The National Register of Historic Places provides a means of identifying and honoring the various types of resources that contribute in a significant way to the understanding of our country’s history. In a nutshell, resources on the National Register can be objects (e.g. a sculpture), structures (e.g. a bridge), buildings (e.g. a school), or sites (e.g. a farmstead), with a case for listing made under one or more criteria: A – historical association; B – association with a person of significance; C – as a significant representative of the work of an architect, builder, engineer, etc.; or D – as an archaeological resource. For more information about the National Register of Historic Places, including access to the database of listed resources, details about the process of nomination, and the benefits of listing on the National Register of Historic Places, go to the National Park Service website at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/index.htm .
AKAY Consulting is responsible for preparing the following nominations, which have been listed on or are in the final phases of the nomination process.
Hippee Building – Des Moines, Iowa
The Hippee Building, named for Des Moines businessman George B. Hippee, is a 12-story, steel frame, brick and terracotta professional office building constructed in 1913. The building was listed on the National Register in 2018 and is significant in association with the role of the longtime occupant, the Iowa Loan & Trust Co., on residential development in Des Moines. The Hippee Building is also significant as an example of Beaux-Arts Classical architecture in a “fireproof” commercial building of the skyscraper form and as a representative of the work of the Des Moines architectural firm of Sawyer & Watrous. After an extended vacancy, the Hippee Building is being historically rehabilitated for use as the Surety Hotel, which is on schedule to open in the spring of 2020.
Hotel Rea – Corydon, Iowa
The Hotel Rea is located in the small, south-central Iowa community of Corydon with its commercial district centered around a county courthouse square. In 1898 local businessman Everett A. Rea constructed the hotel concurrent with the adjacent bank building; the second floor of the bank building originally housed several hotel rooms. The hotel is representative of the common trends seen in late 19th century, small town hotels. With the increased commercial activity brought by railroad service and the travelers coming to Corydon as the county’s governmental center, the convenience of the Hotel Rea, was an important element of a prosperous community.
Having stood vacant and significantly deteriorated for two decades, the hotel was reopened in 2019. Although the current character reflects a recent historic rehabilitation, the hotel remains faithful to its Late Victorian character. The Hotel Rea was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.
Albert H. and Jennie C. Sperry House – Willmar, Minnesota
The Albert H. and Jennie C. Sperry House was constructed in 1893 and stood as part of a larger farm site with multiple outbuildings through the 1970s. Today, the site is reduced to less than 2-acres, but view of the property from the adjacent Foot Lake is no less scenic. The Sperry House is a well-executed representative of a vernacular form of Queen Anne residential architecture and is significant as Willmar’s best-preserved Victorian era, single-family residence executed in brick. The Sperry House was constructed by Willmar contractor John Skoolheim who built many residences, commercial buildings, and churches in Willmar and surrounding communities. The Sperry House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018 and is open to the public as part of the collection of the Kandiyohi County Historical Society.
Iowa Ford Tractor Company – Des Moines, Iowa
The Iowa Ford Tractor Company Repair and Warehouse Building is significant as an important representative of a mid-20th century, architect-designed, industrial property. Built in 1949 to provide tractor repair and storage facilities for the Iowa Ford Tractor Company, the building utilizes a poured-concrete structural system in its lower level and a steel post-and-beam structural system on the ground floor.
The modern character of the Iowa Ford Tractor Company building is reflected in the exterior design elements – a low and elongated form, flat roof, ribbon windows, and simple decorative devices representative of the Mid-Century Modern style. The use of the style is particularly interesting in its application to this specific property type. In this building, construction methods and Mid-Century Modern design are combined with function-specific elements (e.g., a recessed loading dock on the façade) in a manner not seen elsewhere in the adjacent, commercial area where similar businesses historically occupied late 19th and early 20th century buildings.
Minnetonka Beach Water Tower- Minnetonka, Minnesota
The 1928 Minnetonka Beach Water Tower is located on a wooded site on the north lakeshore of Lake Minnetonka. The water tower, which is a 140-foot tall, 50,000-gallon, elevated steel water tower of the hemispherical bottom type, retains the features that represent its type, including a cylindrical, riveted steel tank with a suspended hemispherical bottom, conical roof with ventilator finial, girder balcony stiffener, and lattice-girder steel tower. Construction of the tower marks the village’s transition from non-filtrated water pumped directly from Lake Minnetonka and the community’s evolution from one tied to the seasonally driven residential base established during the Lake’s boom years, to a year-round population with deeper and less transient ties to the community.
Typical of elevated water towers, the structure at Minnetonka Beach functions as a way-finder for residents and visitors alike. Historically one of perhaps a half-dozen municipal, hemispherical bottom towers located in communities stretching the shoreline of Lake Minnetonka, the 1928 structure at Minnetonka Beach is now the only remaining water tower of its type on the lake.
Morristown Feed Mill – Morristown, MN
The Morristown Feed Mill is located on the west bank of the Cannon River as it passes through the small, Rice County community of Morristown. The 1911 feed mill is a heavy timber and balloon-frame structure with a side-facing, gable roof and an exterior clad in metal siding pressed in a brick. A ca.1930 addition is attached on the west and a ca. 1940 engine house is attached on the north. The mill retains its exposed heavy timber and balloon-frame structural system, early industrial appearance, and numerous pieces of milling equipment.
The Morristown Feed Mill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018 as an important representative of the history of Minnesota milling, specifically feed milling. Beginning in 1911, the mill at Morristown served the area as a feed mill for 60-years, most of those as the Schroeder Bros. Feed Mill. Now owned by the City of Morristown and operated as a museum, the feed mill is open to the public on a seasonal basis. The Morristown Feed Mill underwent an historic restoration in 1991, at which time non-historic alterations were reversed.