Heritage Conservation Council Offers Grants to Help With Structural Barn Assessments

The Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council is offering grants to help underwrite the cost of structural barn assessments. Deadline for the grants is Tuesday, June 15.

The evaluation of a barn structure will be performed by a professional familiar with barn construction and approved by the Kansas Barn Alliance Board of Directors. The evaluation will provide an analysis of the present condition of the structure. The evaluation will itemize repairs needed in order of importance to allow for work to be done in phases.\

Applicants must be an owner of a barn in Douglas County. Barn owners who receive grant awards will also receive a one-year free membership to the Kansas Barn Alliance (KBA).

Applicants must describe the planned use for the repaired barn, the current use and its history back to the original owner and builder, if possible. Photo documentation of interior and exterior of the barn should be included.

The owner should be willing to have farmstead information entered on the Kansas Historical Society’s Kansas Historic Resources Inventory (KHRI), a record of pre-1950 barns and farmsteads and other properties. It is not a listing on either the Kansas Register or National Register of Historic Places. However, the barn or farmstead should have enough integrity to be a potential listing on the National Register of Historic Places whether the owner wishes to pursue it or not.

For more information about the Barn Assessment Grant program, and an application, go to this link.

Amtrak Station Parking Lot Project Uncovers Remnants of Old Santa Fe Freight House

The brick floor and plaza of the old Santa Fe freight station that was uncovered by the recent parking lot project. The Amtrak station is in the distance to the north of the brickwork.

A project to improve parking for Lawrence’s Amtrak station has unearthed a piece of the city’s railroad history. 

While clearing gravel from the lot across from Van Go, just south of the station, contractors for the city recently uncovered a large brick-and-mortar area that appears to be the floor and surrounding plaza of the freight house that stood on that spot in the early and mid-20th century. The brick area is largely intact and is almost the size of a football field. 

Freight houses were used for the loading and unloading of small amounts of freight shipped in by rail. The Lawrence freight house originally was an adjunct to the old Santa Fe depot, a majestic two-story brick building that served as one of Lawrence’s two main railroad stations from the late 1800s through the middle of the 20th century. It was part of a complex of railroad buildings in that area that included machine and repair shops and housing for railroad workers, known as La Yarda. Lawrence was an important waystation for the Santa Fe in the early 1900s.

The brick depot, built in 1883, was undermined in the great flood of 1951, when the Kaw overflowed and the depot had “water up to the window sashes,” according to a story in the Lawrence Daily Journal-World. 

The former Santa Fe freight house is visible on the far left behind the Lawrence depot as it was demolished in 1955. The Amtrak station now stands on the site of the old depot. Photo courtesy of Spencer Research Library

The Santa Fe tore down the depot in 1955, but left the freight house standing. The flood occurred at just about the same time that streamlined diesel locomotives were replacing clanking, smoke-belching steam engines, and it seemed appropriate to replace the old brick depot with a sleek modern station. 

What is now the Amtrak depot opened to great fanfare in 1956, and recently was restored by the city and the citizens group Depot Redux as an example of mid-century architecture. The freight house was still standing when the new station was built, according to old photographs, but was later torn down because the new station had its own facilities for handling local freight 

The city has paused the parking lot project and is considering what to do about the old brick floor, which is about the same size as the adjacent Amtrak station. “Because of the historical aspects of the discovery, plans are being reevaluated to determine if it is feasible to leave the brick in place as the new parking surface,” the city said in a release this week.

LPA applauds the contractor and city staff for taking the proper steps when site work uncovers a historic artifact or resource that had been hidden  and unknown to anyone involved: stop work, determine what it is, and then evaluate if the existing resource can be reused for the planned new use — in this case, a parking lot.

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.