SMOKESTACK (THE)

SMOKESTACK (THE). According to its website, Lucius LANGWORTHY described the site on which The Smokestack was built as an "immense" Native American burial mound, large enough to be seen from a distance. It extended into what became 7th Street. Settlers used the mound as the site of events like July 4th celebrations until 1852.

The site was used for the hanging of Patrick O'CONNER.

The original land patent to the property was issued to Dr. John W. FINLEY and his real estate partner James Watson in the 1840s. They sold the property in 1851 to Joseph GEHRIG.

When the City of Dubuque graded 7th Street in 1852, the Native American burial mound on Gehrig's property and extending into the planned roadway was leveled. Gehrig believed an excavation of 32 feet would be required for a hotel he planned. It was during this excavation that the remains of Patrick O'Conner were discovered along with artifacts of the Native Americans who had once lived in what had already become Dubuque.

Gehrig began building his hotel in 1854, with a stable and several connected outbuildings to accommodate laundry facilities and more on the site. His brother-in-law, Peter KIENE had already built HARMONY HALL across the alley, on Clay Street, now Central Avenue, between 6th and 7th. Completed in 1856, Gehrig's hotel was a very large four stories, topped by a cupola. The hotel contained almost 40 guest rooms on the upper two floors, parlors on the 2nd floor, while the 1st floor contained an office, saloon, dining room, kitchen and "washroom." Gehrig's hotel was constructed primarily of brick, three courses thick, and it is very possible that the bricks came from his brother-in-law Peter Kiene's brick manufacturing company. Gehrig rented his hotel building to another hotelier and it first opened as the Adams House in 1856. However, Gehrig took over operations of the hotel in 1858 or 1859 and renamed it the Jefferson House, in honor of Thomas Jefferson as Gehrig was himself a democrat. Gehrig and, later, his son Henry who was born in the hotel and Henry's wife Mary, operated the Jefferson House nearly until its closing in approximately 1918. The Gehrig family's ownership of the property and the Jefferson House lasted more than 60 years.

The Jefferson House on the corner of White and 7th Streets was known as one of the finest hotels in Dubuque, it was considered the area's "lighthouse" for German and Swiss-German immigrants, and it was situated in the heart of that ethnic enclave in historic Dubuque. The Gehrig family, despite having sold the property in 1911 as part of the final disposition of the Estate of Joseph Gehrig who died in the 1880s, continued operating the hotel until at least 1916. The 1918 Dubuque City Directory lists John P. Ludowisy as the proprietor of the Jefferson House on White and 7th, but the hotel soon closed its doors.

Ironically, The Smokestack's architect, Andrew McCready of Selser-Schaefer Architects, in trying to make best use of the space, came unknowingly and perhaps intuitively to nearly the exact layout that was original to the building when it was the Jefferson House, according to historic Sanborn maps. Thanks to Andrew McCready, the first floor's kitchen, wash- and rest-rooms, bar and dining room are almost entirely situated as Joseph Gehrig designed for his hotel building.

The Sanitary Dairy - 1920 to 1943

Agricultural-industrial and Safe Milk

Light Industrial Takes Hold - 1943 to 1978

In 1943, the building next passed into the hands of the Farley Loetscher Company across White Street, after briefly being held by Joseph Rhomberg, a real estate man who held mortgages on the property and bought the property at the 1943 public auction. Farley Loetscher considered razing the building for a parking lot, but the cost of demolition was not "reasonable." They also thought it was a "desirable corner" for future office space for them should they one day be so "fortunate." In the meantime, they seem to have rented the building out.

By 1948 and to at least 1955, Joseph Kelley was operating two companies on the property: his Dubuque Clean Aggregate company's office was there selling sand and gravel, yet he was also president of Micro Machines, a general machine shop in the corner building which also manufactured plastic kitchen and dinette sets and industrial rubber goods. Micro Machines, later known as Micro-Lite, seems to have conducted its production fully within this building and property at the southwest corner of 7th and White. It is highly likely that the plastic kitchen and dinette sets were made of Farlite, a Farley Loetscher plastic, similar to Formica - this would explain Micro Machines later being known as Micro-Lite. At some point, before 1962, while owned by the Farley Loetscher company - and likely by necessity, the top two stories of the building, including the building's cupola, along with any remaining outbuildings from the hotel, seem to have been razed.

The Farley Loetscher Company closed its own doors in 1962, and sold this property to Robert and Eugenia Loetscher and they leased the building out, with one of their tenants briefly being McCray's Quality Chicks, a hatchery. From 1969 into the 1980s, it was the home of Burke Alumatic, specializing in aluminum doors and windows.

A Small Warehouse Is Born, 1978 to 2014

In 1978, with Burke Alumatic still leasing, Robert and Eugenia Loetscher sold the property to Bill Feye, who owned much of the rest of the block between White and Central and 6th and 7th Streets, and had basically grown up across the alley, in his father's automotive shop, Feye Brothers, a business Bill led for decades. After Burke Alumatic moved its operations from the building in the 1980s, other tenants moved in briefly, like C&T Motorcycles, a motorcycle repair shop. The building lost its appeal to commercial tenants over time, its infrastructure was outdated and deteriorated. Bill Feye began using the building for the storage of auto parts left over from his business Feye Brothers Automotive, which had closed a few years earlier.

Bill Feye loved the building, and had fond memories of being a child and getting ice cream at the Sanitary Dairy, and he thought it was beautiful, even in its rough state. Over the years, he entertained offers from interested purchasers, but purchasers declined to proceed time and again - renovating the building was a daunting task. The County of Dubuque became interested in purchasing the property from Bill Feye, not to save it, but to tear it down and build new office space for County employees. While saddened by its possible destruction, Bill Feye went through the process Dubuque County officials required for possible purchase. They said the building had to be declared non-historic before they bought it and, so, in 2012, with critical testimony provided by the City's Zoning Department, referencing documentation from a historical survey done in 2004 which actually recommended further research be done on the building and its site - apparently also unaware that the building was actually eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places since it had been in the same state for over 50 years, and not recognizing its 20th Century agricultural-industrial importance in the history of the region, but focusing solely on its 19th Century hotel history - the City of Dubuque's historic preservation commission, declared the remnant of the original Jefferson Hotel building, what is today The Smokestack, not historic enough for preservation, and granted a demolition permit in response to the County's application as the interested purchaser of the property. The county dragged its feet for two years, yet Bill Feye still had interested purchasers, the last being Susan and Scott. He called all of his other possible purchasers, including the County, to tell them he thought he had a real buyer, being a man of his word. Less than a week after Susan and Scott's purchase in March 2014, the county called Bill Feye to again inquire and he had the pleasure of telling them, "Just sold it."

The Smokestack 2014 to the present

So began Susan and Scott's arduous renovation of the property, their development of their shared vision for The Smokestack as a flexible urban venue, of making it happen. One could say the building and the site spoke to them, they felt the minute they walked in the space that it was a sacred place, long before they knew anything of its history. Their ultimate goal is to renovate the 2nd floor and create rooftop terraces and green roofs, and expand The Smokestack into those spaces creating a multi-level flexible urban venue that is unique in this region. It has been a wild adventure, fortunately filled with so many good people, and it has challenged them on every level, but they have been sustained by their belief in the building and the site, in its beauty as they found it, in their vision for making it a place of gathering once again, their belief in Dubuque and in Iowa, and, most of all, their belief in people everywhere.