no plumbing and no AC for an extended period. Two years were spent living out of boxes, with one “sanctuary room.”

But after nearly four years of hard work, rehabilitation is almost complete and it looks fantastic. The street-facing brick chimney, perhaps the house’s defining feature, was rebuilt using bricks salvaged from planter boxes on site. Roy, an architect at Lawrence’s Hoke Ley: Architecture + Interior Design Studio, hired Jonah Seibel of Seibel Fabrication to design a beautiful chimney shroud/spark arrestor. The home also features unique rows of louvered openings with tilt-in panels for ventilation. These have been restored, including the original casement sash locks, which resemble what you would find on an old-time icebox. The wood breezeway between the carport and house has been restored to match the original design and a new metal roof was installed.

408 Iowa features plenty of arresting mid-century modern details, down to the light trough that runs through the center of the house. But it’s the natural simplicity and grace of the house that is perhaps most striking. It’s tucked away on a seldom-traveled street and nestled beneath a large stand of trees. Roy says it reminds him of a picnic shelter house in a park. LPA applauds Roy’s vision, meticulous attention to detail and dedication to this unique, hidden “shelter house.”

First United Methodist Church, 946 Vermont Street

The congregation at this historic downtown church is in the latter stages of a preservation project that’s been ongoing for more than a year. Some of the more critical tasks have involved dusty, gritty work, but on July 13, the congregation and our town got treated to the cherry on top: placement of the 156-year-old bell in its tower after a complete offsite refurbishment by the Verdin Bell Company in Cincinnati. The church used a $29,000 grant from the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council to complete this special task.

A larger portion of the project has involved refurbishing exterior walls and identifying why some of the limestone blocks in the towers were spalling and even shedding pieces onto the sidewalks below. The cause was traced back to a pointing job in the 1980s in which an incorrect hard mortar was used. Over this past year, workers have removed the incorrect mortar down to a 1.5” depth and replaced it with softer mortar appropriate for use with historic masonry materials.

Other repairs to wood trim and masonry surfaces also have been addressed, and the bell tower received a new Vermont slate roof with stainless steel trim. A number of interior tasks have been part of this project as well. 

The 130-year-old church, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was designed by John G. Haskell on a commission from former KU chancellor James Marvin, who was the church pastor in 1888. The bell is actually 26 years older than the building. It was moved from a previous location when the new church was built.

Facilities Manager Marc Ridenour has kept busy leading the congregation through the development and execution of this comprehensive work plan, and it was a thrill for him to give the bell a practice ring before it went up, and then another once it was secured in place. “I felt joy and satisfaction,” Marc says, “knowing how long the process had taken, and finally getting it back up to where it belonged, ready to ring true for another 156 years.”

Congratulations to Marc, the congregation, the Heritage Conservation Council, and everyone involved in bringing this special part of Lawrence history back to life.

Striped Cow, 805 Massachusetts Street

Lawrence native David Jess has been a downtown retailer since 1993, when he opened Third Planet in the little building on the 9th Street alley long occupied by the Bourgeois Pig. After moving to 846 Massachusetts Street and being a renter all these years, David wanted to own the building that his latest boutique would occupy. His purchase of the old J.C. Penney building at 805 Massachusetts, which was later occupied by the Ben Franklin store and then The Buckle, has been a preservation success as well as a cultural upgrade for downtown.

Rehab work was more about removal of inappropriate interior buildouts than restoration. When David found the one significant indoor feature that hadn’t been compromised beyond repair, the decorative tin ceiling, he and his crew did a masterful job of restoring and featuring what is now one of the focal points of this beautiful commercial space.

The ceiling had been hidden under not one but two drop-ceilings. The obvious one was installed by the corporate owners of The Buckle, who also built new interior walls in an attempt to duplicate the look and feel of their mall stores. The removal of that revealed the Ben Franklin buildout, with materials mostly from the1950s or 60s. Nine dumpsters in all were filled before the new finishes and look of the Striped Cow could be applied.

The storefront received a light touch, preserving the original glazed terra cotta ornamentation that early LPA architectural historians described in their surveys as making it “the only Sullivanesque or Art-Nouveau-influenced building in this region."

How does the space feel now as opposed to before? “It doesn’t seem like the same building,” David says. But he notes that the project was easier than he thought it would be, and he credits the structure’s good bones. This beautiful downtown space is worth a look—masked and distanced of course!—and LPA is pleased to recognize this positive investment in this city’s downtown.