When I was going through the tour

When I was going through the tour, I took great interest in KSA Architects. It is located on 526 South Second Street. KSA stands for Kagermeier-Skaar Asleson Architects. The business deals with architecture planning and interior design. This would be one of the old buildings that is an example of adaptive reuse. It appealed to me because it has a long history with a few different owners. Also the building itself has had so many renovations that it makes for an interesting story.

KSA ARCITECTS

The KSA building was built in 1878. It was first home to a doctor and his family. The doctor practiced medicine and had his clinic outside of the home. The family lived on the second and third floors. The doctor then had his practice on the main floor.

Then in the year 1920, the home was turned into Johnson-Boman Mortuary. To make the home more like a place to view the dead, the owner did a lot of remodeling. When you would first walk in, the staircase was directly in the middle of the floor. The owners decided to move it to the side to make more room. Also the rooms were rearranged so the viewings could be held in the front of the house. The owner made it more a place of business instead of a home. After moving the staircase, they realized that there was no way of getting the coffins down since it was rebuilt at a ninety- degree angle. The railing not against the wall was also very high. To make it easier to get the coffins downstairs, the owner cut out the tops of the newel stair posts.

You could slide the tops of them in and out. It was the easiest and fastest way to get the caskets down. Since they could be slipped back into place, it kept the railing looking nice too (Jacque P.I.). The building was used as this type of business for fifty-eight years

In 1978, a woman bought the building and turned it into a bakery. She was also very keen on remodeling the place and made many changes. The new owner tore the place up. However, she ruined all of the original furnishings, designs and accessories. She even threw out a ninety-year-old bench that had been part of the house from the original owners. When it was finally bought in 1980 by WKS, the building was in terrible shape. They took over and tried, very successfully too, to restore it to its original status. They have also recovered some original pieces to the house. They located the bench that sits in the main entrance which belonged to the original owners and refinished it to look as good as new. In fact the whole building has been done over entirely and looks great. Now it is renamed KSA Architects, who have been the owners since (Jacque P.I.).

Macionis, John J. and Vincent N. Parrillo. Cities and Urban Life. Pretence Hall, NJ 1998.