Mar Lan/Zimmerman Steel Building, 701 E. 19th Street

The Zimmerman Steel Building is looking great under new Mar Lan ownership. (All photos courtesy of Hernly Associates.)

The old Zimmerman Steel Building, a much-loved local midcentury-modern commercial structure that sits just east of the Burroughs Creek Trail at 701 E. 19th Street, is looking mighty fine these days. And there’s a good reason why: its new owner/occupant is cut from the same fabric as Lee Zimmerman himself, who acted as his own general contractor to build the structure circa 1960 to house his  company. Now this iconic structure is owned by Mar Lan Construction, a commercial general contracting, design-build and construction management firm, and just as Zimmerman built it, Mar Lan has now rehabilitated it.

The folded-plate steel frame of the office, designed by Lee Zimmerman.

In 53 years of business at the 19th Street location, Zimmerman Steel fabricated and sold structural steel and architectural metal components for many prominent buildings in Lawrence, on the KU campus, and throughout northeast Kansas. Many of the mid-century modern buildings in Lawrence were built with metal pieces purchased at Zimmerman Steel.  

The Zimmerman Steel Building was built in two phases as Lee Zimmerman moved his operation from 1832 Massachusetts in the mid-20th century. The shop space came first, in 1959, and Zimmerman designed and fabricated the steel frame himself. In 1963, Zimmerman added office space to the north that was designed in the mid-century modern style by the architectural firm Robertson & Ericson. Zimmerman enjoyed this modern style, as he had built his family home at 200 Nebraska — now listed with LPA help on the Lawrence Register of Historic Places — in the same style in 1955.

The front of the office building.

The current occupant of the building, Mar Lan, was founded in Lawrence in 1999 by Gale Lantis, Brian Lantis and Kevin Markley (James Allen was added later as a fourth partner), each a principal in the company. When Mar Lan began looking for centralized space, it had an office at 1008 New Hampshire and storage and shop spaces in two other locations.

“We wanted something unique and different,” Markley says, “and we had always admired the Zimmerman Building back to the days when we were customers of Zimmerman Steel.” But when they inquired about a possible sale or lease from what was then the property’s third owner, they were told no. About two years later though, that owner reached out to see if they still had interest in a purchase, and Mar Lan leapt at the opportunity.

Evaluating the site, they could see that a lot of updating was necessary, but Markley remembers it was important to “keep the original concept and layout sacred…the spaces seemed like they were made for our programming.” They contracted with Hernly Associates to write a nomination to the Kansas Register of Historic Places and were approved for listing in February. Listing on the National Register of Historic Places followed. This allowed Mar Lan to take advantage of the federal and state tax credit programs for rehabilitation projects for listed historic properties.

The project involved installation of new mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, new bathrooms and all new finishes. The office roof was replaced, new insulation was added and the storefront windows got new insulated panels at top and bottom and new interior storm windows. We had to ask Stan Hernly about the work scope, because a lot of it isn’t immediately evident when looking at the building today. He remarked that “I like when people can’t tell by looking how much work has been done on a historic rehabilitation project—it means the preservation architect has done a good job!”

One thing did need a complete overhaul, however. “The site was a real mess,” Markley says.  “Landscaping was a big thing for Lee Zimmerman, so we thought it was paramount that we pay careful attention on how this was managed.” From curb to gutter to landscaping, it was a complete site makeover. Mar Lan staff designed and installed this aspect of the work, and the personal pride they took in it is evident.

Mar Lan never left Lawrence, but with their cool new digs, LPA can honestly say, welcome home Mar Lan! And thanks to you and Hernly Associates, welcome back to the Zimmerman Steel Building! 

Amtrak/Santa Fe Depot Parking Lot

Nearly aS LONG AS A football field, the rediscovered floor and platform of the former Santa Fe freight house will be restored as part of the Amtrak depot’s new parking lot.

Sometimes a truly amazing discovery can sprout from mundane beginnings. Back in March, a contractor hired by the city began work on a routine parking improvement project just east of the historic midcentury-modern Amtrak/Santa Fe Depot at 413 E. 7th Street. Farmer’s Excavating was scraping away layers of dirt and gravel that had been there for years when they uncovered something that was certainly curious: an intact layer of red brick underlying almost the entire surface. Rather than continuing with the excavation and adding the brick to the debris pile, the contractor stopped work and alerted city engineer David Cronin.

Was it an abandoned brick street? The bricks were mortared together, which would not have occurred in typical brick street construction. Diving into research on the newly discovered brick, Cronin contacted Historic Resources Administrator Lynne Braddock Zollner; Stan Hernly, the project architect for the depot rehabilitation project that had been completed in 2019; members of the volunteer group Depot Redux, which had worked for years to save the modern station; and nearby East Lawrence neighbors, some of whom had lived in the area for many years.

The answer provided a link to the property’s historic past. The brick surface — nearly the length of a football field — was the floor and loading platform of the old freight depot that stood next to the original two-story depot until that structure was demolished after the great flood of 1951. Today’s modern version of the depot was built in 1956, and it is believed that the freight building survived into the 1960s.

Once the historic material had been identified, the city’s attention focused on whether it could be incorporated into the plan for the new lot. It was determined that the brick surface had a good base and an acceptable slope for drainage. Keeping the brick as usable surface on the lot’s north side could accommodate 17 parking spaces next to the east end of the depot, and the brickwork could be incorporated as a key element of the larger parking lot project.

The plan for the new parking lot shows how the old brickwork will be incorporated, including the slash across it that used to be tracks leading to an adjacent railroad siding.

As he worked through the preservation of the brick, Cronin moderated an email chat with more than a dozen community stakeholders to discuss various aspects of the project. Several details were thoughtfully worked out by this ad hoc group. One of particular interest was the appearance of a 10-foot-wide slash that ran diagonally through the brick field. It was determined that there had been a rail spur there to a warehouse just south of the site, but the rails had been removed at some point. The group analyzed three different options to preserve this facet of the site’s history before deciding on a concrete outline inlaid with brick, running counter to the direction of the brick in the rest of the lot.

Work has begun again, and what would have been a typical parking lot will now help current and future generations understand East Lawrence’s rich railroad history through a long-hidden physical connection to its past. City staff and the contractor followed a preservation best practice when a surprising and possibly significant historical element was uncovered: Work was stopped, experts and neighbors were engaged to discuss and resolve the issues presented, and plans were modified to allow the historic material to exist within the new project. LPA cannot applaud this preservation effort loudly enough. 

The Raven Book Store, 809 Massachusetts Street

It would be hard to imagine two businesses more different than an ax-throwing entertainment venue and a bookstore. But the transition from one to the other—through a crucible of fire—has brought new life to the Newmark Building at 809 Massachusetts Street.

Built in 1865, the building reopened recently as the new location for longtime Lawrence bookseller The Raven. The previous tenant of 809 Massachusetts was Blade & Timber, an ax-throwing attraction that was forced to close in October 2018 after an electrical fire broke out in the building. While the fire caused extensive damage, according to a report in the Lawrence Journal-World, Dalton Paley of Paley Properties & Investments, the building’s owner, was committed to ensuring that the structure maintained its historic character.

Aftermath of the fire that gutted the building in 2018. (Photo by Mike Myers, Hernly Associates)

“I’ve been fixing up historic buildings since I started working with my dad, and he did it before me,” Paley said. “Every building we own right now is on the historic registry. This type of rehabilitation project preserves the character of downtown, and to me, downtown Lawrence is the heart of our city.”

Much of the front of the building was boarded up afer the fire. (Photo by Mike Myers, Hernly Associates)

Working with Hernly Associates Inc., Paley Properties & Investments was able to restore the limestone façade on the back of the building, including two original windows; maintain most of the original wood floors on both the first and second floors of the building; and reinstall the first floor’s original tin ceilings. Paley also rehabilitated the Massachusetts Street storefront, restoring the transom above the front doors to let more light into the space. In addition to space for the relocated Raven Book Store on the first floor, the build now has two new one-bedroom apartments upstairs.

“We were really excited to honor both the history of The Raven and the history of this space,” said Danny Caine, owner of The Raven. “The whole concept is to merge a traditional historic storefront bookstore with a bold and exciting kids section in the back.”

The back door of the newly refinished second floor. (Photo by Mike Myers, Hernly Associates)

“Much of the end product is thanks to Danny’s vision,” Paley said. “We like to take on projects with a specific tenant in mind, and The Raven was a perfect match, combining our interest in preservation with a lot of smart thinking about what will attract retail shoppers to 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 the Wedermyers 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.

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.

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. 

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.

Before and after photos of 904 Rhode Island show the restored original windows, handcrafted trim, re-pointed brickwork, and a classic Lawrence brick walkway.

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 original windows were saved and restored thanks to LPA’s architectural covenants.

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.

Serious sweat equity went into achieving this impressive result!

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. 

Millie supervises the back porch construction. The utility room addition updates the house for livability while adhering to historic preservation covenants.

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!

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.

Glazed terra cotta ornamentation on the building’s exterior.

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.

Striped Cow owner David Jess.

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.

The refurbished bell on its way back to the tower. ( photo by Lori Ridenour)

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.

Marc Ridenour rings the bell. (Yes, It’S LOUD!)

723 New York Street

City leaders looking to improve affordable housing options should be paying attention to what Marci Fransisco and Joe Bickford have been doing for some time now. Each year they rehabilitate an older property that has served its entire existence as an affordable house. Plenty of sweat equity, rehab knowledge and use of salvage materials help to ensure each house remains affordable as it is improved. When the work is done, they tackle the financing portion of our affordable housing problem. Many people cannot purchase a home because they lack funds for a downpayment or can’t qualify for a conventional mortgage. But Marci and Joe, once they find the person or family they wish to hand the house off to, work out a payment plan that allows them to buy the house on contract.

For Joe in particular, this year’s project at 723 New York returns full circle to where this financing lesson was learned. This was the family home in which he grew up. Parents Gene and Dessi were renting when the owner decided to sell. When Gene and Dessi expressed interest but lacked the funds, the owner allowed them to purchase it on contract.

Joe’s many hours of work on the project this year brought back some childhood memories. His dad would walk to work at the box factory near the river. Joe enjoyed playing near the river and on the New York School playground. He would run errands for his mother to the grocery store on 416 E 9th Street, where Marty Olson’s shop is now. Working this summer in the living room, he could picture Dessi sitting in her recliner by the window where she would watch the trains roll by. He could still smell her cooking as he worked on the chimney in the kitchen.

Family ties to this project were made even stronger as longtime collaborator Ernie Fantini decided towards the end to move back to Delaware to care for his mother.  Ernie had begun working alongside Marci and Joe in 1991 on recommendation from master stonemason Keith Middlemas, and had participated on virtually every one of their projects since then.

With the Habitat for Humanity ReStore right across the alley, salvage opportunities were easy and included the sink, tub, tile, lighting fixtures and more.

723 New York offers Lawrence history as well as family history. Along with the house one door south, it was moved from another location by Park Hetzel in 1958. Behind both houses sits an old stone barn where the aunt of Langston Hughes kept her dairy cow.

In an era when traditional affordable starting homes in Lawrence core neighborhoods are being torn down and replaced with new homes that are unaffordable for many, Marci and Joe are preserving affordable options and maintaining the historic structures and character of  those neighborhoods. We’re sure LPA isn’t the only one who wants to say “thanks”!

900 Mississippi Street

Brad Ziegler has made a Lawrence career buying, renovating and maintaining commercial and residential properties. He purchased Louise’s downtown in 1989 and owns the Tap Room and Six Mile Chop House, among others, but his recent focus has been on 9th Street just west of downtown.

He owns the Basil Leaf building and just completed a good-looking renovation of the old gas station next door for Mama’s Tamales. But for perhaps the crown jewel of his recent efforts, cross to the south side of 9th and take a look at the longtime laundromat on the corner at Mississippi: a full rehab under the watchful eye of the Kansas State Preservation Office is nearing completion and a new life as a restaurant to be called Big Mill.

The Preservation Office is involved because Brad is using a 20% state historic tax credit and a 25% federal credit for commercial properties to help offset rehab costs. Stan Hernly wrote the nomination for the building, now listed on both the state and national historic registers as Klock’s Grocery and Independent Laundromat. 

Image provided by the Douglas County Historical Society, Watkins Museum of History.

Built by Fred Klock in 1922, the building replaced one at the same location that housed his grocery. In both buildings, Klock advertised his business as Klock’s Windmill Grocery, a reference to the community landmark that long stood at the top of the 9th Street hill. When the current building first opened, the eastern half was occupied by Beal Brothers Meat Market. The building transitioned in 1959 into Independent Laundry and Dry-Cleaning, which made a name for itself by providing a self-serve, coin-operated dry-cleaning service.

Image provided by the Douglas County Historical Society, Watkins Museum of History.

Mike Myers of Hernly Associates has provided all the architectural work and Joni Hernly is overseeing compliance with the tax-credit process. Andy Fletcher is the work coordinator on site, and Brad also points to Harvey Brothers Construction as a big help to the project.

Two outstanding features of the project are the pressed-tin ceiling inside and the transom windows. Portions of the original ceiling were damaged or missing, so Brad hired W.F. Norman in Nevada, Mo., to reproduce the stamp and fabricate new matching material. The windows were cleaned up and masterfully restored by Dave Anderson of Globe Art Glass.

Thanks Brad for bringing this corner commercial property back to tip-top shape!

Dyche Hall Grotesques, 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard

Dyche Hall is among the most historic and architecturally significant buildings on the KU campus. It was built between 1901 and 1903 to serve as KU's Natural History Museum, primarily to house the Panorama of North American Mammals, which had been created by Lewis Lindsey Dyche as one of the state’s exhibitions in the Kansas Pavilion at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The Panorama took the world by storm, attracting 2.4 million visitors during the six months of the fair.

Kansas City architects Walter C. Root and George W. Siemens, in a 1902 Lawrence Daily Journal-World article, declared that for the hall’s exterior facade they intended to "carve beautifully all manner of birds, beasts and reptiles … We wish to build a building which will be unique in itself, yet not inharmonious with the other buildings, and which will be a beautiful crown to this unusual site, and a source of pride to the citizens of the state always." This included sculpting and mounting grotesques along the roofline.

The Dyche Hall grotesques were carved by master mason and sculptor Joseph Roblado Frazee and his son Vitruvius. After 113 years, as part of a major renovation of the exterior and interior of the seventh floor of Dyche Hall, the eight grotesques were taken down to save them from further destructive erosion by the elements. Karl Ramberg & Associates, working with KU School of Architecture Prof. Keith Van de Riet, was selected to carve replacements of the eight grotesques that are to be as faithful as possible to the originals. Ramberg currently is roughing out the basic shapes by mallet and chisel in a workspace in front of the museum. In addition, related educational and public outreach activities are ongoing.

643 Indiana Street

Sidewalk repair is a hot topic in Lawrence these days as the city attempts to work with property owners to bring all sidewalks into compliance with city code. Equity issues such as corner lots and damage caused by tree roots from plantings in city right-of-ways are being addressed. Those who live in older neighborhoods, however, know that there are material issues the city has not yet addressed.

Bluestone sidewalks reconstructed at 643 Indiana

Brick sidewalks are an obvious one. When this initiative is finished, how many sidewalks that are currently constructed of brick will remain brick? There is another historic material out there that no one is talking about: panels of sedimentary rock known as bluestone.

Bluestone panels still are available from quarries today, but the cost is prohibitive for many. When bluestone panels fail, they crack. But unless a tree root is the culprit, the cracks generally don’t deflect. Many cracked bluestone surfaces instead remain flat, and don’t cross into the half-inch vertical deflection that city code constitutes as a trip hazard.

Dan Watkins, the longtime owner of the Wilder-Clark House at 643 Indiana Street, knew his bluestone sidewalk needed repair, but he didn’t want to tear it out and replace it with concrete. “I wanted to stay as close as I could to the original construction,” Watkins said.

Watkins hired a stonemason to bring in new panels where necessary, and in some cases to level existing unbroken panels that had sunk because of shifting soils underneath. For the rest, the mason worked to fit broken pieces together in ways that would allow bicycles, wheelchairs and baby strollers to easily traverse the sidewalk.

If city code inspectors hold bluestone panels to the same standards they do concrete, Lawrence is likely to lose this historic material from our neighborhood landscapes. If non-deflected horizontal cracks in bluestone are allowed, however, residents and visitors to our historic neighborhoods may be able to enjoy this historic material for many years to come. LPA applauds Dan Watkins for his attempt to balance a one-size-fits-all code with the preservation of a historic material that, due to material cost, is virtually irreplaceable. Hey city government: If you can easily run a wheel over it, give non-deflected bluestone panel sidewalks a break!

945 Kentucky Street

The A.K. Allen house, an 1862 two-story brick house that survived Quantrill’s Raid, is receiving some much-needed attention from a small out-of-town development group led by a KU grad. Classical Developments LLC, with Mike Heitmann as managing member, is well underway with a rehab of 945 Kentucky, after recently completing a project on another threatened property at 1208 Mississippi Street. Mike is an architectural engineer, and the company has been formed as a side project to positively impact the older architecture that he loves.

The house was in foreclosure and had sat vacant for many years. The gable-front National Folk nine-room house was designed by architect Ferdinand Fuller, one of the leaders of the New England Emigrant Aid Society, and built for Asaph King Allen, a free-state settler to Lawrence in the 1850s.

Preservation consultant Dale Nimz was hired to research the history of the house and to help the ownership group identify qualified craftspeople to work on the project. A big first step involved full restoration of the wood windows in the original portion of the house. The windows were in horrible shape. Wood Window Rescue Inc., based in Oklahoma, took the windows to its Kansas City shop, where each was masterfully restored. New wooden storm windows also were fabricated and installed.

Neal Isaacs currently is repointing the exterior brick using mortar mixed to historic specifications. An appropriately sized addition is framed in back, and additional work, including a reconstruction of the original front porch, is now beginning under the direction of General Contractor Mark Engleman. Once this project is completed, the structure will be rented as a duplex.

945 Kentucky is a contributing property in the Oread Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, and historic tax credits are being used to help finance the work. Saving a pre-Quantrill house near downtown is an extraordinary thing. LPA applauds this effort and is so glad that a KU grad is coming back to make such positive improvements to our city’s historic housing stock.

Haskell Bandstand, Haskell Indian Nations University

Members of the Haskell Indian Nations University Student Senate are in the house!

Students returning for spring semester at Haskell Indian Nations University received a pleasant campus surprise: the historic Bandstand, which had been closed to the public and awaiting repair since the fall of 2017, is completely repaired and looking wonderful!

The bandstand, built in 1908 to replace an earlier structure that had been destroyed in a storm, had begun to show significant signs of rot and water damage to its columns and handrails. During the repair project, which began in the fall of 2018, workers for BKM Construction replaced the damaged elements, installed a new wood shingle roof and uncovered additional repairs that were needed. Early 20thcentury bare-bulb lighting mounted on the ceiling was replaced with recessed, modern, energy-efficient lighting. With a brand-new paint coating in white, the bandstand will absolutely gleam in the sun if the sun ever comes out this winter.

The Haskell baseball team, circa 1917, courtesy of Haskell Cultural Center & Museum.

The Bandstand and 11 other structures on campus are listed as significant structures on the National Register of Historic Places. Haskell Indian Nations University itself is listed as a National Historic Landmark, an honor the school has held since 1966.

JE Stubbs Building, 1101 Massachusetts Street

One of the most architecturally significant corners in downtown Lawrence is in the finishing stages of a major rehabilitation. 1101 Massachusetts, which shares a corner with the Douglas County Courthouse and the Watkins Bank building, is benefitting from a new ownership group: 1101 Mass LLC.

 After purchase, the group’s initial evaluation revealed a second floor so cobbled together with retrofitted small office and bath spaces that the resulting weight was straining what the building’s original structure could safely support. Worse, some framing components of the original structure were compromised during installation of these offending elements. Outside, original architectural detail in both stone and wood had been removed to allow for historically inappropriate façade coverings.

Now, with the help of project architect Chris Cunningham of TreanorHL and general contractor Mar Lan Construction, interior structural repairs are complete, and the façade has been rebuilt to bring back the original detail. Two first-floor interior spaces await tenants (Mass. St. Soda is moving back into the third one it previously occupied), and the upstairs soon will be ready for office use.

No original wood windows were harmed during the production of this rehab, and the project team chose to confine their work to the original footprint of this historic space. These are things that get the attention of the LPA Board! Congratulations to everyone involved in this important downtown project.