LPA Announces Spring Preservation in Progress Awards

For our spring Preservation in Progress awards, LPA recognizes a mixed-use rehabilitation project in North Lawrence, an urban barn rehabilitation near the river in Pinckney and a whole-house rehabilitation in Old West Lawrence.

401 Elm Street

A key commercial corner property in North Lawrence is benefiting from a rehabilitation project begun early this year. 401 Elm, a stucco-clad 25x50-foot two-story structure with snazzy decorative window drip caps and masonry corbeling along the front-facing roofline, was built around 1870 as a broom factory. From 1920 until 1960 it was Wiley’s Grocery, then became shop space for several service industries before finally, in the past few years, facing an uncertain future. 

As the building’s use changed over time, owners didn’t destroy what they had already built; they simply reinforced what was already there and added on so that the structure retained its character. By the mid-1900s, the second floor had been converted to residential use, and a one-story shop extension added on the north side.

This mixed-use project, led by some of the same folks who received a February 2019 PIP for another mixed-use project at 1101 Massachusetts Street, will offer an open-floor commercial space at street level, with renovated residential space upstairs. 

The project has provided welcome winter work for Lawrence tradespeople. An extensively damaged roof was replaced and the living spaces have been updated for energy efficiency and increased natural light. Numerous previous repairs and alterations that did not meet today’s building codes were systematically and painstakingly addressed. 

While maintaining the longtime building footprint, massing, facade and materials, the structure will also retain its commercial/residential use in this traditionally working-class area. Close to other similar historic properties a block north, 401 Elm can now continue as a strong contributor to the neighborhood. LPA salutes all who are combining their talents to preserve this historic piece of North Lawrence’s past.

424 Indiana Street

A turn-of-the-century urban barn within easy walking distance of City Hall has a new lease on life thanks to a local couple who have experience with previous building rescues. The barn sits just behind an old farmhouse at 424 Indiana, purchased in December 2019 by Summer and Nate Wedermyer. It is one of four contiguous long-vacant properties there, and the most historic. The house at 432 Indiana is to be demolished by its new owner, and the outcomes for 420 and 418 Indiana are unsettled at this time. Summer and Nate were able to purchase 424 from longtime owner Marguerite Risley after assuring her that they would save the house. 

As they evaluated the property, saving the barn was not such an obvious choice. There was a gaping hole in the roof, the bottom sill plate and lower ends of the wall studs were toast, and a decision the Risleys had made in the mid-70s to bump out a lean-to addition on the west wall to accommodate a vehicle had severely compromised the building’s load-bearing capacity. The Wedermyers considered removing the damaged north end and rehabbing the rest, but after spending time removing debris and understanding the issues, they decided they could rehab the whole building, minus the lean-to.

The new roof and wall framing is now complete, and they are awaiting installation of a galvanized metal roof similar to those used on shop buildings back in the day. At floor level, getting to the damaged framing members involved removing several layers of flooring, including a concrete layer installed over a wooden layer. Once that removal was done, they poured a new concrete floor and installed a new bottom sill plate. They were able to jack up the slumping frame to straighten it (some parts of the structure were as much as 5-6 inches out of level), and cripple new studs to the existing balloon frame structure to complete the repair.

When work on the barn is complete, it will be used as shop and storage space as work shifts to the house, which is in horrible shape inside. Once the entire project is completed, the barn will be used as professional shop space and storage.

Saving the structures of this old farmstead (there is one more small utility structure on the property with a unique story to tell), will be an amazing accomplishment and a great benefit to the historic integrity of the neighborhood. This will be the second PIP award given to Summer and Nate (646 Rhode Island in March 2013), and the first barn rehab ever to receive a PIP.

637 Indiana Street

J-D and Molly Boyle are no strangers to big projects. Having renovated homes in Mission Hills and Fairway, they set their sights on Lawrence to be closer to family and to raise their three children, Ainsley, Everett and Thayer. They landed at the home at 637 Indiana Street, a contributing property to the Old West Lawrence Historic District, seeking to transform a longstanding duplex back to single-family use.

Built in 1908, the two-story Colonial Revival home features a gambrel with cross gable roof and plenty of historic charm. The home originally was constructed by the Wilder Brothers, who owned 643 Indiana (J.F. Wilder House) next door, as a home for their father, Frank Wilder. The Wilders were proprietors of the historic Wilder Brothers Shirt Factory, located at 612 New Hampshire Street (later the Reuter Organ factory). The house was converted into a duplex rental around 1960, with the addition of back entrances and another internal staircase, and had retained that legal non-conforming use prior to the Boyles’ purchase.

The Boyles opted to pursue a historic rehabilitation of the original home, relocating the internal stairwell to a location consistent with historic floor plans for the house type. Working with the local Historic Resource Commission and the Kansas State Historical Society as a state tax credit project, the Boyles began the process of peeling back several decades of deferred maintenance and rental-use related improvements.  

Local contractor Chris Cabanas of Form and Function Home Remodeling was an ideal fit for the general contractor role. Under his stewardship, the construction team has restored more than 20 original counterweighted windows, uncovered and refinished original wood floors, and balanced the house with additional structural bracing throughout. Perhaps most importantly, the project restores the single-family use and floorplan.

This preservation achievement is hard to overstate. Congratulations to the Boyle family on breathing life back into a key contributing property in Old West Lawrence.

City Adds Information Kiosks to Historic Grover Barn

The City of Lawrence has added four outdoor information kiosks to historic Grover Barn, off Lawrence Avenue near Clinton Parkway, to help visitors understand the structure’s deep connection to the Underground Railroad and John Brown. The kiosk project, spearheaded by the Guardians of Grover Barn, was funded by a $7,300 grant from the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Commission.

Grover Barn has been designated as an official Underground Railroad site by the United States Department of the Interior. In January 1859, John Brown and a group of local abolitionists brought a group of escaping slaves from Missouri through Lawrence en route to freedom in Canada. The group spent at least one night in this stone barn on the farm of Joel and Emily Grover.

The City Commission approved a consent agenda item on March 16 to authorize the city’s planning staff to prepare and submit a nomination of the property to the Register of Historic Kansas Places.

Tonganoxie Community Historical Society Hosts Workshops on Windows

The Tonganoxie Community Historical Society is hosting two two-day workshops, Feb. 25 and 27 and March 11 and 13, to teach community members how to restore the windows in the organizations 1918 Reno Methodist Church building. The church, built in 1918, holds a rich history of Sunday service, marriages, death, ice cream socials and watermelon feeds. In 1993, to save the church from being torn down, the conjuration sold the building to the Tonganoxie Community Historical Society and paid to have it moved to Tonganoxie from Reno in 1994.

The windows are very simple stained glass, operated with ropes and weights. Volunteers will learn how to remove a window, restore the interior finish, replace any cracked or broken glass, remove and replace the exterior glazing and scrape, sand and repaint the exterior of the window. The windows will then be replaced in the building. The plan is for each volunteer to complete one window, under the supervision and instruction of John Wood, WoodWorks Restoration, Denton, KS.

There is no charge for this program. Volunteers should bring their own lunches on Thursday; lunch will be provided on Saturday. Work on the windows will be done in the Community Historical Society’s heated barn, 201 West Washington St. in Tonganoxie. The barn is large enough for six work stations to be adequately social distanced, but masks will be required.

For more information, or to register for the workshops, contact 913-845-2960 or email TCHSTonganoxie@gmail.com.

LPA Announces Winter 2021 PIP Awards

Happy New Year! In this installment of our Preservation in Progress awards, LPA recognizes a whole-house rehab in the Pinckney neighborhood, a brick sidewalk project in Old West Lawrence and a major rehab of a previously unoccupied second-story space downtown on Massachusetts Street.

705 W. 4th Street

Shortly after rehabilitating 401 Mississippi Street (a 2014 PIP Award winner) in the historic Pinckney Neighborhood, Jeff Jackson set his sights on the 1920 bungalow next door. He purchased the home at 705 W. 4th Street in 2020, after it had sat vacant for 17 years, and exactly 100 years after it was built. All utilities had been shut off years before. There were no gutters. An infestation of mold had blossomed in the basement and many a raccoon, bird, and flea had enjoyed the space over the years. The house was pretty much trashed.

It was a welcome challenge. Over a period of 10 months and with a crew of three workers, Jeff painstakingly balanced the preservation of many of the home’s original features with the realities of bringing the house up to code and making it fresh and ready for new residents. The original siding was restored, the stone foundation was repointed and the original windows were repaired and reglazed. Interior work included the repair of original plaster, the refinishing of the original pine flooring and the repair and refinishing of all original wood trim.

Of course, every historic rehab comes with peculiarities. The south upstairs bedroom featured a door opening onto a 25-foot drop to the ground. Jeff thought this was a very interesting detail, so he decided to refinish and prominently display the door to nowhere! Silliness aside, the rehabilitation of 705 W. 4th is a great example of residential preservation carried out by a Lawrencian with an interest in the well-being of the city’s historic neighborhoods. LPA applauds Jeff’s hard work and dedication.

735 W. 8th Street

One thing LPA loves is a well-maintained historic sidewalk. In fact, in our summer 2019 PIPs, we admired the repair of a bluestone walk at 643 Indiana Street. Now this beautiful brick sidewalk project on 8th Street, a few blocks west of Tennessee, has caught our attention as well.

Betsi Anderson, the owner of this rental property, has worked to maintain this little beauty for years. Last spring she realized that the long stretch of brick sidewalk out front needed an overhaul. She asked a crew she has worked with before to remove and re-lay the existing brick walk this past fall.

The two-person crew, who had experience working on other brick sidewalks, pulled up the existing bricks, reworked the base and smoothed it with additional sand, reset the soldier (border) bricks and then placed the old bricks back in a tight pattern. The work took about four days. As is typical in a project like this, there weren’t enough old bricks to finish the job. But the city was able to supply the additional bricks from the public works yard.

Although the work wasn’t cheap, Betsi says it cost far less than pouring a new concrete sidewalk. And staying with brick is in keeping with the historic feel of the neighborhood. “It’s the little things that are important,” Betsi says. “Maintenance and caring for property are important to the community.”

1021-23 Massachusetts Street

Like many buildings in Lawrence’s Downtown Commercial Historic District, 1021-23 Massachusetts Street was originally built in the late 1800s. The two-story building has been occupied by many businesses over the years, including Aladdin Café, which is on the first floor of 1021. Recently, Mohammed Iskandrani, the owner of Aladdin, purchased the building, and the first item on his list of improvements was to rehabilitate the long-vacant second-floor office space.

The rehabilitation efforts, led by Landon Harness of Form and Function, featured the preservation of several historic elements. The full-sized casement windows on the front and sides of the building have been rebuilt and restored to full function. Interior doors, windows and trim were preserved in their entirety, as was a unique wood panel ceiling. Harness was able to reestablish multiple skylight openings throughout the second floor and replace plumbing, electrical and mechanical systems.

When LPA visited the site recently, we noticed that about half of the spaces are already leased and alive with activity. LPA congratulates Mohammed Iskandrani and Landon Harness for their efforts to preserve a noteworthy commercial property in the downtown historic district.

The St. Luke AME Windows Are Coming Back to Life!

The restoration of the two large stained-glass gable windows for St. Luke AME Church is well underway at Hoefer's Custom Stained Glass in Hutchinson, and they look beautiful! We can't wait to see the final result in a few weeks.

But there's still so much more work to be done on this Lawrence landmark. Brick repair on two of the church's walls will begin soon, and we're still trying to raise money for restoration of the church's towers and one remaining gable.

LPA members and the community have donated more than $35,000 to date in our effort to help. Please be a St. Luke AME Friend! All LPA membership donations for the rest of the year are going to support this important community project. In addition, 25% of proceeds from the purchase of English muffins and sourdough sandwich loaves at the Cellar Door Café, 7 W. 11th Street, during November will go to the St. Luke restoration project.

Please click here to find out more and add your support:

Work Begins at St. Luke AME Church

Your tremendous support of St. Luke AME Church is already having a visible effect: Hoefer's Custom Stained Glass has removed the glass from the church's two large gable windows for restoration at their Hutchinson shop. We can't wait to see what those windows look like when they're restored to their former glory.

Brick repair on those two walls will start in a few weeks. Restoration of the church's towers and one remaining gable remain unfunded, though LPA members have donated more than $35,000 to date in our effort to help. Please be a St. Luke AME Friend! All LPA membership donations for the rest of the year are going to support this important community project. Please click here to add your support. Thanks!

Shop at The Raven — Support St. Luke AME Church!

Get a jump start on holiday shopping and contribute to the preservation of our historic city AT THE SAME TIME this October 22nd and 23rd! LPA is proud to partner with The Raven Book Store to host a fundraiser in support of the St. Luke AME Church building at 9th and New York. Constructed in 1910, St. Luke AME Church has served as a community hub for Lawrence’s ethnically diverse community for over a century, but it is in need of restoration and repair. When you shop online at The Raven on October 22nd and 23rd, 5% of your purchase price goes to ensure that this architectural landmark is restored for generations to come. So get shopping! And learn more about ongoing efforts to save this historic building here.

The 'Friendly Church on the Corner' Needs Your Help

The church’s beautiful stained-glass windows are in dire need of restoration.

For more than a century, St. Luke AME has been a leader in the cause of social justice within and beyond our city’s African-American community. Celebrated writer Langston Hughes worshipped there, along with many members of our Black community, and it’s listed on the National, State and Lawrence Registers of Historic Places.

But today, St. Luke AME, built in 1910 at 9th and New York streets, needs your help. Many of its red brick walls and original windows are in disrepair. A first phase of rehab was completed 10 years ago. Now it’s time to make exterior repairs and to complete an accessibility project begun last year. 

Two major grants have ensured that the church’s two large stained glass windows, and the walls in which they sit, will be restored this fall. The congregation is working to fund completion of the accessibility project. But there is still more work to be done.

 Lawrence Preservation Alliance is leading an effort to gather community help to contribute toward work on other exterior walls and windows in critical need of repair. To start, LPA is donating all membership funds we receive through the end of 2020 to the rehab effort at St. Luke AME. 

Please be a St. Luke AME Friend. Click here to sign up for membership. Or send your check to Lawrence Preservation Alliance, PO Box 1073, Lawrence, KS, 66044. All donors who are not current members will receive a free one-year membership in LPA. 

The church’s exterior brickwork is overdue for repair.

Thanks to a generous matching grant provided by Jeff and Mary Weinberg, the first $10,000 in gifts will be matched.. One hundred percent of your donation will go to the St. Luke AME Second Century Fund at the Douglas County Community Foundation. 

In addition, LPA is proud to partner with The Raven Book Store to host a fundraiser in support of the St. Luke AME Church building. When you shop online at The Raven on October 22nd and 23rd, 5% of your purchase price goes to ensure that this architectural landmark is restored for generations to come. So get shopping!

 St. Luke AME has served our Lawrence community for more than a century. Now is the time for this community to return that support. IT’S UP TO US. 

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.

For Sale: Historic Lawrence Turnhalle

LPA’s longrunning effort to preserve and revive the historic Turnalle building (built in 1869) at the corner of 9th and Rhode Island streets has taken another turn: The current owner, Flint Hills Holding Group LLC, has decided to offer the building for sale. Considering the current economy and the scope of the challenge that rehabilitiating the Turnhalle presents, it seems best for the building to have a new owner.

LPA supports the sale and is confident that the Turnhalle will be protected. Turnhalle is listed on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places as a contributing property in the North Rhode Island Historic District. LPA also listed Turnhalle as a Landmark on the Lawrence Register of Historic Places while we owned it from 2012 to 2014.

Even more important, LPA has a Historic Preservation Covenant for Turnhalle. That “Running With The Land” covenant gives LPA rights in perpetuity to ensure the preservation of Turnhalle. LPA must be consulted and provide our approval for any project that impacts the character-defining features listed in the Historic Structure Report that was done for the LPA shortly after our purchase of the building. These rights remain in force for all future owners of Turnhalle. The Kansas Historical Society website has copies of the Historic Structure Report and the Historic Preservation Covenant.

LPA also owns the parking lot directly across E. Ninth Street from the Turnhalle, which we purchased to leverage rehabilitation of Turnhalle. Any major project at Turnhalle will require parking.

We hope that the right buyer will now come forward and invest in this important Lawrence landmark. Once again, we’d like to thank all our members and donors who joined with LPA to make our work on Turnhalle possible. More information on the history of the building and the work we completed can be found here.

Download a copy of the Turnhalle sales flyer (PDF).

Photo on left courtesy of The Kansas State Historical Society; photo at right courtesy of Watkins Community Museum of History as printed in "Lawrence:: Survivors of Quantrill's Raid" by Katie Armitage.