Heritage Trust protects historical side of Burlington
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The past year was a good one for the Heritage Trust, a non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting the preservation and restoration of Burlington’s architectural resources, said Heritage Trust President Steve Frevert.
Heritage Trust will hold its annual meet at 2 p.m. Sunday Feb. 10 at Hibernia Hall, 1204 Washington St., to discuss last year’s progress and look toward next year. There will also be a “big announcement” for the group.
As part of the meeting, two guest speakers will share their experiences with historic preservation: Mike Haverkamp, president of Iowa City’s Friends of Historic Preservation and Tim Weitzel, chairman of the Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission.
The two Iowa City groups spearheaded a massive recovery of historic properties in Iowa City after a tornado devastated parts of the city. Their collaboration won them an Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
In Burlington, Heritage Trust’s activities include owning and operating Hibernia Hall, offering education about restoring historic properties, hosting an annual Tour of Homes, providing grants for the restoration of historic porches and siding, as well as selling building and house parts garnered mainly by salvaging materials from buildings slated for demolition.
Heritage Trust brought in about $28,000 last year, with about half of that from sales of materials from Preservation Station where the group sells salvaged materials. The rest of the funds came from a variety of sources including: $5,000 from Hibernia Hall, $4,350 from membership dues and $6,000 from the annual tour of homes.
Hibernia Hall actually lost money its first year open, costing the group about $3,000 more than it brought in, Frevert said.
Although the hall got off to a slow start for its first year, Frevert said business is picking up and he hopes financial numbers will be in the black next year.
The trust’s expenses for last year amounted to about $19,500, Frevert said.
“We don’t want to make a bunch of money to sit on. We want to see it (funds) go back into the community and do a little work,” Frevert said.
To help with that goal, Frevert said he would like to see the group focus more on education and encouraging area property owners to rehabilitate old homes.
Housed in three unheated buildings at 923 Osborn St., Preservation Station is a mess of lighting fixtures, wood paneling, sinks, bathtubs, doors, decorative light fixtures and just about anything else that can be taken out of a building and reused.
“A lot of this stuff you can’t buy brand new,” Frevert said. Although replicas of antique materials can be found, the replicas tend to be expensive.
Preservation Station was open by appointment only in January, but it will re-open for its regular hours, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of each month, beginning in February, Frevert said.
Last year, volunteers gutted eight houses and the former North Hill Elementary School.
“It’s amazing what you find in these places. Even the most disgusting places that look like complete dumps, you can find stuff in,” Frevert said.
Frevert said sometime people will simply drop off and donate materials. For example, earlier this year, someone dropped off several pieces of pre-civil war, old growth lumber, wood paneling complete with square nails and flaking paint.
“It’s better than any lumber you would be able to buy today without paying exorbitant prices,” Frevert said.
Although some of the materials go to restoring old buildings, Frevert said much is also purchased for use in crafts and other projects.
The three buildings the group uses for Preservation Station are owned by local businessman Randy Winegard, and the space is donated free of charge.
Although the group is very grateful for the use of the buildings, Frevert said in the future members would like to move to a new location.
The current buildings have no heat, flood when it rains and have a pigeon infestation problem.
The pigeon problem has been solved in the main building; however, droppings from the birds still litter some areas.
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