Unveiling of the 1876 Centennial Block Building
Signatures found inside of Town Square Dental during renovation. (file photo)
Historical Marker set for Dec. 14 at 2 p.m.
OSKALOOSA – The unveiling ceremony for the Centennial Block Building Historical Marker, will take place in the lobby of Town Square Dental Office, 107 High Avenue East. It is set for Friday, Dec. 14 at 2 pm. The public is invited to attend.
A short program will include comments from Mayor Dave Krutzfeldt and a program by the building’s historians, Emily Russell and Ann Fender. A tour will also be offered to view some astonishing artifacts uncovered by the current building owner, Dr. Eric DeBoef, during renovations for the Town Square Dental offices.
“This is the fifth historical marker to be placed as part of the volunteer, community-based Historical Building Marker project,” said Ann Brouwer, project steering committee chairperson. “The Fire Station, Courthouse, Iowa Building, and Trolley Place Historical Building Markers have already been installed and continue to receive great community support.
Committee member Sherry Vavra said the historical marker project is made possible by the volunteer efforts of many people and businesses throughout the community. “Initially, eight downtown buildings and the fire station were targeted by our group for historical markers,” Vavra explained.
“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, the committee found volunteer researchers for each building. Emily Russell and Ann Fender provided the research for the Centennial Block Building and the duo uncovered many interesting facts.
“The Centennial Building, built in the same year as Custer’s Last Stand and our country’s 100th year celebration, has a rich history in our community,” said committee member Calvin Bandstra. “This history includes a scandalous green paint job in 1992 that garnered statewide attention and prompted a new Oskaloosa city ordinance to protect our downtown historical buildings!”
In 2017, the current owners were renovating the space and uncovered dozens of signatures on a wall dating back to 1880. The owners have preserved this “wall of signatures” and it can be viewed at the offices of Town Square Dental today.
Oskaloosa Main Street Director Emily Brown maintains a webpage for all of the historical markers on the Oskaloosa Area Chamber and Development Group website. According to Bandstra, it is a place where people can go to get a more extensive history of the historical buildings obtained by the building’s researchers. Bandstra said the website is a work in progress and people are encouraged to share information they may have about these structures that may not yet be known.
The steering committee 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 is leading a team of individual researchers who have adopted each building to uncover their amazing history,” Brouwer stressed. “In addition to the researchers who have stepped up to uncover the history of these buildings countless others have helped in various ways to make the project possible.”
