HomeMy WebLinkAboutHistoric Preservation Agenda Packet 9-10-2015
Thursday
September 10, 2015
5:30 p.m.
Emma Harvat Hall
City Hall
IOWA CITY HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
Thursday, September 10, 2015
City Hall, 410 E. Washington Street
Emma J. Harvat Hall
5:30 p.m.
A) Call to Order
B) Roll Call
C) Public discussion of anything not on the agenda
D) Consent Agenda: Certificate of Appropriateness
825 Roosevelt Street – Clark Street Conservation District (basement egress window and
window well alteration)
E) Certificate of Appropriateness
435 Grant Street – Longfellow Historic District (brick door arch replacement with new wood
arch trim)
F) National Register Nomination- Union Bakery
G) Report on Sabin School/Southside Survey
H) Report on Certificates issued by Chair and Staff
Certificate of No Material Effect – Chair and Staff review
1. 409 S. Summit Street - Summit Street Historic District (porch step replacement)
2. 435 Grant Street – Longfellow Historic District (brick repair at chimneys and old AC
opening)
3. 830 College Street – College Green Historic District (front brick step rebuilt with
matching brick)
Minor Review – preapproved item – Staff review
1. 815 Ronalds Street – Brown Street Historic District (repair of 2nd story front window and
replacement of 2nd story rear window for egress)
2. 603 Grant Street – Longfellow Historic District (porch step rebuilt with appropriate wood
balustrade and handrail)
I) Discussion of Historic Preservation Plan priorities and annual work program
J) Consideration of Minutes for August 13, 2015
K) Commission Information and Discussion
Mount Pleasant Historic Preservation Seminar
L) Adjournment
Staff Report September 1, 2015
Historic Review for 825 Roosevelt Street
District: Clark Street Conservation District
Classification: Non-Contributing
The applicant, Viktor Tichy, is requesting approval for a proposed alteration project at 825 Roosevelt Street, a
non-contributing property in the Clark Street Conservation District. The project consists of replacing a rear
basement window with an egress window and building a larger window well to meet code requirements.
Applicable Regulations and Guidelines:
4.0 Iowa City Historic Preservation Guidelines for Alterations
4.5 Foundations
4.13 Windows
Staff Comments
This house built in 1951 and is non-contributing but has some characteristics of the small cottages in the area.
Roosevelt Street developed over a number of decades, so while there is no clear sense of time and place—as
is common for historic districts— the homes boast a wide variety of character. 825 Roosevelt includes a
single car garage to the rear of the property, with a concrete foundation and asphalt shingles completing this
nontraditionally-shaped home.
The applicant is proposing to remove the recently installed, non-historic 36 inch by 36 inch metal-framed
sliding window on the rear of the house and replace it with a 36 inch by 48 inch casement window to provide
egress access. The existing metal window well will be replaced with a new concrete block window well
meeting dimensional code requirements. The concrete block will match the existing foundation.
The guidelines recommend using materials to match the existing foundation material when installing new
window wells. Bedroom windows that are replaced for egress reasons should match the size, trim, use of
divided lights and overall appearance of the previous windows or other windows in the house. The guidelines
include an exception for the consideration of new vinyl or vinyl-clad basement windows in Conservation
Districts. Changes to window size may be allowed for egress requirements.
In Staff’s opinion, changing this window and window well to meet egress requirements will not adversely
impact the historic character of this house. While the house is non-conforming, it does have the appearance
of a small cottage with main floor original double-hung windows and clean simple detailing. All of the
basement windows, except the proposed replacement window, are wood frame awning-type with three
vertical panes. The proposed replacement window opening had already been enlarged for a replacement slider
in the past. Installing a new egress window will allow a return to a more appropriate window type. It is
appropriate to replace the metal window well with concrete block to match the existing foundation. The
applicant is locating product information and availability for a metal-clad window.
Recommended Motion
Move to approve a Certificate of Appropriateness for the project at Address as presented in the staff report
with the following conditions:
Metal-clad window product information will be submitted for staff approval
Staff Report September 1, 2015
Historic Review for 435 Grant Street
District: Longfellow Historic District
Classification: Contributing
The applicant, Kim Hanrahan, is requesting approval for a proposed alteration project at 435 Grant Street, a
Contributing property in the Longfellow Historic District. The project consists of removal of the inner brick
arch surround on the front door and its replacement with a wood trim surround.
Applicable Regulations and Guidelines:
4.0 Iowa City Historic Preservation Guidelines for Alterations
4.3 Doors
4.8 Masonry
4.14 Wood
7.0 Guidelines for Demolition
7.1 Demolition of Whole Structures or Significant Features
Staff Comments
Built in 1930, this is an early twentieth century revival era home. The gable roof demonstrates Cape Cod
cottage stylistic attributes, with a steeply pitched roof and massive end chimney. The one story brick veneered
home is side gable orientated, with an enclosed sun porch showcasing Craftsman detailing. Three gable
dormers appear on the front façade. The symmetrical three bay façade with round arched entrance creates a
formal air; all of these characteristics make 435 Grant a contributing property within the Longfellow Historic
District.
The applicant is proposing to remove the inner brick arch on the front door and replace it with a hand-
detailed wood surround that would be detailed and painted to match the existing door trim and other wood
details on the home.
The guidelines recommend against removing any historic architectural feature, such as a dormers, brackets, or
decorative trim that is significant to the architectural character and style of the building. Original shapes and
sizes of historic doors should be retained. When masonry is deteriorated it should be repaired after the cause
of the deterioration is determined and alleviated. Wood components should duplicate and replicate historic
components.
In Staff’s opinion, the inner brick arch on the front door of the house appears to be original because the brick
and jointing technique for installation appears to match the rest of the house. The inner arch is deteriorating
by pulling away from the outer arch so that the mortar is breaking and cracking and light and air penetrates at
multiple locations. Attempts have been made in the past to caulk and repoint the joint between the inner and
outer arches. In Staff’s opinion, the inner arch and its connection to the house have deteriorated to the point
where removal is warranted. A mason has been consulted and has not been able to develop an acceptable
method for re-installing the arch so that it would not pull away in the future.
The applicant’s proposal is to remove only the inner arch, retaining the more extensive and architecturally
significant outer arch and have a professional carpenter hand-craft a wood door surround to fit between the
outer arch and the door so that the door size and shape and the shutter location will remain the same. The
carpenter will cut the arch to match the trim profiles in the door, even attempting to match the slight shadow
cut on the adjacent trim. The new surround will consist of structural blocking and laminated plywood trim
painted to match the existing trim. Joints between brick and wood will be caulked.
The fact that the home already has significant wood detailing allows for the consideration of changing this
detail from brick to wood. The applicant will have a professional mason remove the brick and save it to repair
the historic front step. In staff’s opinion this proposal will not have a major impact on the historic character
of the home and will allow the door to retain its shape and size while preventing future deterioration of the
door surround so that the more significant outer arch will remain. See image on last page of staff report for
Photoshop mockup of the new door surround from the exterior.
Recommended Motion
Move to approve a Certificate of Appropriateness for the project at Address as presented in the application
and stated in the staff report.
NPS Form 10-900 OMB No.
1024-0018
(Rev. 10-90)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
REGISTRATION FORM
This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in How to Complete the National
Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Register Bulletin 16A). Complete each item by marking "x" in the appropriate box or by entering the
information requested. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification,
materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. Place additional entries and narrative items on
continuation sheets (NPS Form 10-900a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer, to complete all items.
1. Name of Property
historic name ______________ Union Bakery _______
other names/site number ____ Bashnagel, Alois, Bakery; Central Café & Hotel_______
2. Location
street & number ____________203 N. Linn _____ not for publication _N/A__
city or town ________________Iowa City___________________________ vicinity _N/A__
state ___Iowa___________ code _IA___ county __Johnson ___________ code _103 zip code _52245
3. State/Federal Agency Certification
As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1986, as amended, I hereby certify that this _X___
nomination ____ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the
National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In
my opinion, the property __X__ meets ____ does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be
considered significant __ nationally __ statewide _X__ locally. ( ___ See continuation sheet for additional comments.)
________________________________________________ _______________________
Signature of certifying official Date
_State Historical Society of Iowa______________________________________________
State or Federal agency and bureau
In my opinion, the property ____ meets ____ does not meet the National Register criteria. ( ___ See continuation sheet for
additional comments.)
________________________________________________ _______________________
Signature of commenting or other official Date
________________________________________________________________________
State or Federal agency and bureau
4. National Park Service Certification
I, hereby certify that this property is: Signature of Keeper Date of Action
____ entered in the National Register
___ See continuation sheet. _____________________________________________________
____ determined eligible for the
National Register _____________________________________________________
___ See continuation sheet.
____ determined not eligible for the _____________________________________________________
National Register
____ removed from the National Register _____________________________________________________
____ other (explain): _________________ _____________________________________________________
Union Bakery Johnson County, Iowa ____
Name of Property County and State
5. Classification
Ownership of Property Category of Property Number of Resources within Property
(Check as many boxes as apply) (Check only one box) Contributing Noncontributing
_ X private _X_ building(s) __1__ ____ buildings
__ public-local _ _ district _____ ____ sites
___ public-State ___ site _____ ____ structures
___ public-Federal ___ structure _____ ____ objects
___ object __1__ __0_ Total
Number of contributing resources previously
Name of related multiple property listing listed in the National Register
(Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing.)
__0___
____N/A_________________
6. Function or Use
Historic Functions Current Functions
(Enter categories from instructions) (Enter categories from instructions)
COMMERCE/TRADE specialty store COMMERCE/TRADE restaurant_
COMMERCE/TRADE restaurant DOMESTIC/ multiple dwelling
DOMESTIC/ hotel ___________________________
DOMESTIC/ multiple dwelling _______
7. Description
Architectural Classification Materials
(Enter categories from instructions) (Enter categories from instructions
MID-19TH CENTURY /Greek Revival foundation ___STONE __
__________________________________ roof ______ _ METAL ______________
OTHER______________
walls _______ BRICK _________
_______ STONE________________
______ _______________________
other _____________________________
_______________________________
Narrative Description
(Describe the historic and current condition of the property on one or more continuation sheets.)
Union Bakery Johnson County, Iowa ____
Name of Property County and State
8. Statement of Significance
Applicable National Register Criteria Areas of Significance
(Mark "x" in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property (Enter categories from instructions)
for National Register listing)
_COMMERCE__________________
__X_ A Property is associated with events that have made _ARCHITECTURE_______________
a significant contribution to the broad patterns of _________________ _____________
our history. ______________________________
______________________________
______________________________
____ B Property is associated with the lives of persons ______________________________
significant in our past. ______________________________
_X__ C Property embodies the distinctive characteristics
of a type, period, or method of construction or Period of Significance
represents the work of a master, or possesses _1862-1965 _____________
high artistic values, or represents a significant and ______________________________
distinguishable entity whose components lack ______________________________
individual distinction.
____ D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield
information important in prehistory or history.
Criteria Considerations (Mark "X" in all the boxes that apply.) Significant Dates
Property is: _1862 _________________
____ A owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes. _1893_______________________
____________________________
____ B removed from its original location.
Significant Person
(Complete if Criterion B is marked above)
____ C a birthplace or a grave.
__N/A _______
____ D a cemetery.
____ E a reconstructed building, object, or structure Cultural Affiliation
___________________________
____ F a commemorative property.
____ G less than 50 years of age or achieved
significance within the past 50 years. Architect/Builder
__Unknown __________
Narrative Statement of Significance ___________________________
(Explain the significance of the property on one or more continuation sheets.)
9. Major Bibliographical References
Bibliography (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form on one or more continuation sheets.)
Previous documentation on file (NPS) Primary Location of Additional Data
___ preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) has been _X_ State Historic Preservation Office
requested. ___ Other State agency
___ previously listed in the National Register ___ Federal agency
___ previously determined eligible by the National Register ___ Local government
___ designated a National Historic Landmark ___ University
___ recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey # __________ _X_ Other
___ recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # __________ Name of repository: City of Iowa City, Planning
Dept._________________________________
Union Bakery Johnson County, Iowa ____
Name of Property County and State
10. Geographical Data
Acreage of Property _less than one acre__________
UTM References (Place additional UTM references on a continuation sheet)
Zone Easting Northing Zone Easting Northing
1 15 622238 4613493 3
2 4 ___ See continuation sheet.
Verbal Boundary Description (Describe the boundaries of the property on a continuation sheet.)
Boundary Justification (Explain why the boundaries were selected on a continuation sheet.)
11. Form Prepared By
name/title Jan Olive Full, Historian________________jofofic@gmail.com___________________________________
organization_ Tallgrass Historians LC_____________ date_June 2015__________
street & number_2460 S. Riverside Drive____________________________ telephone_319-354-6722____________
city or town__Iowa City_______________________________ state_IA___ zip code _52246____________
Additional Documentation
Submit the following items with the completed form:
Continuation Sheets
Maps
A USGS map (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property's location.
A sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources.
Photographs
Representative black and white photographs of the property.
Additional items (Check with the SHPO or FPO for any additional items)
Property Owner
(Complete this item at the request of the SHPO or FPO.)
name _________ HCB PROPERTIES LC_____________________
street & number 711 S. Gilbert________________ telephone__319-354-2233_____
city or town______Iowa City _____________________________ state_IA_ zip code _52220________
===============================================================================
Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties
for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in
accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 470 et seq.).
Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18.1 hours per response including the time for reviewing
instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this
form to the Chief, Administrative Services Division, National Park Service, P.0. Box 37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127; and the Office of Management and
Budget, Paperwork Reductions Project (1024-0018), Washington, DC 20503.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _1,_7___ Page 1
——————————————————————————————————————————————
1. Name of Property
Other names/site number: During his lifetime, Alois Baschnagel’s first name also was spelled Aloys in some records; his
surname also was spelled Bashnagle. Additionally, after his death, his name has been spelled Aloysius Baschnagel.
7. Description
Summary Paragraph
Constructed in c.1862, and significantly expanded in 1893, the Union Bakery building is located two blocks north of the heart
of downtown Iowa City, the historic nineteenth-century capital of the Iowa Territory and, later, of the State of Iowa.1 Iowa
City is centrally located in the rolling hills of Johnson County, about 70 miles west of the Mississippi River. Des Moines,
where the state capital was moved in 1857, is another 125 miles farther west toward the center of the state. The Iowa River is
a major tributary of the Mississippi in the upper Midwest, and runs through Iowa City from north to south, taking a few wide
curves around limestone bluffs north of town before being relatively straightened out by bluffs for its course through the city.
Both the city and county have growing populations, bucking the trend of two-thirds of Iowa’s counties, which are shrinking.
Iowa City, with 67,862 permanent residents in 2010, is surrounded by fast-growing smaller towns and rural farms that bring
the total county population to over 130,000.2 The Union Bakery sits on the northwest corner of North Linn and East Market
Streets, in an area often referred to as the Northside commercial neighborhood. At three stories, it is the largest edifice in a
block of attached brick storefronts along North Linn Street, some of which are historic also.3 The opposite side of this block
also consists of attached commercial buildings that range in dates from the late 19th century to the 1950s. The majority of
businesses on both sides of this Linn street block are cafés and restaurants at the sidewalk level and apartments on the second
floor, likely occupied by university students.4 There is also a small branch bank and a hairdresser’s salon. Diagonally through
the intersection from Union Bakery, at the southeast corner, is a large modern condominium-residence building with a
restaurant at street level. This brick-veneered building replaced a modern convenience store in 2006. Across East Market due
south of Union Bakery is the last remaining historic brewery in this neighborhood once dominated by the brewery industry
and its associated property types. Union Brewery, now called Brewery Square, was listed in the National Register of Historic
Places in 1986 and was rehabilitated soon after. It remains intact and in excellent condition. The three tall stories of Union
Bakery visually approach the size and scale of the brewery building and together these two large historic buildings reflect the
mid-19th century zone of mixed-used properties lying between the city’s historic downtown commercial district and the
solidly residential blocks to the north of Union Bakery. The earliest portion of Union Bakery is approximately 25’ by 43’and
occupies the very northwest corner of the intersection. Mostly likely constructed in 1862, the year after Leo Muchenberger
acquired the land, this building was significantly expanded in the fall of 18935 by George Hummer who added a another long
northside bay of equal width and depth as the original building, and then wrapped his new construction around the alley
(west) end of the original building to fill the rest of the lot he owned. This project expanded the footprint of the building from
1,072 to 4,000 square feet. Hummer matched the architecture of the original building, in style (vernacular Greek Revival) and
1 The capitol (1840-1846), a National Historic Landmark, is found at the west edge of Iowa City’s downtown shopping district. See generally James
Jacobs, “Capitols as National Historic Landmarks” (2009), available at http://www.nps.gov/nhl/learn/specialstudies/Capitols.pdf.
2 Population statistics are from http://www.iowadatacenter.org/datatables/PlacesAll/plpopulation; accessed on 5/12/2015. The transient student
population of the University of Iowa adds over thirty thousand more temporary residents.
3 There are two new buildings in the center of the west side of this Linn Street block that replaced much older gable-front frame buildings. These new
buildings are faced with brick and are compatible with the size and scale of the nearby older brick storefronts.
4 The University of Iowa campus is just a few blocks to the south and west.
5 The 1893 date is based on the findings of fact written by a judge in a lawsuit against Hummer and recorded in an abstract entry. The c. 1862 date is
more circumstantial and based on Muchenberger’s purchase date of 12/30/1861 and Frank Burkley’s employment there in 1862 and 1863; plus city
directory listings; and the physical fabric and vernacular style of the building itself. The building clearly is present on the 1868 birdseye map of Iowa
City, providing an “at least by” date that is fixed (see Additional Documentation pages for the birdseye image).
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _1,_7___ Page 2
——————————————————————————————————————————————
materials (red brick and cream-colored limestone) so well that the casual observer might easily mistake the enlarged building
for one seamless mid-19th century edifice.
Exterior: Primary East Façade Overlooking North Linn Street, c. 1862 and 1893
Brickwork is similar throughout the c. 1862 and 1893 building sections6 and consists of load-bearing walls laid up in a
common bond pattern of seven stretcher courses to one header course. At sidewalk level, the building exhibits a raised
foundation of limestone7 covered with a thick, painted coat of pargeting, above which is a smooth stone water table. The
main entrance to the ground floor is located at the southeast corner of the c. 1862 portion, recessed behind the brick corner
pier (behind the small tree in Fig. 1 below). The entrance to the restaurant within is accessed by common concrete stairs
from either Linn or Market street sidewalks. The rest of the eastside ground floor is dominated by five large, fixed display
windows sitting on thin stone sills. Brick pilasters between these windows terminate at the upper end in a narrow stone cap or
capitals and the entire ground floor is then set off from the upper stories by a wide stone beltcourse. Upper story windows,
all replacements, are one-over-one double hung sashes, with stone sills and lintels. Eaves at the roofline are narrow and
trimmed with a decorative mousetooth border, probably wooden and likely not original. Metal fire escapes are present on this
Linn Street façade.
Figure 1 - East façade overlooking North
Linn Street. The three upper story
windows on the left are in the c. 1862
building, while the three on the right are in
the north bay added in 1893. The two
portions of the building are separated by a
thin white vertical putty line visible here.
The roof structure on the left side is a
shallow gambrel form, while the 1893 roof
is flat. From inside the low attic on the 1893
side, one can still see how the 1893 roof was
tied into the c. 1862 roof. The older roof’s
overhanging eave and standing-steam metal
roofing were left intact (see Fig. 2 next
page). All photos by Tallgrass Historians LC
from 2015 unless otherwise identified.
6 For ease of discussion, the building generally will be referred to as a single building, except where distinguishing the two construction eras is necessary.
7 The foundation, as observed from the interior basement, is largely irregularly-coursed rubble stone of diverse sizes. Exterior cut limestone on the c.
1862 building is different than the 1893 stone. The earlier limestone is dominated by small shell, coral, and fossil shapes that leave it with an irregular,
even rough, surface texture. The later limestone is finer grained and smooth, without visible fossil material. This suggests that the c. 1862 limestone
came from a nearby quarry, perhaps one of the various small city quarries operating during the town’s early decades. The architect of original capitol
built in the 1840s rejected the first “bird’s eye marble” stone that came from “a quarry at the north end of Clinton Street, five to six blocks from the
capitol behind the area where the University president’s residence now stands. [This would be four to five blocks from Union Bakery.] The stone from
that quarry is properly described as the Coralville member of the Cedar Valley limestone of the Devonian period” (Margaret N. Keyes, Old Capitol:
Portrait of an Iowa Landmark [Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1988,], 9,12). This stone, which was used in the capitol’s base and lower level, is
similar in appearance to the c. 1862 limestone employed in the Union Bakery building. Other small city quarries, which were worked by hand, included
the “Hutchinson quarry on the west side of the river” (Ibid., 96), and the “Crowley quarry in the channel of the river south of the old bridge at Iowa City”
(Samuel Calvin, “Geology of Johnson County,” Iowa Geological Survey Annual Report. Vol. 7 [1896], 96.). This may refer to the bridge at Burlington
Street, the only wagon bridge shown on the 1868 birdseye map of Iowa City.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _1,_7___ Page 3
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Figure 2 – Section drawing of the upper north wall of the c. 1862 building and 1893 attic interior. This brick wall was formerly an
exterior wall. There are iron “S” -shaped anchor bolts near the top of the exterior side of this brick wall that appear to have
been added before 1893. Tallgrass Historians LC sketch, 2015
Exterior: Long South Elevation along East Market Street, c. 1862 and 1893
At the sidewalk level, this long elevation and secondary façade (Figs. 3-4) has four large openings, three of which are
doorways. The one large window opening is near the front entrance corner and is similar to the primary façade’s windows.
The two central doorways lead into the restaurant space, the west one into the kitchen and the east one (served by the wooden
wheelchair ramp) into the dining area. The far west opening, near the southwest corner of the building and the rear alleyway,
contains a recessed doorway leading to the wide staircase that goes to the second floor apartments and rental rooms. A
smaller window, similar to the upper windows, is found between the kitchen and 2nd-floor doorway. This small window
opens to the restaurant kitchen.
The distinction between the c. 1862 and 1893 construction is marked in several ways on this elevation. A vertical putty line is
present at the juncture of the two, and the stone beltcourse and brick interstitial piers of the c. 1862 era were not repeated on
this portion of the 1893 addition. Several of the former ground floor window openings on the c. 1862 wall have been bricked
in, and numerous star-shaped anchors plates, which would date to the 1893 era, are irregularly located along the wall. The
windows and roofline are the same on this elevation as around the corner on the east primary façade. Window spacing is
different however, with the seven windows on each upper floor of the c. 1862 building spaced closer together than the four
windows on each floor of the 1893 addition.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _1,_7___ Page 4
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Figure 3 – The seven windows from the corner to the left (west) are part of the c. 1862 original building.
Figure 4 - Westside alley elevation and long southside Market Street elevation. The four upper level windows on the left are in the
1893 rear L addition.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _1,_7___ Page 5
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Exterior: West Rear Wall, 1893
This wall of the building overlooks the private alleyway and dates to 1893 (refer back to Fig. 4). It marks the base or shorter
leg of the L-shaped addition that wrapped around the original building’s west end wall and long north elevation. Meant to be
a more private side of the building, the attractive limestone trim of the south and east walls is missing here except for the
windows sills. Windows are irregularly placed on all three levels and have segmental arched brick headers. Window sashes
are replacements. Another metal fire escape is attached to this end wall.
Figure 5 - Rear (west) end wall and west end of south wall, 1893. The
ground floor of the alley wall has one working door and two that are
fully or partially infilled by brick. The window near the building’s
corner in the foreground is filled with glass blocks. Fire escapes and an
elevated HVAC unit mark this end wall as a service area of the
building. The only access to the upper two stories is visible here,
recessed in the alcove near the corner.
Exterior: North Elevation, 1893
The ground floor wall (Fig. 6) on the northside is obscured by a single-story, attached commercial building that dates to the
middle of the twentieth century. Before that time, a detached dwelling had long occupied the lot next to the Union Bakery’s
north wall according to fire insurance maps. Fenestration on Union Bakery’s second and third floors is identical and consists
of segmental-arched brick headers and stone sills with replacement sashes. A single window is located near the alley end
wall, but four sets of paired windows, sharing common headers and sills, are positioned along the central portion of the wall.
An exterior brick chimney is found about half way between the alley on the west and the mid-line of the wall, where the
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _1,_7___ Page 6
——————————————————————————————————————————————
roofline appears slightly crowned. Star-shaped anchor plates are present, marking the opposite ends to the anchor plates seen
on the south side and the tie rods within that stabilize the building walls and knit the c. 1862 and 1893 constructions together.
Figure 6 – North side wall. The rear alley side is on the right. The small midcentury commercial building that houses a
hairdresser’s salon, painted dark red here, obscures the ground floor of this 1893 bay addition to the Union Bakery.
Interior – Ground Floor & Basement
Essentially, the entire ground floor is occupied by a restaurant that opened in early 2015. All finishes are new, installed
within the last six months. The dining and bar area fill the eastern two-thirds of the floor space with the rest divided into the
kitchen, restrooms, a server pantry, a small office, and an even smaller mechanical room. The stairway to the basement is
located in the far northwest corner. There is no basement under the southwest quarter of the building, but the entire north
1893 bay and the original c. 1862 building both have basements. The foundations of both are mixed stone and brick, with
newer patches of clay tile block and concrete blocks. Load-bearing supports are generally pipe columns, brick columns, or
stone walls. A portion of the c. 1862 north stone foundation has been irregularly punched out (Fig. 7) to join the two long
basement bays. Interpreting the basement fenestration in the c. 1862 building is difficult and speculative. Under the southeast
corner entrance to the ground floor are two bricked up areas in the basement that suggest entrances to the lower level. Indeed,
the two “rooms” at the east end of this c. 1862 basement show evidence of once being finished work spaces with the
remnants of plastered or pargeted walls and beadboard ceilings. Along the long c. 1862 south wall are extant open and
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _1,_7___ Page 7
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Figure 7 - Doorway cut through north foundation wall of the c. 1862 building, leading into the 1893 north bay basement.
filled-in window locations, fairly regularly placed, and located high on the wall so as to be at sidewalk level from the
exterior. The original vertical configuration of these window areas appears to be: a small high removable window that sits on
several courses of brick, which then rest on a lower stone foundation. Toward the southwest corner of the c. 1862 basement is
a floor-to-ceiling opening that was only recently closed up with concrete blocks. The current owner indicates that beyond the
foundation stone was only a small excavation under the sidewalk that was filled with dirt and rubble. Next to this, nearer the
southwest corner of the c. 1862 building is a curious small hole punched through the stone foundation, an opening that leads
nowhere. It is excavated only a few feet beyond the foundation wall, toward the south, Market Street, and the Union Brewery
beyond. And it too is filled with dirt and rubble. One local archaeologist, who has studied the three breweries in this
neighborhood and the tunnels that connected them to various other buildings, feels there was a tunnel between this c. 1862
building and Union Brewery. The other end of the tunnel, under the brewery, is still visible according to this professional.8
Either the recently-blocked foundation cut or the small, still open cut might be related to this tunnel, however, there is not
good evidence to confirm this at the present time.
8 Marlin Ingalls, multiple email communications with author, April and May, 2015. Union Brewery’s National Register nomination indicates the
northeast corner part of the brewery complex was constructed in 1868-69 and functioned as the brewery’s saloon (citing Simon Hotz’s biographical entry
in the 1883 History of Johnson County, Iowa 1836-1882 [at 847]) [available online]. Muchenberger, the owner responsible for the c. 1862 Union
Bakery, also sold liquor in the 1864-1866 period when he operated a hotel in his building, so he appears to have offered a sort of saloon for his guests
there too. An eventual tunnel for transporting beer kegs under the street to Muchenberger’s operation is certainly possible. On the other hand, before
good refrigeration, beer was quite perishable and the brewery was just across the street by 1868. Why would the effort have been necessary to excavate a
tunnel between the two buildings when the brewery could simply send a man, as needed, across the street with a keg on a truck cart? Muchenberger’s
retail liquor sales were taxed by the federal government in at least 1864 and 1866. See U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, c. 1862-1918; available at
Ancestry.com. On the making, storage, and delivery of beer in 19th-century Iowa generally, see Leah D. Rogers, “’It Was Some Brewery:’ Data
Recovery of the City Brewery Site…” [Leah D. Rogers for the Des Moines (Iowa) Transit Authority, 1996], 15-35.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _1,_7___ Page 8
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Interior – Second and Third Floors
Primary access to the upper floors is via a wide staircase at the southwest corner of the 1893 rear addition. This leads up to a
small open area on the second floor. From this open area, a narrow hallway runs east and west, spanning the length of the
building. This hallway and another one directly above it on the third floor (as well as the stairs to the attic) are located in the
1893 portion of the building, along the former exterior north brick wall of the c. 1862 building. Two multi-room apartments
are found on the south side of the second-floor hallway, one each in the west-end 1893 addition, and one in the c. 1862
building, and six small rooms (approximately 183 sq. ft.) are located on the north side of the hallway, each accessed by a
door from the hall. No access to the rooms, which are all currently rented, was possible but visible finishes in the public
areas were modern, except for the trim around the doors and the door knobs and plates. The painted wooden doorway trim
had “patera” (bull’s eye or target) corner blocks and carved floor blocks at the lower end. The doors themselves were poorly
made of plywood that was delaminating, but the knobs and plates from the original doors had apparently been salvaged and
reused. This door hardware was highly patterned in the Eastlake style with raised floral designs.9
The third floor had similar doorway trim throughout and similar small rooms along the north side of the long east/west
hallway of the 1893 bay. But instead of an apartment in the c. 1862 space, a smaller secondary hallway stairway wall
provided access to smaller rooms along the south side of this oldest part of the overall building. Rooms on both levels lacked
bathrooms with one common bathroom per floor shared by the roomers. Generally, visible finishes were modern on both
floors, consisting of fresh paint, low-nap carpet, vinyl floor trim, and dropped acoustical tile ceilings.
Integrity
The c. 1862 building and its large 1893 L-shaped addition are both historic and significant. The addition does not detract
from the original building, but adds to the historic and architectural character of the edifice. The most significant alteration
are the window replacements. No photographs have been found to indicate the original sash configurations, but considering
the Civil War vintage of the original building and the efforts of the 1893 owner to seamlessly blend his new addition to the
old, one can suppose the upper floor windows were six-over-six sashes. The large lower level openings were likely multi-
light divided display windows. The important feature of these windows however is the overall pattern they set up, which is
repetitive and lively.
Comments on specific integrity aspects are as follows:
(1) location: the building is in its original location;
(2) design: the exterior is largely intact except for the windows as noted above. The interior spatial arrangements in the
basement, the second floor, and the third floor are likely to be close to the original; however, the ground floor level
has changed functions so frequently that the original retail and commercial functions are no longer reflected by the
present configuration of rooms. Load bearing walls and upright supports, however, remain as permanent spatial
dividers;
(3) setting: while there are clearly changes to the neighborhood from the c. 1862 setting, there are fewer changes from
the 1893 neighborhood setting. Many of the buildings extant then remain in place today. The glaring exception is the
removal of two of the three breweries and their replacement with parking lots. Generally, however, the buildings near
9 It is possible the plywood was simply added to the exterior of the doors to thicken them and add additional fire protection. Bob Miklo, Senior Planner,
City of Iowa City, to author, telephone conversation, 6/9/2015.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _1,_7___ Page 9
——————————————————————————————————————————————
the Union Bakery are of the size, scale, and materials that are compatible with a turn-of-the-century secondary
commercial node or neighborhood. The area remains a transitional zone of mixed commercial and residential
buildings, along with two historic churches, that separates the core downtown shopping district and “Old Capitol”
greenspace (now called the Pentacrest for its five large buildings) from the solidly residential area of detached 19th-
century homes to the north. Both downtown Iowa City and the “Northside” residential neighborhood have been
extensively surveyed and portions of both have been listed or evaluated as historic districts;
(4) materials: with the exception of window glazing and a few openings that have been infilled with brick, exterior
materials are original to the two construction stages. The interior is altered with upper level door trim and hardware
remaining intact;
(5) workmanship: the workmanship is best reflected in the masonry skill of the bricklayers, which is intact;
(6) feeling; the overall plan, stone and brick materials, vertical massing, and vernacular but mildly Greek Revival styling
(seen in the use of the repetitive pillar-and-lintel format, the stone capitals and stone water table) result a strong
feeling of the mid-19th century even to the uninitiated pedestrian, of which there are many as this is within the
walking neighborhoods of town;
(7) association: the building’s long history of varied retail commercial, light industrial, and rooming house/hotel on the
upper floors contributes to and is associated with its historic significance.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 10
——————————————————————————————————————————————
8. Narrative Statement of Significance
Summary Paragraph - Union Bakery is locally significant under Criteria A and C as a good example of the activities of early
Iowa City entrepreneurs – especially those of the resident German immigrant community – and the efforts to establish and
grow successful commercial ventures in a dynamic Midwest town just a few decades old. It is also significant as a rare
surviving commercial property type in Iowa City, a property type characterized by a size and scale larger than most of its
contemporaries, together with its 19th century brick and stone construction methods and materials, and its historic lodging and
commercial functions in a close-in location. This was neither a narrow attached storefront catering to retail customers in the
downtown, nor was it was an industrial/commercial1 business sited by its owner at edge of town where access by rail or
wagon would be easy. Rather, the building was constructed in the midst of mixed residential and retail blocks where walking
was still the major means of getting about town and where the pedestrians (and therefore potential customers) might be
visitors to the city, or local workers in the nearby breweries, or university students. The period of significance runs from c.
1862, when the original building was constructed on the corner of North Linn and East Market Streets, until 1965, the
moving 50-year rule of the National Register program. This period includes the 1893 addition to the original building and
acknowledges the building’s continuing contribution to the evolution of Iowa City’s commercial life, especially within the
vibrant Northside commercial neighborhood.
Entrepreneurial Iowa City
Commerce in Iowa City was driven in the 19th century by its capital status, its position as county seat, and the presence of the
earliest state university – capital, county, and campus.
Capital: The city’s bluff top location was selected in 1839 by a committee of three territorial legislators charged with finding
the first permanent capital of the Iowa Territory. By July of that year, town lots had been surveyed and auctions to sell them
off were held in August and October, attracting both “emigrant settlers and a few eastern capitalists.”2 So many potential
purchasers crowded into the town site that, lacking any true lodging house, a rough “hotel” accommodating up to 40 men was
erected in a matter of days, complete with bar and kitchen. According to a 1939 account by Benjamin Shambaugh, the first
superintendent of the State Historical Society of Iowa, the auctions were festive events attended by crowds of potential
purchasers who had taken every advantage of the Lean Back Hall’s liquid offerings.3 The nascent town then served as
territorial capital until 1846 when Iowa achieved statehood. State legislators continued to meet in Iowa City until 1857 when
the capital was moved to Des Moines.
Throughout the town’s tenure as state capital, temporary accommodations were necessary for the men who came to serve in
legislative sessions. One such lodging option was Park House, a large 3-story brick building constructed in 1852. Nominated
to the National Register in 1978, Park House still exists and was rehabilitated in the 1990s. Park House, which is located just
around the corner from the Union Bakery building, remains one of the few 19th-century commercial buildings of the size and
scale comparable to Union Bakery. It is almost certainly the only large commercial building that remains from the capital era
of Iowa City commerce.
County: Perhaps it was only logical that Iowa City should become the seat of county government shortly after the capital
location was fixed in 1839. That it immediately gained that designation is clear. However, over the years historians have
struggled with placing a firm date on when or exactly how it officially became the county seat. Johnson County was created
1 “Commercial” herein is intended to be the more generic term, inclusive of both industrial and retail, and meant to denote non-residential functions.
2 Benjamin F. Shambaugh, The Old Stone Capitol Remembers (Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1939), 70.
3 Ibid., 70-71.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 11
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officially in late 1837 by an act of the Wisconsin Territorial legislature, but this was two years before the site was selected for
the capital of a newly formed Iowa Territory. With the future capital site still just a prairie bluff overlooking the Iowa River,
the few settlers in the area in 1837 and 1838 vigorously competed to have their own land claims designated as county seat.
Judge Pleasant Harris brought a plat for a town he called Osceola with him from the east and promoted a riverbank spot for
its location, but “it never had any defined local habitation.”4 On the other hand, a claim on the east side of the river called
Napoleon had a log cabin and a frame house by 1837, which was enough to win coveted designation in July, 1838.5
Subsequently, county business and two county elections were held in Napoleon’s frame building, intended by town
promoters to serve as the courthouse. In October, 1839, however, the county seat was surreptitiously and somewhat
mysteriously removed to the newly designated Iowa City site. 6
County seat status from the beginning meant out-of-town visitors would be drawn constantly to Iowa City to conduct legal
business at the courthouse. And professionals such as attorneys, abstractors, and surveyors would all find good prospects for
working in Iowa City. The courthouse square, though, was several blocks south of downtown, and not particularly close to
the lodging available at either the 1852 Park House or the upper-floor rooms at the c. 1862 Union Bakery. Visitors needing
lodging for business or legal purposes probably stayed in downtown hotels.7 After the mid-1850s, the courthouse location
also was close to new railroad lines that passed through town. These lines, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific and the
Burlington, Cedar Rapids, & Northern railroads, both were located slightly farther south and east of the courthouse square
(refer to Fig. 16 map below). They helped spawn a southside commercial zone that was far grittier than the beer brewing and
bread baking that took place in the northside commercial area. Foundries, mills, a linseed oil factory, and ironworks all
located in the southside commercial corridor and two or three remnants of this early activity still exist, several of which even
approach the size and scale of the Union Bakery (see discussion starting on page 18).
Campus: The last driver of commerce in town was (and is) the state’s first public university established in 1847, just a year
after statehood.8 Initially the impact of this institution on the town’s commerce was not great. The state’s population was thin
and widely dispersed and, according to a university historian, it had no schools that were preparing students for advanced
studies. And there were ethnic, political, and philosophical tensions from the start between Iowa City residents and those
beyond its borders, tensions that contributed to the university’s difficulties. “Johnson County…came to possess large German
and Irish populations and became the focus of deep underlying ethnic conflict with the Anglo-American element in other
parts of the state. Expressing itself first in local politics as Democratic and Copperhead opposition to the majority Republican
party’s management of the Civil War, the ethnic tension was perpetuated by the struggle over prohibition, which persisted
through the later decades of the 19th century and gained for the people of Johnson County the unenviable reputation of being
saloon keepers and scofflaws. Faculty members themselves became embroiled in these controversies, to the undoubted
detriment of the university.”9 There remains even today the persistent conflict between Iowans who support liberal and
4 N.A. History of Johnson County, Iowa…1836-1882 (Iowa City: n.publ., 1883), 168.
5 Ibid., 176.
6 In 1875, A. T. Andreas simply stated that after the location of the territorial capital was selected, the county seat “was removed to Iowa City, and
Napoleon became a farm.” (A.T. Andreas’ Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875; reprinted in 1970), 477. Reprint used.). A decade later,
authors of the 1883 History of Johnson County, Iowa went into great detail but could not find the authority for or explain the removal either. These
authors stated that one day in October, 1839 the county officers met in Napoleon, transacted some business, but when they adjourned it was “to meet to-
morrow morning at the house of F.M. Irish, in Iowa City. (History of Johnson County, Iowa, 176). Thereafter, the seat was permanently fixed in Iowa
City. Several decades later, another historian commented that this change of venue “appears to the reader as an unwarranted proceeding, since no act
provided for the change of the seat of justice from Napoleon to Iowa City, however desirable it may have been in the time of anticipation that the
territorial capital was to come to this county.” Clarence Ray Aurner, Leading Events in Johnson County, Iowa History (Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Western
Historical Press, 1912), 67.
7 None of these hotels are extant in an identifiable state, however, since at least the urban renewal programs of the 1960s.
8 Stow Persons, The University of Iowa in the Twentieth Century, An Institutional History (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1990), 1.
9 Persons, The University of Iowa, 2. See also footnote 19 regarding Professor Hinrichs.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 12
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progressive educational principles verses those who advocate more directed vocational training through the state’s
agricultural college, which was established in 1858 and centrally located in Ames.10
Struggling to enroll both girls and boys (admitted at ages 14 and 15, respectively), the university in Iowa City had only 124
students in 1856-57, when the town had a population of about 1,300.11 It actually closed in 1858 for lack of enrollment but
reopened in 1860. By the 1869-70 school year there were 439 students (in the town of 5,914).12 Thirty-five families actually
moved to Iowa City so their children could attend the university.13 Over the next few years, enrollment averaged 444, with
22% coming from within the county. Meanwhile, the town’s population was experiencing a period of heady growth.14
The “conservative and clerical influences” were strong in the state in the 1860s and 1870s. Because of this and because the
university stood in loco parentis regarding its students, the university president’s 1872 report to the state legislature stated
that “the students are expected to comply with the requirements of morality, propriety, and courtesy during the entire period
of their connection with the university.”15 Early catalogs promised that a “wholesome moral influence would prevail on
campus” and forewarned “there would be no drinking, card playing, gambling, profanity, entering a saloon, or attending the
theater. Rooming houses in town were to be subject to inspection and certification as to safety and suitability.”16 Housing
options and costs for out-of-town students in 1872 were explained as: “Board in families, including washing, fuel, and lights,
from three to five dollars per week. Board in clubs, from two to three dollars. Room rent, two dollars per month and upward,
for unfurnished rooms. The opportunities for self-boarding at low rates are excellent.”17 This suggests both the availability of
rooms to rent, such as those found in Union Bakery’s upper floors, and that cafés and restaurants were available if not
abundant in Iowa City in the 1870s.18 Indeed, Sanborn fire insurance maps from 1883, the earliest available, note a number
of restaurants and boarding houses downtown, but also a very generous number of saloons. There were also a number of
grocery stores, markets, and other bakeries in the vicinity of Union Bakery. Beyond the housing needs of its students, the
early university would have generated additional local commerce to meet its specialized needs as well. Reported
expenditures, at least in the early 1870s, included payments for such local services and products as printing and advertising,
“wood sawing,” chairs19 and “cabinets,” books, and foundry items for an observatory purchased from the N.H. Tullos & Co.
(a business located in the southern commercial corridor with a building still extant).
Conclusion to Capital, County, and Campus Influences: Iowa City business operators, then, profited from a confluence of
good fortunes that other Iowa communities lacked. The town’s early prominence as a capital city attracted settlers, eastern
capitalists and land speculators, as well as visitors (both elected and lobbyists) in town because of the legislative sessions. Its
continued status as Johnson County seat brought more landowners and taxpayers to town and assured resident professionals a
steady income. And the presence of a growing university, despite its early struggles, meant specialized businesses that
catered to the students and faculty. It was into this dynamic combination that capitalist and entrepreneur Leo Muchenberger,
10 Ibid., Prologue, generally.
11 Persons, The University of Iowa, 6-7; population data from www.iowadatacenter.org/achive/2011/02/citypop.pdf accessed on 5/28/2015.
12 Ibid.
13 N.A. [but George Thacher], Report of the State University of Iowa (Des Moines: G.W. Edwards, State Printer, 1872).
14 Ibid. Also see again Iowa City’s population figures by decade at www.iowadatacenter.org/achive/2011/02/citypop.pdf accessed on 5/28/2015.
15 Report of the State University of Iowa, 50.
16 Persons, The University of Iowa, 8.
17 Report of the State University of Iowa, 7.
18 Families who invited students to live with them typically favored the male students, according to the university’s 1872 report, thereby discouraging
girls from attending the university since they often found the rooming house situation undesirable. University president Thacher pleaded with the
legislature for the funds to build, in effect, a dormitory for them. (Report of the State University). After 1909, Park House, by then known by a different
name, offered rooms exclusively to female students (NRHP nomination).
19 One chair was referred to simply as “Hinrichs chair.” Gustavus Hinrichs was a “freethinker,” a professor of natural philosophy and chemistry who
ridiculed the “‘Sunday School boys’ on the faculty…and was also an ardent opponent of the prohibition movement across Iowa.” While he was likely
popular among the county’s German and Irish “element,” and surely would have spent time in the German-immigrant owned saloons of the northside
commercial neighborhood, he was also certainly unpopular among his colleagues at the university. (Persons, 9).
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 13
——————————————————————————————————————————————
a young immigrant from the Baden-Black Forest area of Germany, arrived by at least 1859.20 Not long after he would
construct the Union Bakery building.
The Who, What, and Why of Union Bakery
Union Bakery today occupies the southern portion of lot 8 in block 68, on a footprint of 80 by 50 feet. Lot 8 is one of the
original 1839 town lots, but remained unsold until 1844 when the State of Iowa, which had been granted the land for the new
town by the federal government, transferred it to Christopher H. Buck. Buck was a grocer who served also as the city
treasurer in the 1850s. His grocery was on Iowa Avenue, at the north edge of downtown, so his purchase of lot 8 was likely
an investment and speculative.21 In 1856, lot 8 was owned by a group of Lutherans from both England and Germany,
however this group soon parted ways in order to construct separate churches.22 Following that, Charles C. McGovern, from
Ireland and a physician, county coroner, and Democrat, acquired lot 8. In turn, McGovern sold the pertinent parcel of lot 8 to
Leo Muchenberger on December 30, 1861 for $1500. McGovern soon after relocated in State Center, Iowa.23
The same day he bought the lot, Muchenberger borrowed $600 from Frank Burckle (also spelled Buerzkle).24 This was likely
Frank Burkley, also of the Black Forest area of Germany who wed Genevieve Muchenberger in 1850 when they lived in
Boston.25 The Burkley and Muchenberger families may have traveled from Boston to Iowa City together or at least about the
same time. Burkley ran the “Union Bakery for two years” after his arrival in Iowa City in 1861, but in 1863 opened his own
hotel, the Burkley House.”26 Muchenberger paid federal liquor and hotel taxes in 1864 and 1866,27 presumably for the
operations at the Union Bakery building, and that latter year signed his name to a “unique and racy public document” in the
form of a “proclamation” published in the Iowa City Press on April 11, 1866. The proclamation, over the name of seven
parties in addition to Muchenberger, sarcastically stated:
Whereas, most Reverendissimi atque amplisimi [revered and honored] clergymen of Iowa City, blessed by true and faithful
Christianity, philanthropy and infallibility, did call us at their temperance meeting last September, pirates, murderers,
serpents, poisoners, dealers of firebrands, arrows, etc., and, Whereas, The most potent N. H. Brainerd, editor, and leader of
the Republican party, pronounced in his most excellent and edifying journal, that we keep the chambers of death and gates
of hell; that we are pouring out the streams of damnation and death… Therefore we…will refrain from selling any
intoxicating liquors under any name, and will sell only beer, cider, and Iowa wine; [and] that we will keep first-class
eating-houses.”28
Clearly, the ethnic, political, and prohibition differences brewing in Iowa City at the time of the Civil War were at a boiling
point in 1866 and Muchenberger, apparently, had a deep stake in the controversy.
20 Johnson County Recorder, Mortgage Index Book 1 (1840-1872). Muchenberger’s naturalization record is dated 3/4/1861 and available on ncestry.com.
21 Abstract of Title for Lot 7, Block 68, Iowa City Original Town plat (building owner’s collection); History of Johnson County, Iowa 1836-1882 (Iowa
City, Iowa, 1883), 642.
22 The Iowa City Citizen, 10/15/1910.
23 History of Johnson County, Iowa 1836-1882, 217-218; Burlington Hawkeye, 9/7/1866.
24 Johnson County Recorder, Mortgage Index Book 1(1840-1872).
25 “F.P. Burkley Dead,” Iowa City Citizen, 12/21/1908.; also, there are several references to F.P. Burkley and his hotel in the seven local history volumes
called Irving Weber’s Iowa City (Iowa City, 1976-1992).
26 Iowa City Press-Citizen, 2/22/1941.
27 U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918; accessed at Ancestry.com on 5/7/2015.
28 History of Johnson County, Iowa 1836-1882, 412.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 14
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Iowa City directories from 1868 and 1869 indicate that Alois Bashnagel (aka Baschnagel or Bashnagle), yet another native of
the Baden-Black Forest area of Germany, was operating a bakery at the northwest corner of Market and Linn streets, the
location of the Union Bakery. Bashnagel did not own the building however, so he either leased space in the building or
worked for Muchenberger. By 1870, Muchenberger had relocated to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he was listed in census
records as a hotel operator and baker.29 This would seem to confirm the unlikely combination of occupations he pursued in
Iowa City.30 A few years later, in 1874, Muchenberger did sell the Iowa City building to Bashnagel for $3,000, a 100%
increase over his purchase price a little over a decade before.31
Bashnagel expanded his bakery business to two locations. In addition to the northside Union Bakery, he also opened the
Centennial Bakery and Restaurant a few blocks to the south in the city’s downtown proper. But he still operated as a sole
proprietor, running both as unincorporated businesses through to his retirement, which took place at least by 1893 if not
earlier. Ultimately, the Union Bakery building and all or part of lot 7 directly across a small alley to the west were both
acquired by George Hummer early in 1893.32
Born in 1841 in the southeast Iowa town of Burlington, George Hummer became the archetypical Midwestern entrepreneur
of the late 19th century. Hummer tried different occupations until he hit on a successful formula. His evolved his business
methods and structures over the course of his career, from working as a simple shop clerk to serving as president of a modern
corporation, all the while investing and diversifying as his success grew. George’s parents had come from Germany; his
father was said to have built the first brewery in Iowa and brewed the first beer in Burlington, but George was orphaned by
the age of eight. As a young adult, he arrived in Iowa City around 1858 where he found employment as a clerk in a dry goods
store.33 In 1872, Hummer, with some help from his father-in-law, struck out on his own by establishing a wholesale grocery
house, which he named George Hummer & Co. By 1880 the business was successful enough to permit the construction of a
nearly 5,000 square foot building at the east edge of downtown.34 By the mid to late 1890s, the ambitious Hummer was
branching out into other food-related operations by acquiring going concerns. One of these, perhaps his first serious capital
outlay beyond his wholesale grocery business, was the purchase of the Union Bakery from the Bashnagel family in March of
1893.35
29 U.S. censuses, 1870 and 1880. Accessed on 5/7/2015 at Ancestry.com.
30 The name “Union Bakery” may not be the only or original name of Muchenberger’s commercial activates in his building but it is the earliest confirmed
name associated with it. Further, the building appears to have been referred to by this name for the majority of its existence. Using the name “Union,” for
both Muchenberger and the owners of the Union Brewery across the street, likely only reflects the patriotic fervor of the Civil War. No other reason for it
has surfaced and no formal association of the two businesses in known. (The 2014 local landmark process took “Bashnagel” as the historic name from
the Iowa Site Inventory form filed in the 1980s. Additional research confirmed Bashnagel as one of the historic owner names, but not the name most
strongly associated with the building.)
31 The deed spells the buyer’s name “Aloys Baschnagel.” Johnson County Recorder’s Office, Transfer Book 1.
32 Johnson County Recorder, Transfer Book 1, page 229; Abstract of Title for Lot 7, Block 68, Iowa City Original Town plat (building owner’s
collection). Additional information about Alois Bashnagle and his family may be found in the Iowa Site Inventory Form attached to the Iowa City local
landmark application and designation completed on the building in 2014 (under the name “Bashnagel, Alois, Bakery; ISIF#52-02166).
33 An article in the local newspaper from 1908, a few years before Hummer’s death, says the Hummer Mercantile Company was incorporated in 1861,
however this seems highly unlikely in light of other records, like the 1870 federal census, which records his occupation as a clerk in the dry goods
business, or the 1904 incorporation records of the George Hummer Mercantile Company located at the Johnson County Recorders office. The 1861 date
was either a newspaper error or a faulty (or embellished) memory.
34 Hummer’s 1880 building was described in 1883 as costing $75,000 to build, however this is certainly a typo. The cost was more likely $7,500. History
of Johnson County, Iowa 1836-1882, 851. It is unknown if this building still exists but it is unlikely considering the described location.
35 U.S. censuses, 1870, 1880, 1900; “Find a Grave Index,” all accessed on Ancestry.com in May, 2015; History of Johnson County, Iowa 1836-1882,851;
“Transfers of Johnson County Real Estate,” Daily Iowa State Press, 8/24/1899; Iowa Official Register, “Articles of Incorporation Filed” (Secretary of
State, 1900); “Articles of Incorporation of The Geo. Hummer Mercantile Company (1904), retyped in “Certificate of Renewal of Corporate Charter of
George Hummer Mercantile Company (1924), located in Johnson County Recorder, Miscellaneous Records, Book 128, page 445; Full page
advertisement, Iowa City Citizen, 7/27/1908; “Among Iowa City Industries,” Iowa City Citizen, 4/29/1908.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 15
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Hummer immediately set about to enlarge Union Bakery and by September, 1893, he had completed the large addition to the
original building. At the same time, his neighbors to the north, who had dwellings on other pieces of the long north/south-
oriented lot 8, promptly sued him. As it turned out, since the time of Christopher H. Buck’s ownership of the entire lot 8 in
1844, the west 10 feet of the southern-most portion of lot 8 were to be “kept open and free of access as an alley for the use
forever” by these owners to the north. It was the only way they could reach the rear of their properties. Since Hummer also
owned lot 7, across the alley to the west, he simply settled with them by shifting the narrow alley west and promising to keep
the east ten feet of lot 7 open directly across from Union Bakery. He was thus saved from having to tear down his new
addition, which is what the court had ordered.36
Soon after the lawsuit was settled, Hummer transferred his personal ownership of the Union Bakery property to his
unincorporated company, by then called the George Hummer Mercantile Company.37 In 1899, as president of the mercantile
company, he “sold” the Union Bakery property to a corporation he formed, the Union Block and Bakery Company. The
intracompany transfer was valued at $17,500. At the same time, stock in the new company was offered to the investing public
by advertising in the local newspaper. The ad described the assets of the new company as:
The property of the corporation consists of the brick building, 50 x 80 feet, three stories and basement, on the corner of Market
and Linn Streets, on Lot 8 and the east half of Lot 7, and the buildings on it. All on Block sixty-eight (68) in Iowa City, Iowa,
Outfit and Ovens, also the Furniture, Dishes and Utensils in the Restaurant, and the Furniture, Carpets, Bedding, etc. in twenty-
five rooms, in the second and third stories of said building, as well the trade marks, trade and good will of the Union Bakery
Co. The building is almost new, modern and well adapted for the purpose it is used for….There are twenty-five newly
furnished rooms and three bath rooms on the second and third floors. The Bakery has two large ovens and bakery outfit
complete, with a capacity of 3,000 loaves of bread in 12 hours, and has an excellent trade in the city and adjacent towns. The
rooms rent to students 9 months in the year and being so near the University, will always continue to rent well.38
Estimated yearly earnings from the rooms and restaurant were $2,100 and from the bakery $1,200.
Sometime between 1899 and 1906, Hummer again expanded his business organization by purchasing the Iowa City Mills
building and business at the corner of East Court and Gilbert streets, in the heart of the southside commercial corridor. The
flour mill appears on the 1883 Sanborn but had a serious fire at the turn-of-the century that required considerable
reconstruction.39 Hummer also bought the corner lot directly across Court Street to the south. He tore down a dwelling and a
stable on the corner and erected a new Classical Revival-style headquarters for his wholesale grocery business, at the same
time converting a much older stone and brick building south of the dwelling into a grocery warehouse or storeroom. He
probably incorporated his wholesale grocery business in 1904 in conjunction with the construction of the new headquarters.
By the time of his death in 1912, Hummer, one of Iowa City’s many entrepreneurial 19th century businessmen, had
successfully navigated the Gilded Age transition of shopkeepers and clerks to corporate officers and shareholders.40
While Hummer owned the Union Bakery, he worked to build its operation beyond the local customers served by Alois
Bashnagel and into a wholesale bakery serving a much wider market area. The bakery employed six people who daily turned
out fresh bakery products of all kinds. These were sold through a “shop in the building” but mostly through other bakery
stores in town and “this part of the state.” Advertisements (Fig. 8) claimed bakery items from Union
36 Abstract of Title for Lot 7, Block 68, Iowa City Original Town plat (building owner’s collection).
37 Hummer’s mercantile company was not formally incorporated until 1904, based on records held in the Johnson County Recorders office.
38 Offer of stock by the Geo. Hummer Mercantile Co., Daily Iowa State Press, 5/20/1899.
39 Information obtained from Marlin R. Ingalls, author of Iowa Site Inventory Form #52-017523, in progress, on the Iowa City Mills building.
40 The growing complexity of American business organizations and the expansion of ways one might own a stake in a business are hallmarks of the late
19th century. See generally Alan Trachtenberg, The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age (New York: Hill and Wang, 1982)
and Oliver Zunz, Making America Corporate, 1870-1920 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 16
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Figure 8 The Hummer operation placed this full page ad in the local newspaper during the summer of 1908 in order to reinforce
the public’s knowledge of the businesses’ relationship as well as promote their individual products. Iowa City Citizen, 7/27/1908.
Bakery were sold within a 50 mile territory.41 Hummer maintained a corps of traveling salesmen for the grocery business
who “were constantly on the road,” and these men undoubtedly helped expand the Union Bakery’s territory as well.42
With Hummer’s death in late 1912, the business structure he created seems to have dissolved, even though its corporate
entities did not depend on the guiding hand of the founder. Starting in early 1913, the Union Bakery property was sold to a
41 Advertisement, Iowa City Citizen, 7/27/1908. A fifty mile radius would put Union Bakery’s goods south to Mount Pleasant, west nearly to Grinnell,
east to 20 miles short of the Mississippi River, and north nearly to Manchester, Iowa. It is unlikely there was a strong market north of town, simply
because of the presence of a much larger city, Cedar Rapids.
42 Iowa City Citizen, 4/29/1908. Additional information about Hummer is found in the Iowa Site Inventory Form attached to the Iowa City local
landmark application and designation completed on the building in 2014 (under the name “Bashnagel, Alois, Bakery; ISIF#52-02166).
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 17
——————————————————————————————————————————————
series of new owners. In 1921 Gust Rejos, a Greek immigrant and self-employed merchant from Cedar Falls purchased it. His
wife, Rose Rejos, managed their new Iowa City building as the “Central Café and Hotel.”43 In 1925, Central Hotel
newspaper advertisements boasted of “remodeled and redecorated” rooms for rent, including “housekeeping” rooms, while
the “dining room” continued to be open to the public. Gust died in 1926 and Rose in 1963, having sold the building to Don C.
Alberhasky in 1946.44 Alberhasky was a tavern owner who left a historical record of contentious relations during the 1940s
with city officials over beer permits, the city’s refusal to reissue them, and Alberhasky’s refusal to stop selling beer despite
the fact.45 In 1951, Alberhasky converted his tavern in the Union Bakery, which he called Don’s Central Tap, to a Gambles
franchise store that sold auto supplies and hardware (Fig. 9).46 Alberhasky apparently had good relations with other local
business operators because at the same time he gave up his beer permit, he was congratulated on his new venture–quite
publically–by his northside neighbors (Figs. 10-11). Perhaps all concerned were simply hoping for a quieter corner at the
intersection of Linn and Market.
By the 1980s, the building was the subject of a contract sale between Alberhasky and a local developer.47 The retail space on
the lower floor was occupied by Sutton’s Radio and TV, one of the businesses that had placed a congratulatory ad in the
paper in 1951.
Figure 9 The new Gamble store opened in the Union Bakery’s ground floor carried a variety of retail goods, from furniture to
auto accessories. The finishes mentioned in the caption are no longer present. Iowa City Press-Citizen, October 31, 1951.
43 Johnson County Recorder, Deed Transfer book 1; Smith’s Directory of Iowa City, 1921. 1926; Advertisement and classified ads, Iowa City Press
Citizen, 11/22, 11/25/1924, and 3/3, 4/29/1925.
44 Findagrave Index, available on Ancestry.com and accessed on 5/7/2015; Johnson County Recorder, Deed Transfer book 1.
45 See for example, Iowa City Press-Citizen, 9/29/1939, 4/23/1940, and 11/26/1940.
46 “Will Convert Tavern to New Gamble Store.” Iowa City Press-Citizen, 8/14/1951.
47 Iowa Site Inventory form #52-02160. This site inventory form, authored by James E. Jacobsen, is undated but likely is from the early 1980s, when the
State Historic Preservation Office was still located in Iowa City.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 18
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Figures 10 & 11 Two of a dozen or so congratulatory ads placed in the Iowa City Press-Citizen on October 31, 1951. Pat Pearson
operated Pearson’s Drug Store directly across Linn Street to the east. This Midcentury building is now used as a drive-up bank.
Sutton’s would later relocate to the Union Bakery building in place of Gambles (1980s).
Union Bakery as an Uncommon Surviving Iowa City Property Type
The Union Bakery building has additional significance as a representative of a dwindling Iowa City commercial property
type, the large and free-standing commercial block from the latter half of the 19th century. And while it mildly reflects the
influence of the Greek Revival style popular in the Midwest at the time of its c. 1862 construction, it is primarily a utilitarian
vernacular building.48 Its contemporaries discussed below also are generally vernacular or, at best, mildly influenced by
various architectural styles. Elements of the Greek Revival style seen in Union Bakery include the raised foundation and
48 Criterion C status is not based on the Union Bakery’s references to Greek Revival architecture, though many mid-19th century Iowa City buildings—
including the important capitol building—were designed to a greater or lesser degree in the Greek Revival style. Many early residences especially
reflected this style. A good reference for this residential construction is Margaret N. Keyes, Nineteenth Century Home Architecture of Iowa City (1966).
Additionally, the widely available 1854 Millar map of Iowa City bears images of at least three churches and a “female college” that clearly reflect the
Greek Revival style, variously featuring temple-front porticos and tympanums, dentils, and fluted columns with Doric or Ionic capitals.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 19
——————————————————————————————————————————————
stone water table, the first story pilasters that terminate in flat capitals and a shared beltcourse, and the roofline “mousetooth”
detail that may reference dentils. The flat, stone fenestration lintels are likely more a functional than stylistic choice, but they
are also consistent with vernacular Greek Revival buildings.
Comparable Buildings within the Property Type Category: The number of these multi-story commercial buildings of the
scale seen in Union Bakery that survive today is exceedingly small. Within the northside commercial district–or the “near
north side” there remains the Union Bakery and the lone surviving brewery building, Union Brewery. Around the block to
the southwest is Park House (Figs. 12-13), and, lastly, a block to the north is Slezak Hall, built in 1875 (Figs. 14-15).
While Park House’s exterior lacks original styling, its interior apparently shows some Greek Revival influence as noted in its
National Register nomination:
Figure 12 Park House hotel as depicted in the 1854 J.H.
Millar map of “Iowa City and its Environs.” The
illustration was by George H. Yewell, a professionally
trained artist noted for his portraits of men who were
important to Iowa history. Yewell described this 1854
work as: “My first commission was to make a series of
vignette drawings of buildings, residences and street view
of the town, to grace the margin of a new map of Iowa
City.” 49 Yewell’s drawings are important evidence of
these buildings’ appearance but may not be entirely
accurate.
Figure 13 Park House in 2009. According to its National Register
nomination, the mansard roof (suggesting the Second Empire style) was
added around 1875. Photo by William E. Whittaker and used with
permission.
49 Oneita Fisher, The Journals of George Henry Yewell (1966), available and accessed on at 5/27/2015 at: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/scua/bai/fisher.htm.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 20
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Slezak Hall (Figs. 14-15) is a U-shaped red-brick complex of attached buildings that, at least in 1883, housed a grocery store,
saloon, dining hall, carriage house, and a stable and feed storage. The upper floors had a large (commercial?) laundry,
sleeping rooms, and the hall with a stage.50
Figure 14 All components of the Slezak Hall complex are present and relatively intact today. Based on the 1883 Sanborn map,
Slezak Hall was in the 2nd floor of the portion marked “a.” Downstairs, two grocery stores were located in the front now occupied
by the pizza restaurant. Behind these operations was a saloon and behind that (going deeper into the center of the image) a
parlor/dining room with a stairway to the upstairs rooms of the “b” building. The ground floor of “b” appears to have been used
as rental rooms as well. The middle section marked “c” was a carriage house on ground floor, a laundry on the 2nd, and sleeping
rooms on the 3rd. Finally, the building marked “d” was a stable and feed building. Image looking northwest is from Google.com
on June 9, 2015.
Figure 15 This view shows the opposite side of Slezak Hall’s midsection (labeled B
above), looking southeast. The window hoods and bracket cornice suggests the
Italianate style.
50 The date of Slezak Hall (aka National Hall) is from the Iowa City Assessor; functions are taken from the 1883 Sanborn insurance map. This building is
a good candidate to be designated a local landmark and listed in the National Register nomination.
a
b
c
d
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 21
——————————————————————————————————————————————
The southside commercial corridor51 that developed along Gilbert Street (Fig. 16) once sported several blocks of commercial
firms. Represented on the 1883 Sanborn were the Sheets, Getsburg & Co. planning mill (employing 30); the Long & Graham
machining firm (8 employees); the Bahur & Reha broom factory (also 8 employees); the aforementioned Iowa City Mills (6
employees); New Method Heater Co.; N.H. Tulloss [sic] & Co., foundry and machine shop; and the M.T. Close & Co.
linseed oil works (employing 30). Until the late 1970s, the planning mill building survived and until just a few years ago
Figure 16 Index map from the 1883 Sanborn fire insurance (no scale). The red star denotes the location of Union Bakery, within
its northside commercial neighborhood (the breweries are noted on the map). The area by blue is downtown with the nearby
location of the original capitol building (now called Old Capitol) marked yellow highlighter over the large “3.” South of the
capitol is the Johnson County court house “square,” while the southside commercial corridor is due east of it by 3 or 4 blocks.
Note the two railroad lines, one of which crosses directly through the Gilbert Street corridor.
51 Other 19th-century commercial or industrial districts existed also, however there appears to be no extant property types remaining in these areas
(though a complete study of these areas was not conducted for this nomination). This includes firms such as the American Glucose Co., located closer to
the east bank of the Iowa River south of the capitol site, and the south edge of town where the Iowa City Packing House was once (1883 Sanborn).
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 22
——————————————————————————————————————————————
much of the linseed oil factory still existed. Now all are gone with the exception of the Iowa City Mills building (Fig. 17,
later the George Hummer Mills), the iron works building of the New Method Heater Co. (used by George Hummer
Mercantile Co. as a grocery warehouse; now housing a tavern); and the flax seed warehouse of the Close linseed oil factory
(Fig. 18, most recently occupied by a restaurant).
Figure 17 The Iowa City Mills building is severely plain
and utilitarian in form. The only decorative detail is found
at the façade’s roofline where there is a narrow band of
brick corbelling. The building now houses a law firm on
the ground floor and probably student apartments on the
upper levels. Image looks northwest. Court Street is to the
bottom of the image; Gilbert Street just off camera to the
right.
Figure 18 This building is the sole surviving building
of the M.T. Close & Co. linseed oil works (though the
factory owner’s residence is extant across the street)
and functioned as a warehouse. The top floor,
denoted by the darker brick color, was added in
recent years. Image looks northwest and is from
Google.maps on 7/1/2015.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section __8___ Page 23
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Conclusion
These two examples of early Iowa City commercial neighborhoods outside the downtown retail district–the northside and
southside areas–are not exhaustive and no survey of the town specifically for this property type has been completed.
However, the Iowa State Historic Preservation Officer keeps a data base of the state’s historic architecture and this data base
was reviewed for Iowa City buildings constructed between 1839 and 1880, excluding downtown retail buildings. Further a
local researcher who studies the city’s architecture was consulted as well. No additional buildings comparable to the Union
Bakery’s size, scale, and historic function were identified through these sources. Union Bakery, therefore, represents a type
of 19th century building that has survived the changing needs and populations of the neighborhood and city in which it is
located. It reflects a nuanced historical story of business creation and growth over time, of ethnic and philosophical
differences between different groups of Iowa City residents, and of the adaptability of historic buildings to new uses so long
as the local economy remains robust.
Future Plans
Union Bakery will continue in its present capacity, as a commercial operation of some sort on the ground floor (currently a
newly opened restaurant) and lodging primarily for students on the upper two floors. There are no plans to change these
functions. In 2014, the Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission, Planning and Zoning Commission, and the City Council
awarded the building local landmark status. This nomination is not associated with any application for historic preservation
tax credits.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section ___9___ Page 24
____________________________________________________________________________
9. Major Bibliographic References
Abstract of Title for Lot 7, Block 68, Iowa City Original Town plat (building owner’s collection).
“Among Iowa City Industries,” Iowa City Citizen, 4/29/1908.
Advertisement, Iowa City Citizen, 7/27/1908.
Advertisement and classified ads, Iowa City Press Citizen, 11/22, 11/25/1924, and 3/3, 4/29/1925.
“Articles of Incorporation of The Geo. Hummer Mercantile Company (1904), retyped in “Certificate of Renewal of Corporate
Charter of George Hummer Mercantile Company (1924), located in Johnson County Recorder, Miscellaneous Records, Book
128, page 445.
A.T. Andreas’ Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875; reprinted in 1970. Reprint used.
Aurner, Clarence Ray. Leading Events in Johnson County, Iowa History. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Western Historical Press, 1912.
Calvin, Samuel. “Geology of Johnson County.” Iowa Geological Survey Annual Report. Vol. 7. 1896.
Daily Iowa State Press, 5/20/1899.
“Find a Grave Index,” accessed on Ancestry.com on 5/7/2015.
“F.P. Burkley Dead,” Iowa City Citizen, 12/21/1908.
Ingalls, Marlin R. “Iowa City Mills” building. Iowa Site Inventory Form #52-017523, in progress.
__________. Multiple email communications with author, April and May, 2015.
The Iowa City Citizen, 4/29/1908; 10/15/1910.
Iowa City Press-Citizen, 9/29/1939; 4/23, 11/26/1940; 2/22/1941.
Iowa Official Register, “Articles of Incorporation Filed.” Des Moines: Secretary of State, 1900.
[Jacobsen, James E.] Alois Bashnagel Bakery, Iowa Site Inventory form #52-02160. [no date but early 1980s]
Johnson County Recorder, Mortgage Index Book 1 (1840-1872).
Johnson County Recorder’s Office, Transfer Book 1.
Keyes, Margaret N. Old Capitol: Portrait of an Iowa Landmark. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1988.
N.A. [but George Thacher]. Report of the State University of Iowa. Des Moines: G.W. Edwards, State Printer, 1872.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section ___9___ Page 25
____________________________________________________________________________
N.A. History of Johnson County, Iowa 1836-1882. Iowa City: n.publ., 1883.
Page, William, and James E. Jacobsen. Union Brewery National Register nomination form, 1986.
Persons, Stow. The University of Iowa in the Twentieth Century, An Institutional History. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press,
1990.
Population data. Available at www.iowadatacenter.org/achive/2011/02/citypop.pdf accessed on 5/28/2015.
Rogers, Leah D. “’It Was Some Brewery:’ Data Recovery of the City Brewery Site…” Prepared by Leah D. Rogers for the Des
Moines (Iowa) Transit Authority, 1996.
Shambaugh, Benjamin F. The Old Stone Capitol Remembers. Iowa City: State Historical Society of Iowa, 1939.
Smith’s Directory of Iowa City, 1921. 1926.
Trachtenberg, Alan. The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age. New York: Hill and Wang, 1982.
“Transfers of Johnson County Real Estate,” Daily Iowa State Press, 8/24/1899.
U.S. manuscript censuses, 1870 and 1880, 1990. Accessed on 5/7/2015 at Ancestry.com.
U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918; accessed at Ancestry.com on 5/7/2015.
Wilk, Valerie A. Park House Hotel National Register nomination form, 1978.
“Will Convert Tavern to New Gamble Store.” Iowa City Press-Citizen, 8/14/1951.
Zunz, Oliver. Making America Corporate, 1870-1920. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section ___10 Page 26
____________________________________________________________________________
10. Geographical Data
Verbal Boundary Description
The nomination includes the southeast corner portion of Lot 8, Block 68, Original Town plat that is fully occupied by the
Union Bakery building, measuring 50’ along North Linn Street, by 80’ along East Market Street. The nomination does not
include the public sidewalks along either street, or the 10’ wide alley on the west side of the building.
Boundary Justification
The boundary includes the parcel historically associated with the Union Bakery during the period of significance.
Iowa City city assessor, 2014 No scale
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _Additional Documentation Page 27
___________________________________________________________________________
Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa, with approximate location
of the nominated property circled.
(detail obtained 6/11/2015 from U.S.G.S., Iowa City West, 7.5’ topographic map: http://ortho.gis.iastate.edu)
N
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _Additional Documentation Page 28
___________________________________________________________________________
Site Plan showing Boundary of Nominated Property
Iowa City city assessor, 2015
N ^
80 ft.
E. Market Street
N.
Linn
Street
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _Additional Documentation Page 29
___________________________________________________________________________
Photo Key for Exterior Views and First Floor Plan Property Owner’s Collection N^ No Scale
1
4
3
2
13
5
6
7
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _Additional Documentation Page 30
___________________________________________________________________________
Photo Key and Basement Plan N^ No Scale
Modified from first floor plan in Property Owner’s Collection
14
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _Additional Documentation Page 31
___________________________________________________________________________
Photo Key and 2nd Floor Plan N^ no scale
Sketched in 1982 by Judy Hoard for Sutton’s TV; no access to rooms in 2015 but property manager verified continued
accuracy of basic plan.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _Additional Documentation Page 32
___________________________________________________________________________
Photo Key and 3rd Floor Plan N^ no scale
Sketched in 1982 by Judy Hoard for Sutton’s TV; no access to rooms in 2015 but property manager verified continued
accuracy of basic plan.
14
11 – attic - 12
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _Additional Documentation Page 33
___________________________________________________________________________
Photograph Label Information
## 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 share the same information as follows:
1. Union Bakery
2. Iowa City, Johnson County, IA
3. Tallgrass Historians L.C.
4. May 2015
5. N/A (digital photographs)
6.- 7. Photo # and direction camera is facing:
1. Streetscape, facing S
2. Streetscape, facing SW
3. Exterior, east façade of building, facing W
4. Exterior, south side and east façade of building, facing NW
5. Exterior, south side of building, facing NW
6. Exterior, west end and south side of building, facing NE
7. Exterior, north side of building, facing SE
8. Interior, second floor, 1893 hall, facing E
9. Interior, second floor, door with 1893 wood trim, facing SW
10. Interior, third floor, c.1862 hall, facing E
11. Interior, attic, S-shaped anchor bolt, c.1862 north wall (formerly an exterior wall)
12. Interior, attic, view of 1893 roof structure attached to c. 1862 roof overhang (center to lower right,
facing E
13. Interior, first floor, restaurant, facing NW
14. Interior, basement, c.1862 stone foundation wall, with access opening, looking into1893 bay, facing
NE
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _Additional Documentation Page 34
___________________________________________________________________________
Sanborn Map Co., fire insurance map of Iowa City, 1883. No scale.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _Additional Documentation Page 35
___________________________________________________________________________
Sanborn Map Co., fire insurance map of Iowa City, 1888. No scale.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _Additional Documentation Page 36
___________________________________________________________________________
Sanborn Map Co., fire insurance map of Iowa City, 1892. No scale.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _Additional Documentation Page 37
___________________________________________________________________________
Sanborn fire insurance map of Iowa City, 1899 (Sanborns in 1906, 1912, and 1920 shown no changes from this 1899
image). No scale.
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018
(8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service Union Bakery _______________
name of property
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
CONTINUATION SHEET Johnson County, Iowa__________
county and state
Section _Additional Documentation Page 38
___________________________________________________________________________
Detail of Birdseye Map of Iowa City, 1868. No scale. North
Enlargement of Union Bakery building
M I N U T E S PRELIMINARY
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
AUGUST 13, 2015
EMMA HARVAT HALL
MEMBERS PRESENT: Kent Ackerson, Thomas Agran, Esther Baker, Frank Durham,
Gosia Clore, Pam Michaud, Ben Sandell, Ginalie Swaim
MEMBERS ABSENT: Kate Corcoran, Andrew Litton, Frank Wagner
STAFF PRESENT: Jessica Bristow, Bob Miklo
OTHERS PRESENT: Alicia Trimble
RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: (become effective only after separate Council action)
CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Swaim called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.
PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANYTHING NOT ON THE AGENDA:
There was none.
CERTIFICATES OF APPROPRIATENESS
328 Brown Street.
Bristow stated that this is a key, contributing property in the Brown Street Historic District. She
said the application is for solar panels on the roof of the carriage house in the back. Bristow
said the owners would like to put a series of four panels on the north/south wing and five panels
on the east/west wing.
Bristow said this is a standing seam roof, and the clips they want to use are the best possible
option. She said the clips can be removed, and they won't damage the roof; they attach just to
the seams themselves, and they hold the panels just inches above the roof. Bristow said this is
pretty much the perfect installation for allowing it to be removed and not impacting the roof in
the future. She said staff recommends approval.
MOTION: Ackerson moved to approve a Certificate of Appropriateness for the project at
328 Brown Street as presented in the application. Baker seconded the motion. The
motion carried on a vote of 8-0 (Corcoran, Litton, and Wagner absent).
720 East Bloomington Street.
Bristow said this small cottage is a contributing property in the Goosetown/Horace Mann
Conservation District. She showed a slide of how the property has been added on to in the
back. Bristow said there was an addition in the back, then another addition in 2005, and then
the wood deck.
Bristow said the applicant would like to remove the deck and replace it with a screened porch.
She said this went through several iterations, including an enclosed area, but now the proposal
is for a screened porch.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
August 13, 2015
Page 2 of 10
Bristow said they are working on having square post columns that would be wrapped in cedar.
She said that the roof, instead of continuing the back gable that one sees, would continue the
same angle and pitch but would end with a hip instead, to reduce the scale of the back of the
building. Bristow said it would be a simple screen system, with no wall in between the posts.
Bristow said there are a few things to still be determined. She said staff is a little unclear as to
whether this would be just a simple screened porch with a pier foundation or if it would have a
full foundation.
Bristow said staff also does not know what screen system the applicant is thinking of using.
She said staff talked to the applicant about using something that spans either in between the
post columns or would be set behind the columns.
Bristow said staff recommends approving this, because it will be a very simple design. She said
the soffit will be finished in a simple way as is the soffit on the house. Bristow said the posts will
be painted to match the house.
Bristow said that staff feels the screen system and the type of foundation should be approved by
staff and chair once they are determined.
MOTION: Baker moved to approve a certificate of appropriateness for the project at 720
East Bloomington Street as presented in the staff report with the following conditions:
submitting screen system information and/or a sample for staff and chair approval and
submitting a foundation design for staff and chair approval. Clore seconded the motion.
The motion carried on a vote of 8-0 (Corcoran, Litton, and Wagner absent).
721 Fairchild Street.
Bristow said this is a non-contributing property, built in 1953, in the Goosetown/Horace Mann
District. She said the applicant would like to remove the three ganged windows on the front and
build out a bay window that would still have three windows in the front and two windows on the
angled sides. Bristow said there would be a full foundation, and it would not be continued out
past the fascia board on the roof so that it would come out to about where the gutter is.
Bristow said that many ranch homes would have bay windows. She said the big question for
staff during the review was the window type. Bristow said the house has double hung windows
on both sides, fixed windows on the front, and two sliders. She said the three on the front are
probably original, and the original style of the others is not known. Bristow said the owner would
like to have the three windows on the front of the bay as fixed and something operable on the
angles of the bay. She said the owner proposes to do double hung, which would match the
other windows on the side.
Bristow said staff felt that having casement windows here might work better for this property.
She said that then there would not be a change to divided lights on the sides of the bay.
Bristow said staff recommends approving this as a bay window alteration using casements
instead of double hung windows but said staff does not feel strongly about it.
Swaim said that if the windows are casements that wind out, that would be visible when opened.
Bristow showed where she thought the hinge would be. She said she did not think they would
open so far that they would collide with the door. Bristow said the owner prefers double hung
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
August 13, 2015
Page 3 of 10
windows. Swaim said she can see an argument for using double hung windows, as opposed to
quite tall casement windows.
MOTION: Agran moved to approve a certificate of appropriateness for the project at 721
Fairchild Street as presented in the application. Baker seconded the motion. The motion
carried on a vote of 8-0 (Corcoran, Litton, and Wagner absent).
932 East College Street.
Bristow said the Commission reviewed this property recently. She said the current application is
for a cover for the rear apartment entry on the west side of the building. Bristow said it is for an
entry that is sub-ground level. She said a great amount of water collects in there.
Bristow showed the windows and said they are the only windows for the apartment. She said
the owner needs both a roof and a way to continue to admit light there.
Bristow said there are currently some questions about the property line. She said staff and the
building officials have given the owner some direction about determining the property line, and
that still needs to be resolved.
Bristow said the architect's rendering is to do a simple lattice, wood frame structure with very
simple horizontals, all stained dark to blend with the building, and use a translucent, clear-
colored, corrugated roof material over that. She said this is on the back and is very low so that
it will not be very visible from the street, even if the shrubs and other landscaping materials are
gone. Bristow said staff feels that the simple lines would work with the building anyway.
Bristow said staff feels this is an acceptable design and recommends approval.
Sandell asked if any additional concrete would be placed. Bristow said the owner would remove
the metal railing that is on the low concrete wall and would attach the wood frame to the top of
the existing concrete wall and build the frame and structure from there.
Bristow said that at the stair head, it does bump up a little bit. She said there needs to be
enough clearance to meet code requirements going down the stairs. Bristow said it is handled
very simply.
Sandell asked if it is visible from the street. Bristow said it is not. She said the sidewalk itself is
a little bit lower, and the site tends to curve up a little bit.
Swaim asked about the black area on the drawing. Bristow said that right now it is a gravel
area. Swaim asked if the runoff would be onto that surface. Bristow confirmed this.
Michaud asked if the owner is replacing the retaining wall. Bristow said the owner is not doing
anything to the actual wall. She said they are taking off the little roof and the railing and building
a new roof on top of the retaining wall. Bristow said they would remove the ledger board and
connect in to have a structure that would rest on the wall.
MOTION: Baker moved to approve a certificate of appropriateness for the project at 932
East College Street as presented in the application with the following conditions: the
attachment to the building is refined and approved by staff and chair, the product
information for the roof material is approved by staff and chair, the scale and detail of the
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
August 13, 2015
Page 4 of 10
support structure is approved by staff and chair, and design for screen infill is approved
by staff and chair. Ackerson seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8-0
(Corcoran, Litton, and Wagner absent).
229 South Summit Street.
Bristow said this is a contributing property in the College Hill Conservation District on the corner
of Burlington and Summit. She said the owner has applied to put in two through-wall air
conditioners on the south wall and on the north wall of the property.
Bristow stated that the guidelines do not really discuss through-wall air conditioning units. She
said that new windows on street facing walls really are not allowed unless they are in the same
rhythm and framed the same, which would not really relate to air conditioning units.
Bristow said that staff feels there is not a way to make the air conditioning units work with the
historic character of the building. She said staff recommends not placing them like this but
using some other method. Bristow suggested that the applicant use window air conditioning
units, probably not on the street facing side, that are maintained and removed in the off-season;
install a central air system; or install something like the sorority at 223 South Dodge installed,
where smaller units were placed on the ground outside, using about two-inch piping through the
side wall.
Bristow said staff has heard from the applicant, but nothing has really been resolved at this
point. She said staff recommends denying the request to install through-wall air conditioning
units on the north and south faces, both of which are very visible from the street.
Swaim asked if the units shown represent a mock-up or are actually there now. Bristow said
they were installed without a permit. She showed the north face from the sidewalk and the
south face from the sidewalk on Burlington Street.
Bristow stated that if the application were denied, the applicant would be required to remove the
units, repair the wall to match the existing, and come up with an alternative.
Durham asked about the system at 223 South Dodge. Bristow said that it is a mini-split system.
She said that all of the units are about the size of an old-style square window fan. She said they
just sit on the ground somewhere near so that they would not be up in the air and really visible.
Bristow said that at 223 South Dodge, staff worked with the applicant to put the units on the
back, although they were still visible from the street. She said it was discreet enough to not
draw attention to the units.
Bristow said she believes this house would have four units. She said the owner would have to
speak with a mechanical contractor to get the sizing and make sure everything was correct,
because some rigid piping is involved. Bristow said that at 223 South Dodge, the piping
required a two-inch hole with piping run down the face to the unit. She said that staff would
probably require that it be painted so that it did not draw attention.
Miklo said another alternative would be space pak system installed in the attic. He said that is
probably the least destructive, in terms of an historic property as not much of the system is
visible from the exterior.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
August 13, 2015
Page 5 of 10
Miklo said that the second alternative was the split system similar the one installed at 223 S.
Dodge Street described by Bristow.
Miklo said that the third option would be window units installed in the windows and removed
seasonally. He said this not that desirable as the other space pak or split system, but is better
than cutting into the walls of the building. He said that window units don't actually penetrate the
walls of the building and they are not permanently installed.
Michaud said she struggles with window air conditioners every year, taking them in and out.
She said that Mark McCallum did a nice historic renovation at 113 South Johnson. Michaud
said that McCallum had put in cold pak somehow and ended up adding window air conditioners,
because people wanted more control. She said that either way it is problematic. Michaud said
that a cold pak system really costs a lot, which might be irrelevant for the Commission's
consideration, but if there were individual controls, that would be an additional amount, whether
it is two zones or four zones.
Michaud said she thinks this is not as bad as window air conditioners. She said she would not
want to see pipes try to convolute around the exterior of that belt course, like the gutter is,
because it flares out nicely. Michaud said that exterior pipes would draw attention to it and
clutter up that corner just as much as the wall units. She said she does not think there is an
elegant solution that is reasonable.
Durham says that a mini-split system is a zoned system with separate sections and units
Michaud responds that this means they can adjust the temperature and have a separate meter
and things like that.
Bristow said it is also not known, with something like a mini-split system, if the piping could
effectively be run out the back. She said there are some window units in this house on the back
already, which is where the guidelines allow them to be.
Swaim said she does not think what the owner has done here is a good solution. She said it
has quite an impact on the exterior.
Trimble said she is with Friends of Historic Preservation. She said that when she was on the
Commission and cases came before the Commission where someone did something without a
permit, the Commission members were always told to look at it as if it had not yet occurred and
would the Commission allow this to occur. Trimble said it is difficult after this has happened, but
it is a fair way to look at it. She said that if this was done without a permit and without approval,
the question is if this came before the Commission and had not happened yet, how would the
Commission vote.
Baker said she agrees with Trimble and would take it one step further and say that whenever
something like this comes to the Commission, it is always unfortunate because money has been
spent, and yes, the alternative is expensive. She said, however, it sets a precedent, if the
Commission says yes to this, that anyone else who wants to do something like this will go
ahead and do it without getting permission, because he'll say that these people did it.
Baker said there have been other occasions where the Commission has asked people to take
down, at great expense, things that they put up, such as vinyl siding or vinyl windows, because
they put them up without Commission approval, and it is against the guidelines. She said the
Commission needs to be consistent in applying those guidelines.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
August 13, 2015
Page 6 of 10
Baker said there are probably exceptions, and the Commission has made some exceptions.
She said, however, that in this kind of scenario, she is concerned that it would set a precedent
for other landlords to say, "Let's just stick them in the wall, because these folks got away with it,
and we can point to that and say well you approved it before so you can't say no to me now."
Baker said she hopes the Commission will think about the future implication of this decision,
beyond just this individual incident. She pointed out that Trimble said the Commission is
supposed to make a judgment as if the change had not taken place.
Michaud said she would throw in a couple of things about maintenance. She said the point is to
preserve an historic building. Michaud said she has had tenants install window air conditioners
without her presence. Michaud said there is leaking inside the walls, because it doesn't drip out
or it drips down the exterior. She said it is really not simple to put those units in. Michaud said
they would also create a shadow.
Michaud said she can see the point and has heard it many times that the Commission is not
supposed to think about right now. She said she agreed but said this is a less invasive thing
and is better for the long-term preservation of the structure than having 12 different
undergraduate install window air conditioners in 12 years to each unit. Michaud said that is her
personal experience after 25 years with the same house.
Michaud said that long-term maintenance is really important. She said this landlord is extremely
conscientious. Michaud said she does not know too many landlords who bother putting a three-
paint color scheme on their houses.
Miklo said the property recently changed hands. Michaud said that is good to know. Miklo said
that the owner should not be of concern. Michaud said that so far the house has been well-
maintained.
Agran said he is of the opinion that, in terms of the integrity of the structure, a split system would
be a nicer system anyway, but that’s a 2 inch hole in the side of the building and even if the pipe
is there it could get painted but it is a pipe. The current units result in permanent holes in the
side of the building and I have the same concerns about the precedent this sets. This happened
to be cut into the building in a place that is not so bad but they are directly on the street side of
the building.
Agran said he agrees with basically everything staff has said. He said he also agrees with the
concerns about the precedent this sets.
Swaim said therefore the application is really to install, as if this was not already done, four
through-wall units. Bristow responded that after this was brought to staff's attention and staff
contacted the owner, the owner put in an application. She said staff reviewed the application
and then contacted the owner about the concerns and other options. Bristow stated that by the
time the staff report had to be provided for the agenda, staff had not heard back yet. She said
staff could only write a motion based on the application itself, because no other option had been
presented at that time. Bristow said staff has spoken to the owner since, but nothing has been
resolved; it is still based on the application. She said that if the application is denied, she
assumes staff would work with the owner to come up with a solution.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
August 13, 2015
Page 7 of 10
MOTION: Agran moved to deny a certificate of appropriateness for the project at 229
South Summit Street as presented in the application. Baker seconded the motion. The
motion to deny carried on a vote of 8-0 (Corcoran, Litton, and Wagner absent).
REPORT ON CERTIFICATES ISSUED BY CHAIR AND STAFF:
Certificate of No Material Effect – Chair and Staff Review.
530 Iowa Avenue.
Bristow said this is a contributing property in the College Hill Conservation District. She said the
application was to reconstruct the concrete stairs at the entry.
Bristow said the stairs were originally concrete, with side walls made of stone. She said they
had been covered with plywood and leaked, rotted and deteriorated enough that they needed to
be removed.
Bristow said staff worked with the applicant to construct the concrete stairs. She said that since
they could not match the stone, staff allowed a simple pipe rail on each side. Bristow said there
was just plywood skirting on the face, and the skirting on the sides of the porch was also stone
with small openings. She said the owner could not really replace the front to match the same
stone, so staff worked with them to use either a framed lattice or a vertical lattice skirting.
Bristow said the owner is also replacing the concrete stairs at the side entrance.
Minor Review – Preapproved Item – Staff Review.
11-15 North Dodge Street.
Bristow said this is not a contributing property because of the 1960s circa addition that was
added to connect to houses. She said the building is being re-sided, and staff worked with the
owner to find siding and trim to match the existing. Bristow said staff worked with the owner to
do things like remove the inappropriate piece of porch infill and continue the rail the same.
Bristow said the big problem was what to do with the bottom of the wall that meets the
pavement where the window sills down low are rotting. She said they are doing something that
looks like a water table board at the bottom, with some trim.
Bristow said there is a small piece at the side of the porch on both porches. She said staff
worked with the owner to create a pattern, as seen on the columns, to infill so that there is not
an odd piece of lap siding in that area. Bristow said it will finish it out to blend in better.
Bristow said the porches have bead board ceilings, and currently the soffit is plain plywood.
She said staff is having the owner replace it with the bead board-detailed plywood so that it
matches the porch ceiling better. Bristow said the owner is not changing the window.
603 Rundell Street.
Bristow said this house is in the Longfellow Historic District. She said this is an extremely
simple project, basically just adding a flat deck out the rear door, with no railing. Bristow said it
will be very close to the ground and will be inset.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
August 13, 2015
Page 8 of 10
REPORT ON SABIN SCHOOL/SOUTHSIDE SURVEY:
Miklo said the report was not received in time, so the item will need to be deferred to the
September meeting.
DISCUSSION OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION PLAN PRIORITIES AND ANNUAL WORK
PROGRAM:
Swaim said the subcommittee met to review the properties the Commission will be approaching
the owners about nominating these properties as landmarks. She asked for discussion about
how the owners should be approached. Swaim said the owners would be approached either
through a letter with a type of fact sheet with questions and answers and a sheet that has basic
information about the house, or, in some cases the owner may be approached with a phone
call. Swaim said that these would be followed up with a personal meeting and such.
Miklo asked Commission members to look through the list of property owners and let staff know
if anyone is known to them. He said that some of the owners are institutions, such as churches.
CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES FOR JULY 9, 2015:
MOTION: Baker moved to approve the minutes of the Historic Preservation Commission's July
9, 2015 meeting, as written. Ackerson seconded the minutes. The motion carried on a vote of
8-0 (Corcoran, Litton, and Wagner absent).
COMMISSION INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION:
Discussion of potential CLG application.
Bristow said there was information about Certified Local Government (CLG) grant applications,
and the Commission was going to discuss whether there were some possibilities. She said that
after looking at the CLG requirements, it might be something the Commission would want to
table until next year.
Bristow said the applications would involve funding for surveying of areas or nominating
properties. She stated that staff does not have time, between now and the time that the
application is due, to do anything with the properties that are part of the work program.
Bristow said the Commission had discussed the idea of digitizing the files and information for
historic preservation staff. She said that would not appropriately fit under the CLG application.
Miklo said the CLG is a program of the federal government to encourage historic preservation.
He said the funds are distributed by the State Preservation Office in Des Moines.
Trimble asked, if Friends of Historic Preservation was able to work on an application for the City
to submit, if it would be appropriate. Miklo responded that the applications are due September 1
and have to be submitted by the City but said that would be appropriate.
Introduction of Historic Preservation Facebook Page.
Bristow said the Commission had discussed having an historic preservation page. She said it
has been laid out but has not yet been published. Bristow showed how the main page would
HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
August 13, 2015
Page 9 of 10
look and how the images can be changed out on a timed basis. She discussed the tabs on the
Facebook page.
Bristow said she will be the main administrator of the page. Swaim asked if it will be clear that
this is the Facebook page of the Commission. Bristow said that right now the page is called
Iowa City Historic Preservation, but the title can change to whatever the Commission wants.
Michaud said she thought that was kind of broad. Bristow said that Friends of Historic
Preservation has its own Facebook page. She said she left out the word Commission so that it
would seem warmer and friendlier.
Agran said he thinks it is great. He said that hopefully it will grow and catch on. The consensus
of the Commission was to have Bristow publish the page and announce it to people who would
be interested.
GRANT WOOD COMMUNITY AREA FENCE:
Bristow said staff received some renderings for the fence. She said that some Commission
members had concerns about its location in relation to the hill. Bristow said the drawings show
it stepping down a little bit in some places.
Bristow said that further details of what is being proposed were sent, in terms of the pickets, the
steel posts, and the fence color. She said there will be a metal lattice on the gate.
Bristow said the posts will be four feet six inches, the pickets will be four feet, and the railing
horizontals are 20 inches apart. She said that they are three and one-half inches off the ground
in general terms. Bristow said she received a new site plan but had not looked at it closely.
Michaud asked if it would be a minimal type of gate or a special design. Bristow said that what is
being shown now is the temporary design that was shown last time, with a square, very simple
pattern.
Sanell asked about the limestone wall and markers and if that was new. Bristow replied that
she thinks that is a matter of taking last fall's plan, with large limestone piers on each side of the
gate, and moving the limestone down to little markers and a little wall around the landscaped
area.
Miklo discussed the metal-shingled roof on 932 College Street as something the Commission
approved, which turned out well. He said that the roof required review even before the recent
code change because it is a multi-family dwelling. Miklo said that it shows that for someone who
wants to put on a metal roof and wants that durability, there are materials out there that meet
the guidelines.
ADJOURNMENT:
The meeting was adjourned at 6:38 p.m.
Minutes submitted by Anne Schulte
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