GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) - Mary Stoltenberg focused, screwing a gold bracket to hold a marble shelf into the freshly painted wall.
“God knows how long this has been up here,” she said.
The brackets are just a small part of the history of the Hargis Mansion, and Stoltenberg was putting the finishing touches on the most recent renovations to the building, which is owned by the Grand Island Woman’s Club.
On April 15, the club will open the house at the corner of Second Street and Lincoln Avenue to show those renovations to the public. The group will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its purchase of the building and the recent changes with complimentary tours and refreshments from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“People are always curious about this house,” said Stoltenberg, the group’s reservations chairwoman. “They see this giant three-story Queen Anne home, and they don’t know what it is. It’s like a mystery.”
That curiosity comes from the home’s long history in Grand Island.
It was built in 1898 by Andrew Hargis, Woman’s Club Treasurer Renae Hunt said. At the time, it featured five bedrooms, leaded glass windows and a huge third-floor ballroom. True to the style, the house was painted olive green with cream and white trim.
The original features began to change, however, when the Johnson Chiropractic Health Clinic bought the building in 1935 and converted the ballroom into sleeping quarters. In 1944, the building was sold again, this time to a Lutheran church that altered the grand staircase and took down original partitions, among other things.
Since 1954, however, the Woman’s Club has been trying to bring the mansion back to its original glory, Hunt said. The group, which provides both social and community service opportunities to its members, uses the building as its club house.
“There are not a lot of homes left like this,” Hunt said.
It’s on the National Register of Historic Places, and though the architecture is notable itself, Woman’s Club President Pat Mader said, Hargis, who started the Grand Island Business and Normal College, added to the history.
To preserve that, Stoltenberg said, the group repaired many holes and cracks in the plaster walls, replaced deteriorating curtains with 46 new lace panels and changed the former peach paint downstairs to a more period-accurate green to echo the original decor.
And the most recent work isn’t all.
“It’s constant maintenance on this,” she said.
The group has also repaired the large porch and fixed an upstairs soffit.
Even so, Mader said, they need about $100,000 to make other necessary repairs to the foundation.
Stoltenberg said it would probably take about $3 million to restore the house to its original glory. The group is trying to gain 501(c)(3) status to make that easier.
“We want to preserve it - bring it back to its grandeur. That would be the ultimate,” Hunt said. “But that’s way down the pike.”
Still, Hunt and Mader said, the recent repairs and years of ownership are worth it to have the opportunity to share the house with the community.
“This was the beginning stage of the Grand Island area,” Hunt said. “It’s a part of Grand Island history.”
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Information from: The Grand Island Independent, https://www.theindependent.com
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