LPA Announces Spring 2022 Preservation in Progress Awards

For our Spring 2022 Preservation in Progress Awards, LPA recognizes two whole-house rehabilitations and the rehabilitation of a historic downtown performance stage.

843 New York Street

Photo credit: Beth Ham

The home at 843 New York Street, built in 1892 with a porch and back addition constructed in 1920, is enjoying new life after spending the past 40-plus years as a rental property with minimal updates. Free State Properties Inc.—owned by long-time Lawrence contractor Mike Randolph, who has purchased and renovated more than 120 homes throughout Lawrence since 2001—bought this house in 2021, knowing it needed the type of work the company could provide. 

Photo credit: Mike Randolph

Mike’s team installed all-new electrical, plumbing, insulation and zoned heating and cooling systems, while keeping nearly all the original plaster intact. There also were plenty of opportunities to preserve original elements, including almost all the original hardwood floors, trim, stained glass, doors, windows and hardware. Mike was pleasantly surprised that almost all of the original trim had never been painted, noting how rare that is for a structure of this age, especially since it had been a rental property for so long.

Photo credit: Beth Ham

The original finishes of the woodwork, flooring, brass-stamped doorknobs, hinges, and window sash locks were restored. Although the front and side doors had been badly damaged over the years, Mike’s team was able to rebuild and restore them to their original beauty, incorporating vintage doorknobs and the original twist doorknob, as well as gilded house numbers in the transom window above the front door. Some modern updates were made to the kitchen and bathrooms, but even those rooms retained some historical elements, such as subway tile and hexagonal floor tile.

Mike was able to salvage the original exterior siding and trim, including the fish-scale shake singles on the front gable, the gingerbread trim on the side porch, and the unique fleur de lis molding on the front gable. 

New owner Chris couldn’t be happier. “We really wanted an older home with character,” he says, “and we won the lottery with the way Mike expertly updated with modern elements while maintaining its historic personality.”

Liberty Hall Stage, 642 Massachusetts Street

You can't have a performance facility without a stage—and it’s one of the most difficult elements to repair, because it’s always in use. General Manager Dean Eddington and Liberty Hall owner Susan Millstein had been monitoring areas of the stage floor that were showing damage and gradually getting worse. And much like working on an old porch floor, the damaged flooring was a symptom of other  repairs needed to the framing underneath, which in some areas were a failing patchwork of support systems. It was time for a comprehensive project to address these issues.

The existing floor was installed during a rehabilitation project in 1985-86, when Millstein, in partnership with her husband David and Charlie and Tensie Oldfather, purchased the historic Bowersock Opera House and brought it back from the dead. That stage floor spanned multiple areas, including part of a previously discovered orchestra pit and a portion of a massive concrete basement ceiling.

The Flaming Lips were just one of the many performers to leave their mark on the stage floor.

As part of the new project, which qualifies for state historic tax credits, the floor was disassembled in sections, the support systems were stabilized and leveled, a new subfloor was installed, and new flooring that matched the size and finish of existing materials was integrated with undamaged existing flooring. With the help of Chris Miller, Skip Shears and Anthony Dale, the project was completed during a small scheduling window between events. The stage floor is now back in use and supporting entertainment for all members of our community.

The finished floor is performance-ready.

Susan and David received a Preservation Achievement Award from Lawrence Preservation Alliance in 2015, in part for saving the theatre, which had failed financially and was directly in the crosshairs of large-scale redevelopment proposals. The current Beaux-Arts style building, constructed by J.D. Bowersockafter fire destroyed the previous theatre in 1911, was designed to be fireproof --and succeeded to the point that during World War II it was certified by the U.S. Government as able to withstand bombing. But it took the combined efforts of the Millsteins and Oldfathers—who brought back the name Liberty Hall, which was the name of the building Bowersock had purchased in 1882—for it to also withstand urban renewal. Thanks, Susan Millstein, for continuing to cherish and protect this iconic landmark structure in our historic downtown.

601 Louisiana Street

For the past two years, this grand old home has been recognizable as much for the blue city dumpster in the parking cutout on 6th Street as for the neoclassical full-height circular porch columns in front. That is about to change, however, as a herculean effort led by new owner Amy Lee is heading into the finishing stages of painting and floor finishes.

Built in 1914 for Otto B. Guffler, the house was better known as the longtime home of Larry Martin, curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the KU Natural History Museum and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. After he died in 2013, his wife Jean continued ownership. Amy purchased the home in 2020 at a price reflective of Jean’s appreciation of the large scope of work the home would need going forward.

A law school graduate of the University of Kansas in 1987, Amy has lived in historic homes in the Old West Lawrence neighborhood and partnered in other fixer-upper purchases of houses for rental use. Now employed by the investment advisory firm Guggenheim Investments, she enjoys exercising her entrepreneurial spirit, sense of independence and creative problem-solving side through her efforts to purchase and rehab properties. And she loves the experience of living in an older home with architectural detailing and personality. “It’s like living in a piece of art” she says.

When she first set foot in 601 Louisiana, she saw past all the work that needed to be done to find a solid structure with good bones, and she was excited by the potential of the dynamic front entry. But there was so much work needed to reach that potential—hence the dumpster. She hired Kenneth A. Peters, Builder Inc. as general contractor, and slowly but surely the team has made progress in replacing all service and mechanical systems, taking care to disturb as little of the interior walls, ceilings, floors and trim as possible.

The project is using both state and federal tax credits, which will reimburse 45 percent of allowable rehab expenses. When it’s completed later this summer, Amy plans to make the house available as a single-family rental. And stay tuned, LPA members: We may get an opportunity to tour this one before move-in day happens.