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Jan 29, 2024

Edwardsville historic preservation panel gives wards to 3 sites

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Now known as the Ink House, an homage to the Edwardsville Intelligencer newspaper's office for almost a century, this historic site is an event space for weddings, receptions, luncheons, banquets and more.

The Nickel Plate Station is pictured at its current site.

The garage companion to 1025 St. Louis St. is the subject of an Edwardsville Historic Preservation Commission award. It was built in 2019 and earned the homeowners an award for residential construction.

The Edwardsville Intelligencer's second home was on North Second Street, shown in 2019.

The Intelligencer building is shown during the renovation. Seen here is the north face of the building.

This is a view of the Ink House interior as it appears today.

The Nickel Plate Station's original address was 508 Fillmore Street.

EDWARDSVILLE — In honor of National Historic Preservation Month, three preservation and design awards from the city's Historical Preservation Commission (HPC) were handed out Tuesday to residential and commercial properties in town.

Jennifer Wilkins, commission chairperson, gave an overview.

"The awards are aimed at recognizing property owners, contractors, architects and local organizations for their contributions to maintaining and enhancing the architectural, historical and cultural heritage of the City of Edwardsville through their construction projects," she said.

The awards were first handed out in 2019 only to be slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Actual award plaques are still on order so temporary awards were handed out until the bronze plaques are ready and available.

Award criteria are:

For new construction, the winner is 1025 St. Louis St. but it's not the house as much as it is the stand-alone garage in the rear of the property that was designed and built to match the house. Wilkins showed photos of the house and garage.

"This is a two-story, wood-framed house built in 1920," she said. "The house has a hipped-roof with gracefully curving eaves and the homeowners also did some renovation work to the front porch that has really enhanced the appearance of this historic house.

"They stopped to build a new, free-standing two-car garage that would be stylistically similar to the house," she said.

The new garage features similar materials and design cues to the house and was completed in 2019.

One commercial award winner is the Nickel Plate Station on the campus of Lewis and Clark University.

"In August of 1883, the Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad built a train station overlooking the fields and coal mines south of Edwardsville," Wilkins said. "This was seven years before the founding of Leclaire. The station's original address was 508 South Fillmore."

She said the final passenger train left the station in 1959. Until 1983, it was used to house train crews. By the late 1980s, the station was targeted for demolition. The Goshen Preservation Alliance bought the building in 1989 and moved it two years later to the N.O. Complex (now L&C University).

In 2000, the alliance did some work to the station to allow it to survive.

Edwardsville alderman SJ Morrison took on the project and persuaded other alderman to get behind the effort. In March of 2019, the city acquired the station and put it on a spot of land leased from L&C. The city partners with the Edwardsville Children's Museum to operate the station.

Another commercial award winner is the Ink House, in the former Intelligencer building on North Second Street.

This one-story site was built in 1923 as the second home of the Edwardsville Intelligencer newspaper.

"The brick facade features white terracotta trim and detailing, which was very typical of that time period," Wilkins said. "The building was the home of all equipment and printing presses that were needed to produce the paper [through the years.] Over time, technology changed but it remained the home of the Intelligencer until June 2019."

Kristen Pfund and Hannah Fink envisioned a new space, The Ink House, which opened in 2020.

Wilkins said the Nickel Plate and the Ink House followed all of the steps that the commissioners would have wanted to see had certificates of appropriateness (COAs) come before them. In these two commercial cases, no COAs were required.

Edwardsville's Historic Preservation Commission was established in 1977 to maintain the city's long tradition of taking proactive steps to preserve its historic character.

The commission is responsible for preserving historic buildings, gardens and streetscapes, as well as the overall historic character of the community. The commission reviews projects that are inside the boundaries of the city's historic districts and projects that affect individual landmark properties in the city.

The commission reviews proposals for complete and partial demolitions, for new construction and requests for building variances. The commission is also responsible for reviewing and evaluating the design and compatibility of additions and alterations.