Iowa State University’s campus is home to four buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, among many others that students, faculty and alumni consider important to the history, culture and atmosphere of the campus.
However, maintaining these historic buildings is an investment and requires care.

According to Allison Sheridan, curator of the Farm House Museum, a vital part of maintaining the oldest building on the university’s campus is preventative maintenance. Whether it is one loose floorboard or one damaged shingle, it has to be taken seriously, Sheridan said.

“You don’t want to wait until you’re repairing damage,” Sheridan said. “You want to be on the forefront of that. It’s kind of like checking yourself over to make sure you don’t have a tick on you or something because one thing can lead to a domino effect.”

Sheridan noted one challenge of upkeep is a shortage of craftsmanship and materials, which comes with a cost.

“Historic preservation is very expensive, especially when you’re trying to source historic materials,” Sheridan said. “Sometimes they just don’t exist.”

The Farm House Museum receives its funding for maintenance through both the office of the president and state grants, according to Sheridan.

Another historic building at Iowa State is the Memorial Union (MU), which has spent $20 million over the last five years on its facilities projects–$8 million of which went toward building code updates, according to Brad Hill, associate director of the Memorial Union.

According to Hill, the funding, which comes from both student fees and the MU’s own revenue, has gone toward ensuring the safety of the building, as well as maintaining the building’s history.

“The architecture is great and it’s beautiful, but it takes a lot more to keep things up and going, more than the flashy things that people see,” Hill said.

Hill cited recent efforts to replace the roofs of the MU as one example.

Every project, according to Chad Garland, director of the Memorial Union, aims to preserve the history and continue to make the spaces useful to students.

“We want to be honoring what’s come before and the history that’s there with the building, but we also need to make sure that we’re meeting the needs of today’s students,” Garland said. “And trying to find that blend of how those two things work together is challenging, but at the same time, it’s rewarding.”

One way history is honored is through the idea of “original intent.”

Dan Sloan, the university’s architect, likened the intent of historical preservation to a puzzle.

“You take a look at the materials that you have, you take a look at the craftsmanship and the ability to replicate,” Sloan said, “All these pieces play a part and we’ve got to put them together so they fit.”

According to Sloan, even something as small as replacing a door or replicating the stain, trim and paneling should be done with great care; it should not be something you notice, but simply a part of the experience.

At the Farm House Museum, original intent comes from looking back at historic photographs, researching and consulting experts on the time period.

“Any restoration we do, we don’t want to strip away what was there,” Sheridan said. “It’s a brand new cedar roof, but it looks exactly like how it would have looked 100 years ago.”

The house aims to be accurate in its representation of the historical home, which in the past has included stripping back pieces that were not original to the building.

“So for the longest time, we had in the hallway here, pineapple wallpaper–not really Iowa, not really true to the home,” Sheridan said. “You want to make sure you have craftsmanship, a level of craftsmanship that is a little bit more elevated than just building a spec home.”

Safety is another concern of preservation.
According to Sheridan, supports have been added beneath the Farm House Museum to provide increased safety to the structure and visitors.

All materials used in a renovation to keep the museum appearing as it was originally lived in are vetted, documented and submitted to the Department of the Interior as a part of the building’s role as a National Historic Landmark, according to Sheridan.

A part of historical preservation may include changing the building’s function, said Christopher Strawhacker, the university’s campus planner. While older buildings on campus can be kept, they change use as the needs of students change.

Strawhacker also described the thought process when looking at where upkeep should occur to historic academic buildings.

“So HVAC, elevators, electrical work or electrical systems–are they providing the amount of capacity, or can they provide the needs for modern research or teaching?” Strawhacker said.

According to Sloan, these decisions are always student-focused. Buildings are often maintained, but sometimes they must also be torn down.

“The buildings had extended life as far as it could to keep up with the needs of the student population,” Sloan said.

So, what does it take to maintain the historical architecture on the campus? According to Hill, investment and commitment into what is already here, rather than always building something “bright, shiny and new.”

While you may not be able to exactly replicate the original stone, and sometimes compromises may need to be made, according to Strawhacker, “there’s historical value in the campus itself.”

Hill believes that the historical places on campus such as the MU should continue to be invested in order to show the struggles others have gone through.

“It’s called a labor of love,” Hill said. “We couldn’t do it without the students of Iowa State University who originally invested in this building, and they continue to invest in this building,”