The good and the bad of historic restoration

A caravan of city representatives from Maquoketa, Preston and Bellevue made the trek to Dubuque Thursday to tour several historical districts in an effort to gather ideas for potential building restoration projects.

The tour, organized by Jackson County Economic Alliance director Dave Heiar, was attended by about 20 interested business professionals and city officials and visited storefronts along Main Street in Dubuque as well as the newly renovated warehouse district.

The group was led by John and Mary Gronen of Gronen Restoration, the company in charge of many restoration projects in Dubuque.

Participants in the tour admired the architecture and praised the Gronens for their articulate care for history, as a vast majority of the building and aesthetic materials used on the restoration projects were recycled from the past.

Heiar’s goal for the tour was to expose Jackson county residents and officials to the possibilities available with any number of restoration projects that could eventually come to the area.

‘We wanted to get a hands-on feel for what historic rehabilitation can bring to a community,” he said. “Historic rehab isn’t easy, but this was to show it’s an option for us.’

Heiar said there are no specific plans around the county to enter extensive renovation projects to historic buildings, but said Maquoketa’s downtown district could potentially be subject to a re-facing down the road once roadwork and infrastructure construction is conducted.

‘Just look up,’ he said when talking about Maquoketa’s downtown buildings. ‘There’s a historical fabric there.’ (full article…)

BY NICK JOOS, Maquoketa Sentinel Press, March 14, 2015. MSPSPORTS@MSPRESS.NET

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