Keokuk Union Depot Foundation receives $50K historic preservation grant
KEOKUK — The Keokuk Union Depot Foundation has received a $50,000 grant toward restoration of the exterior masonry of the Depot’s waiting room section.
The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs announced this award as one of 10 historic preservation grants awarded for fiscal year 2023 through the State Historical Society of Iowa’s Historical Resource Development Program
The estimated $258,000 project addresses structural issues and will return the exterior masonry to the original color scheme of the 1891 Keokuk Union Depot, designed by the renowned Chicago architectural firm Burnham & Root.
All sandstone windowsills and water table capstones will be restored or replaced. The deteriorated below-grade sandstone mudsill will be replaced with more durable and less porous reddish-brown granite and damp proof flashing that will stop rising damp and preserve the brick water table walls.
The brick walls will be repointed or reconstructed where necessary and cleaned. The decorative terra cotta floral lintels surrounding several doors and windows will be restored and cleaned.
The HRDP waiting room exterior masonry project is a component of the 2020 Jeffris Family Foundation Challenge Grant Capital Campaign, which will also restore the trackside canopy, reconstruct the original marble and tile waiting room floor, restore deteriorated interior waiting room masonry, install period lighting, and improve restroom facilities.
Donations to the Keokuk Union Depot Foundation through June 30, 2023, qualify to earn the $275,000 Jeffris match toward the $825,000 capital campaign.
About 200 donors contributed a total of $310,178 through this past July toward the $550,000 marching funds required to earn the Jeffris grant.
Donations to the foundation may be sent to PO Box 463, Keokuk, IA 52632.
The waiting room exterior masonry project will be carried out in parallel with the similar exterior masonry restoration project on the Depot’s central tower section that is the subject of a 2021 Rural Heritage Revitalization grant awarded to the City of Keokuk through the National Park Service and administered by the State Historical Society of Iowa.
Once both projects are completed, two-thirds of the Depot’s exterior masonry will have been restored.
This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Keokuk Union Depot awarded Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs grant
