Preservation Projects
Lustron House
The restoration of this home at 6 W. Lamartine began in 2019 and is almost completed. It will be available for short term rentals mid-spring of 2022. Please check for updates, more history, and and pictures. This photo was taken before any restoration began.
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Odd Fellows Building
In 2009, KCLF purchased the former home of the International Order of the Odd Fellows at 112-144 South Main Street. The building was constructed circa 1858 in the italianate style. It was a hardware store originally, and became the home of the Quindaro Lodge of the IOOF and Rebekahs in the 1880’s.
Thanks to generous support from the Ariel and Community Foundations and the Daughters of the American Revolution, the building underwent extensive renovations to all floors and its 1880s Victorian Era grandeur has been preserved.
Mound View Cemetery Chapel
Built between 1884-1886 in the Victorian Gothic style, the chapel was intended to be a first class chapel for funerals. The building has two rooms, the first, a wood paneled peaked room with a highly unique and elaborate encaustic tile floor that was used for mortuary funerals. The second room, a vault, has a heavy steel door and barrel vaulted ceiling built into the side of a hill. Since it was built before refrigeration the naturally cool chamber was used to store bodies before the ground thawed in the spring. The chapel was used up until 1954 for funeral services for the sum of $10. After that it was used for the storage of cemetery equipment and its upkeep was neglected until 1992 when KCRF began its restoration by repairing the roof and windows. The drainage, stonework, ironwork, woodwork, plaster, paint, lighting and security and windows have been redone with the financial aid of the City of Mount Vernon. Work remains to be done on the interior with the preservation of the floor being the most difficult and probably most costly single item to date.
