LPA Announces Spring 2025 Preservation in Progress Awards

For LPA’s Spring Preservation in Progress (PIP) Awards, we recognize a full house restoration with an added community benefit, a major old house refresh instigated by storm damage, and a new, full-length, period-specific two-story porch design.

1128 Ohio

Photo Courtesy of Hannah Bolton

Myron Feuerborn and Bill Bell. Photo Courtesy of Hannah Bolton

Hannah Bolton is immersed in a labor of loves that include a collection of family heirloom historic properties, a desire to honor her brother who lost his fight to overcome substance use disorder at age 31, and a determination to provide a significant community benefit in Douglas County.

Photos Courtes of Hannah Bolton

At 1128 Ohio, she is leading a major exterior rehab project that also includes significant interior improvements. Once that project is done, the house one door north at 1126 Ohio will receive similar treatment. Meanwhile, at 1046 New Hampshire (the parsonage house next door to the Old English Lutheran Church), a major interior refresh and new front porch is complete and the house is ready for occupancy. She has formed a non-profit, Cardinal Housing Network Inc. (cardinalhousingks.org) with a mission to provide safe, affordable housing and support services as a component for Douglas County women in various stages of substance-use recovery.

The two Ohio Street properties, owned by DMB Apartments LLC and managed by her grandparents Myron and Mary Feuerborn for years until their deaths in 2020, have been in Hannah’s family for decades. 1128 Ohio is particularly notable: it was built in 1896 for the founder of the Lawrence Public Library, Joseph S. Broughton. The family experienced another tragedy in January 2023 when Sandra Feuerborn, a third owner in the Ohio Street properties, passed unexpectedly. Following her passing, Hannah, her mother Kellee, and Diane (Bill) Bell were wondering if they should sell one of the houses and fix up the other, but when Hannah proposed her idea to use them both to provide safe housing to women in recovery, the ownership group felt it was a unique opportunity to honor their loved ones.

Photo Courtesy of Hannah Bolton

During a site visit with LPA, Hannah and her family learned about historic tax credits, and they hired Pat Watkins and Rosa Billen to document the rehabilitation process to ensure they will receive both state and federal tax credits for qualified expenses at project’s end. Additional grant money for safety features in the project has come from the Douglas County half-cent sales tax for behavioral health.

SCS Construction (Kevin Stultz, principal) is providing most of the labor, with Mike Poindexter serving as project director. The front porch and second floor of 1128 Ohio were damaged beyond repair, and old photos were used to guide their replication. Removal of interior carpet exposed original wood floors that, with some patching here and there, will look beautiful once refinished. The wood windows are being restored by Duncan Brown of Window Restoration Lawrence.

According to Hannah, there are currently five residences in Douglas County for women in the recovery process from substance use, and many who receive mental health and substance-use services in DGCO are forced to live in Topeka.  Now there will be three more housing options, and both Ohio Street houses will accept women with children. In this case, preservation of historic houses is combining with other benefits to provide a positive impact in our community.

  2216 Massachusetts

Photo Courtesy of Tom Harper

A striking two-story full-length front porch construction on this house on the east side of Massachusetts Street is certainly attracting recent attention, but new owners Jad and Kendra Hayes, who moved here from Colorado in June 2020, have actually been working on this 1912 structure for most of that time.

The two-story bungalow was constructed by Oscar D. Moore for Dr. George A. Esterly, a dentist whose office was above the former Round Corner Drugstore (now Basil Leaf restaurant) at 801 Massachusetts St. 

The Hayes have stripped interior painted trim and removed “popcorn” ceilings, carpet, wallpaper and 1970s paneling. They also have repaired plaster walls, refinished the wood floors, updated plumbing and electrical systems and installed a new roof and HVAC system. 

Last year, they decided to focus on the front porch. The original two-story stucco-clad porch had been removed in the 1970s because it had become structurally unsound. Only the brick support braces remained. The Hayes had several old photos of the porch, but weren’t certain that a faithful reproduction of it would be the best approach. They started looking online, both to scout for contractors and to see other front porch structures in older local neighborhoods for ideas. 

They found Nineteenth Century Restoration’s  Facebook page, where they learned Dan Riedemann, the company’s owner, had reconstructed Woody Guthrie’s home in Oklahoma. The home had been dismantled and stored in a barn, and Dan literally put it back together. Jad thought, “I’m a Woody Guthrie fan; that seems like someone I should talk to.” 

Riedemann was able to work with Jad and Kendra to help design and then build a new porch structure that was more to their liking and compatible with the bungalow style of the house. “Dan and his team were amazing,” Jad said, “a very energetic crew, and both Henry and Evan were very respectful. They made sure the design was period specific and matched the rest of the house.” 

We sought the opinion of LPA Emeritus board member Dennis Domer about the new porch design, and he responded with these thoughts:

“The original porch is a bit out of scale in relation to the house, somewhat fortress-like, too bulky for the house and the pillars are too big for the porch it holds. The new clustered pillars are scaled more sympathetically, more welcoming, and present a more open entry to the house. As such, the new porch is more appropriate for a laid-back two-story bungalow behind the porch.”

Jad and Kendra Hayes have done an excellent job stewarding this historic house, and the new porch is an exciting “cherry on top.” While not original, the new design may be more appropriate to the house, and will complement it for many years to come.

  637 Ohio

Jeff and Sammie Messick had a few things already stacked up on their exterior to-do list a few years ago, but when a hailstorm moved through their neighborhood, totaling their roof and exterior paint, they knew it was time for a full refresh program at the house they have lived in since 1977. Jeff, a retired architect who was a principal in the design firm HMA with Walt Hicks and Mark Stogsdill, and who had served for eight years on the Lawrence Historic Resources Commission, began developing a rehab plan appropriate for this circa-1894 property contributing to the Old West Lawrence Historic District.

Sammie Messick holds a new prefinished metal shingle.

The project’s most unique and visible aspect was the metal shingle roof, which may have been original. Their online search led them to a national firm, Berridge Roofing, who they enlisted to fabricate new prefinished shingles. Their search for an experienced installer was much shorter in distance: Tin Benders Sheet Metal, a company owned by Tim Stauch in McLouth, just north of Lawrence, had lots of metal shingle experience, particularly on commercial projects. The complete job included installation of roof decking, on-site fabrication of valleys, ridge caps and downspouts, and a new Yankee gutter system to replace the old one.

Photo Courtesy of Jeff Messick

KB Painting did the exterior painting, and their prep work exposed a number of needed carpentry repairs. Jeff even joined in to repair wood rot on some of the framing members on the screen porch out back. Failing wooden cellar doors were replaced with metal, and a failing front porch also was replaced. Finally, a longstanding drainage issue on the north side of the house was addressed by creating a slight swale, lining it with rubberized roofing material, and covering that with a heavy layer of rounded river rock to slowly percolate water away from the house.

After more than a year of work, the new roof and paint job look great, and the house is in much better overall shape than it was the night the hailstorm hit. Now Jeff and Sammie are left to contemplate damage to their front yard that they had to let go unresolved during all the construction activity. There’s always something!