Historical Marker To Be Unveiled Thursday At Trolley Place
The ribbon was cut in October of 2012 officially opening ‘Trolley Place’. (file photo)
Unveiling of the Trolley Place Historical Building Marker set for September 27 at Noon.
(Formerly Known As: Fitch (1905), McGregor (1905) and, Malcolm (1911)
OSKALOOSA – The unveiling ceremony for the Trolley Place Historical Marker is set for Thursday, Sept. ember 27 at Noon and will take place at the site of the former McGregor building at 116 High Ave West. The public is invited to attend.
This is the fourth historical marker to be placed as part of the volunteer, community-based Historical Building Marker project. The Fire Station, Courthouse, and Iowa Building Historical Building Markers have been installed.
According to Ann Brouwer, Historical Marker Committee member, the project is made possible by the volunteer efforts of many people and businesses throughout the community. Initially, eight downtown buildings and the fire station have been targeted by the group for historical markers. Each historical marker includes the year the building was built, pictures of the building through the years, a few interesting and fun facts to appeal to community members and visitors, and a link to a website at the Chamber of Commerce for a more detailed history of the building.
As part of the project, researchers for each building were obtained. Bill Akason and Cheryl Lockwood provided the research for the Trolley Place. “Trolley Place was quite a challenge for Bill and Cheryl as it is made up of three historical buildings,” noted Research Coordinator Calvin Bandstra. They did a fantastic job of pulling it all together and the history they uncovered is quite amazing.”
“An interesting fact uncovered is the history in Oskaloosa of The Knights of Pythias, one of our most prominent lodge organizations. The group located their ballroom and membership quarters in the third story of the Malcom Building. Surprisingly, the ballroom and quarters are still largely intact today on the third floor!”
Bandstra said the research duo also uncovered that in 1896, the property housed two saloons and one of the owners became the subject of a federal court case during prohibition. “McGregor Furniture is remembered by many of our Oskaloosa residents today. The company was founded in Oskaloosa in 1896 and operated here until 2008. One hundred and twenty-two years later, the company is still in operation in other communities in Iowa.”
The trolley service in Oskaloosa began as a horse-drawn service in 1888 and in 1897 converted to electric trolleys, which intersected at the buildings’ site until 1925 when service ended.
In an effort to salvage these historic structures, the Oskaloosa Downtown Development (ODD) group purchased the property in 2008 and renamed it “Trolley Place” in 2012.
“Thanks to the efforts of the ODD group, we still can enjoy these buildings today,” said committee member Sherry Vavra. “The Oskaloosa Chamber and Development Group is hosting a webpage for all of our historical markers. This is a place where people can go to get the more extensive history of these historical buildings obtained by the building’s researchers. The website is a work in progress, and the committee encourages people to come forth and share information about these structures that may not yet be known.”
Brouwer and Vavra stressed that many volunteers collaborated to make the historical markers possible, including, John Grahek from Clow Valve, which is donating the brass for all of the markers. The pattern for the mold that Clow used was developed by Tom Stone from Musco and donated to the committee. Colt Mefford is donating his services to install the historical markers and Lyle Siefering of Mahaska Title is providing the “chain of ownership” on each building for the chamber website.
“Calvin Bandstra is leading a team of individual researchers who have adopted each building to uncover their amazing history,” Brouwer said. “In addition to the researchers who have stepped up to uncover the history of these buildings, people like John Jacobs, president of the Mahaska County Historical Society, have also helped us uncover the history of these buildings.”
If you would like more information or you have information to share about our historical buildings, contact Brouwer at 641-660-8075 or Vavra at 641-660-7504.
