To Be Historic Or Not To Be Historic...That Is The Question

Jennifer Price from Price Preservation Research came to town in January to review the buildings within the downtown to determine if certain buildings were historic and eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.  She also reviewed the buildings within the Downtown to determine if an historic district exists. 

Jennifer's January visit included a field survey where she took photos of all buildings in the downtown and also conducted some research.  The research included reviewing the Storm Lake Centennial book and other material found at the Storm Lake Public Library, reviewing historical photos found at the Buena Vista County Historical Society, accessing the public records at the Buena Vista County Courthouse, and other additional online research.


Jennifer Price completing field survey research for the Historical Survey.

 

After her on-site visit, Jennifer could start work on the Iowa Site Inventory Forms.  These forms would need to be completed for every building and would help provide documentation for the historic contexts, typologies, and eligibility criteria for determining if a building is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. 

 

Recently the City has received the Final Report for the Historical Survey from Jennifer Price.  The Final Report along with all the site inventory forms have been submitted to the State Historic Preservation Office to be reviewed for the Downtown Facade Project.

 

What buildings within the Storm Lake Downtown are deemed historic or not historic?....Does the City of Storm Lake contain an historic district or not?  Stay tuned for the next blog post where we will reveal the results of the Historical Survey completed by Jennifer Price!

Architect Meetings

On January 8th Scotney Fenton and Michelle Sacco from RDG came to town to hold the second meeting with the downtown facade owners.  During this meeting the owners were able to see potential drawings of what their building could look like once construction would occur.  This was a great way to judge if the Architects' ideas and the building owners' ideas were on the same page.  Various improvements that were discussed included new windows, new transom windows, rehabilitate existing windows, new signage, new awnings, masonry repair, staining masonry, repointing masonry, and new doors.

  

The Architects (left) from RDG discuss improvements to a downtown building
with two building owners (right) for the Storm Lake Downtown Facade Project.

Since the meetings, Scotney and Michelle have been diligently working on the building drawings.  They have incorporated the input they received from the building owners and still tried to keep the historic aspects of our downtown in mind.  These drawings will be submitted to the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) with the historical surveys for each building to make sure that any building that is deemed historic will have improvements that preserve and enhance the historical characteristic of the building. 

The drawings are still in the draft phase but it is awesome to see what some downtown buildings could look like with a little improvements!

If any building owner in the Storm Lake Downtown would still like to participate in the grant please contact Emily Haselhoff at 712-732-8002 or e-mail Haselhoff@stormlake.org!