111 – 113 East High Street
Jay Jordan, Owner
The storefront building at 111-113 E. High Street is among the oldest structures in Jefferson City, dating back to around 1860. Owner, Jay Jordan, bought 111 E. High in 2004 and bought its adjacent property at 113 E. High in 2007. It has undergone many transformations over the years but most notably the removal of the storefront facade in 2006 and the restoration of its street face. Old photos were relied upon for this undertaking. The tall Italianate windows and bracketed cornices were returned to almost original. However, a balcony once in front and removed before the facade was put up in the 1960s was not replaced. The entire building received new wiring, plumbing and HVAC, as well as structural reinforcement to comply with present day codes. In addition, there were changes to the walls on the upper floors although the hallways and stairs were restored to the original condition as nearly as possible. Fire escapes were added to the rear and configured to also serve as decks.
Past occupants of this building tell a history of downtown Jefferson City in itself. It first may have served as a retail shop such as a general mercantile. In 1908 it was a Saloon owned by Frank Hoerschem that advertised fine wine and pure liquors. It was a meat market in 1918, a saddlery in 1921, a dry goods and ready-to-wear in 1925 and Meyerhardt's Shoe Store in the 1950s. 111 E. High is currently vacant but with a renter soon to move in. 113 E. High is currently home to Through the Garden Gate gift shop. There are a total of 4 apartments in the upper floors.
As was common to many of the two-story downtown buildings, the first floor served as a place of business and the upper floors served as living quarters for the proprietors. The upper floors sometimes also served as offices for doctors, dentists and lawyers. Old documents suggest this building served as living quarters for the proprietors at the turn of the century and housed the hired help in the back quarters. When Jordan bought the buildings, the second and third floors were being used only for storage and probably had not been used for living quarters since the 1940s.
The owner made use of State Historic Preservation Tax Credits and admits this restoration would not have taken place without this incentive. This impressive restoration of a downtown business storefront adds greatly to the aesthetics of Jefferson City's downtown streetscape.
124 – 126 East High Street
David Winton / D. Scott Penman, Owners
Owned by the Penman and Winton Consulting Group, a lobbying and association management firm established in 1994. In 2005 Scott Penman and David Winton purchased the Chez Monet building, located one block from the state capitol in downtown Jefferson City. After a year of extensive restoration and repair, the 80-year-old building has a new lease on life.
This building was built in the 1920s and is probably the second structure built on this lot. At the turn of the century, the original building at this site housed the Clean Sanitary Grocery store. Saw dust was reputedly kept on the floors with the claim that this kept the floors clean! A dry goods store and doctor's office may have occupied the current building in its early years.
A storefront facade was added in the 1960s. This was a modernization trend that swept through many main street business districts in that decade including downtown Jefferson City. In 2006 the current owners removed the facade and the front of the building was restored to original. Some of its unusual architectural features are the white glazed tiles. Great effort was devoted to replacing missing tiles and getting it restored to its original color. Its outside trim has a decorative egg and dart motif. The second floor windows had been boarded over and covered by the facade. Contractor Mark Dudenhoeffer opened these spaces, repairing the original windows, weights and all. He also hand milled the baseboards, window and door trims in the office area. The original doors, found in the basement were stripped and repaired. Skylights, tin ceilings, and pine plank floors were restored. Essentially the upstairs was gutted and rebuilt using original structural parts where possible and practical.
Penman and Winton made use of State Historic Preservation Tax Credits. Their goal was to return the building as close to original as possible but without sacrificing practicality. The result is an esthetically pleasing historic building with all the necessary modern adaptations for a state-of-the art office space.
It currently houses a bakery/cafe and antique shop on the bottom floor and the Penman & Winton Consulting Group Offices on the top floors.
604 Jefferson Street
Vogel Family, Owners
(Rose Vogel Mengwasser, Emily Vogel Talken, Edith Vogel, & arl Vogel)
The Jefferson City Coca-Cola Bottling Company at 604 Jefferson Street has, with its predecessor businesses, a long and distinguished history as one of the oldest and most important businesses in the Southside, or Old Munichburg. It is the legatee of the Capitol Brewing Company formed in 1892, when Jacob F. Moerschel and his two brothers purchased the Wagner Brewery on Dunklin Street, which itself had been a continuation of the Gundelfinger Brewery on the same location. Thus, there has been a continuous brewery-soft drink bottler on the same square block since at least the 1860s. Since 1892 the business has been in the hands of one family.
In 1902, while operating the large Capitol Brewery, the Moerschel brothers had the foresight to purchase an inexpensive franchise for a relatively unknown soda called Coca-Cola. Carbonated beverages were just being introduced to the American public. In 1922, after alcoholic prohibition had been enforced, the Capitol Brewing Company changed its name to Moerschel Products and soda became its primary beverage. The company provided Coke, ice, and soda water of many different flavors to much of central Missouri. It also provided cold-storage for meat and produce warehousing for Jefferson City grocers. The brewery resumed production after prohibition was repealed in 1933 and continued to 1947. Meanwhile, Coke sales kept increasing.
In 1939 the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Company disapproved of their product being bottled in the same location used by a brewery, because of the possibility of yeast germs getting into the Coca-Cola. In December 1940 Moerschel Products stockholders approved erecting a modern plant at 604 Jefferson Street, across the alley (now Cedar Way) from the brewery. The building was erected in 1941. This is the building being nominated for Landmark designation. In 1944 the name of the company was changed from Moerschel Products to Jefferson City Coca-Cola Bottling Company.
The Moerschel (Dulle) – Vogel family that owned the brewery and now the Coca-Cola Bottling Company has been prominent in Jefferson City history since before the Civil War. An account of their contributions to civic life would take pages, but among them are St. Mary's Hospital, St. Peter School, historic homes (Villa Panorama, Dulle house, etc.) and more recently, active role in the Cole County Historical Society, participation on the city council and the primary supporters of the Old Munichburg Association and its Oktoberfest and more broadly, in current redevelopment of the Southside. The company's Coca-Cola Building at 604 Jefferson is highly visible from the Whitton Expressway. A signboard attached to the north facade serves as the popular posting place for community events.
Architectural Significance:
The Coca-Cola Building was completed in late 1941. John Schaper was architect, Pope Construction Co. did excavation, and Ed Kuehn Construction Company was contractor. Construction totaled $30,059 and bottling equipment, $25,500. A bedrock well beneath the building was drilled (cost $7,321) to provide a water supply for the bottled soda, and though on-site bottling has ceased, the 485-foot deep well continues to be the only water supply for the building. The building is unusual, if not unique, by not being supplied with City water.
The design of the building is thoroughly Art Deco. It was built according to the fourth building design for franchise bottlers adopted in 1929 by the Standardization Committee of the Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta. (It is unknown how many Coca-Cola buildings of this standard design might still exist in the United States.) The design included the prominent Coca-Cola logo with bottles in high relief on the front facade, above the bottling room, and on the north facade. A departure from the mandated design is the cornerstone above the front entrance lintel that proudly bears the inscription: In Memory of Jacob W. Moerschel and in Honor of Ernst C. Moerschel A.D. 1941.
The exterior of the building is tan brick, popular with Art Deco (also the color of another local Art Deco building, the Tergin Apartments on the corner of Washington and McCarty Streets). The two-story, concrete-pillared entranceway holds the key Art Deco elements: fluting at the top of the concrete pillars on both sides of the entrance, which rises slightly above the roof line; vertical metal-and-glass light fixtures on both sides of the front door; windows with cross-hatch panes of unequal sizes; and the double-bar, brass door bars (instead of door knobs or handles), which the Art Deco Governor Hotel used to have.
The original 1941 building is essentially a two-story square, with an extension in the rear for warehousing and loading docks. An open annex on the south was added in 1952; it was enclosed in 1962. More additions were added to the rear in 1965, 1981, and 2001, but none affected the appearance of the original building. (In 2001 the popular Coke Building, a separate structure, was built facing Washington Street.)
The walls of the interior rooms of the original Coca-Cola Building are of dark tan ceramic tile, popular with the sleek, modern, shiny Art Deco style (and similar to the walls of the counter-service room of the nearby Central Dairy, built a few years earlier.)
Despite additions to the rear of the original building, the exterior of the building (seen from Jefferson Street and Whitton Expressway) has not changed, except for first-floor window replacement. Neither has the division of interior space nor the interior walls changed. To enter the building is like stepping back into 1940s architecture. The Vogel family is proud of its preservation of the building as it was built, while still adapting to changing business conditions. The family is also proud of having kept the business on the same square block of its predecessor brewery business more than a century ago.
The 67-year-old, remarkably unaltered building is one of the most visible, well-kept Art Deco buildings in Jefferson City. It reflects the persistence and commitment of an early Jefferson City family to the life and progress of the German-settled Southside (Munichburg) to Jefferson City as a whole.
Summary:
422 Monroe Street
Vivek Puri, Vinca Enterprises, Inc., Owner
This high-rise hotel, built in 1967 is the 2nd tallest building in downtown Jefferson City, the State Capitol being the tallest. Its circular design offers a panoramic view of the city from its glassed-in top floor. Due to its unusual design and prominence it has become a Jefferson City landmark, despite being in the Jefferson City landscape less than 50 years. The Holiday Inn Hotel chain commissioned less than a dozen of these circular high-rise hotels in the 1960s. Most are still standing and some have been sold and renovated as this one has, into high-end hotel enterprises.
It sets on a site at the corner of Monroe and Miller streets where once sat Central School, the first Jefferson City public school. The school, built in 1871 was later sold to the Lutheran Church and became the first Lutheran Parochial School in Jefferson City. The Central school, a Second Empire design with a Mansard roof was sold in 1960 and demolished soon thereafter. The present 13 story high-rise structure was built for a Holiday Inn. A restaurant on the top floor was called the Top of the Round.
The structure has gone through several owners in the last 25 years, but has mostly been on a downward spiral of disrepair until recently. It was bought in 2006 by Vinca Enterprises, Inc., a local company, and has undergone a dramatic restoration/reconstruction. It is now a Double Tree Hotel, a member of the Hilton Family of hotels, with 151 guest rooms it offers a full range of services and amenities for the most discerning guests.
The building was essentially gutted in the renovation and rebuilt on the existing concrete and steel reinforced frame. It has all new heating venting air conditioning systems, electrical systems, plumbing system, and window glazings along with a redesigned room and bathroom configuration to deliver a contemporary product to the market. The 40-year-old elevator systems were replaced and a fourth new elevator for accessibility was added. There was a great effort to recycle all scrap materials possible, although it was not necessarily profitable and easy to do so. A prominent and attractive addition to the south side on the ground level is the Grand Ballroom, with 3,700 square feet and 16 foot ceilings. It will have a seating capacity of 300 dependent upon the seating arrangement. Much consideration has been given to details that make a guest's stay at the hotel more pleasurable, including a state-of-the-art Health club featuring equipment from Precor USA, a leader in fitness equipment, an indoor pool and hot tub, and a We Proudly Brew Starbucks coffee shop on the ground floor. To top it off, Sapphire's Restaurant and Bar is located on the top floor with a grand view of the city, offering an eclectic menu.
The Historic Preservation Commission is impressed and pleased with this restoration of a very prominent structure in our cityscape. It demonstrates a trend in architectural design toward adaptive reuse of structurally sound older buildings, providing alternatives to demolition. It further shows that economic development and preservation can go hand-in-hand.
1107 Moreau Drive
Betty Jo DeLong, Owner
In the 1920s there was a housing boom in the Moreau Heights neighborhood of Jefferson City that drew many prominent residents of the downtown area to relocate to this area on the south east side of town. It became a genteel area, with live-in maids, elaborate gardens and carriage houses. One of the most elegant homes in this distinctive neighborhood is the Ira Lohman house at 1107 Moreau Drive. This two-story grey brick home was built in 1937 for a prominent local attorney, Ira Lohman, son of Louis Lohman, owner of a downtown mercantile and the Lohman Opera house and grandson of the Charles Lohman who owned Lohman Landing.
Designed by Architect John M. Schaper and built by James L. Handley, the house reflects both Colonial and Georgian architectural influences and is reputed to be one of the most solidly built homes in Jefferson City. The walls are 3 bricks thick with the center brick in a waffle design with air spaces for insulation. A concrete slab separates the basement from the first floor to fireproof the living area. Louis (Ming) Lohman, the son of Ira Lohman, a teenager when the house was built, recalled that the contractor told them the concrete on the foundation would support a 7 story office building. The architect, John Schaper was also the architect for the Coca-Cola Bottling Company, another 2008 Local Landmark award recipient.
The house was built for $29,709 at a time when the average home in Jefferson City of that size cost $5,000 - $10,000. A clipping in the local newspaper dated April 24, 1937 reported; From the basement to the roof, the home will be ultra-modern in detail. The design included a maid's quarter, a spiral staircase, special rubber flooring in the kitchen and sun room and air ducts to accommodate cooling coils, one of the earliest types of home air-conditioning systems.
Ira Lohman continued to live in the house until his death in 1977. The family sold the house in 1983. After two more owners, Joe Delong Sr. and his wife Betty Jo purchased it in 1992. It is as grand today as ever and continues to be among the finest older homes in Jefferson City.
