Newton Main Street & Jerry Schwaller Receive Main Street Façade Improvement Award

Main Street Newton was recognized Friday April 21st at Main Street Iowa Development Awards Banquet celebrated in Des Moines.

Jerry Schwaller the owner of the Wormhoudt Building located at 115-118 W 2nd St N took home the award for Main Street Façade Improvement category. The transformation of downtown façades has a major impact on visual appearance of a Main Street District. If you have been to downtown Newton, you may have noticed that it not only has beautiful turn of the last century architecture as is typical of most downtowns …but it also has historic architecture up through the 1950s and 60s.

The Wormhoudt Building is an example of that mid-century design. Years ago, the upper façade was covered with a synthetic stucco material and the storefront boxed in with metal siding. While this building would never be considered ‘high style architecture’ it does have a classic streamlined, stripped commercial mid-century design. After the stucco began peeling off, the property owners worked with Newton Main Street, the Newton Historic Preservation Commission, and the Main Street Iowa design team to create a plan to – one – address the peeling stucco and – two – create a quality design that would also reduce long-term maintenance issues.

The end product brought the building back to its original appearance by removing the stucco, restoring the brick on the upper façade, and rebuilding the storefront layout. Transformative details were added through awnings, signage and decorative lighting. When all was said and done, this project had a total cost of just over $50,000!