Former service station slated for demolition

By Audrey Posten | Times-Register

A McGregor building that most recently housed the Twin Cities FS service station is slated for demolition. According to city officials, representatives of building owners Jeff and Jenifer Westphal applied for a city permit to tear down the structure as soon as this week.

The permit—and an accompanying ordinance regarding the demolition of buildings that was passed several years back—gives the city no real teeth to slow down or deny the process, despite the building at 127 Main St. being a contributing structure in McGregor’s National Register of Historic Places-designated downtown district.

There’s even less recourse, said McGregor Deputy City Clerk and Economic Development Lead Brandi Crozier, since city officials and community members were unaware the Westphals planned to demolish, rather than renovate, the structure. Previous plans from the owners called for remodeling the building into a restaurant and coffee shop called The Station. Plans for a new building show a similar concept.

“It was a surprise this week,” Crozier said at a Feb. 27 McGregor Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) meeting. She added there has been no specification why the station is being torn down, and representatives of the Westphals did not respond to the Times-Register when asked for comment.

Previous communication from the Westphals indicated work on the building would start this spring, with the intent to open the business in late summer or early fall.

“I’m sure there were factors that weighed into it, for sure, but they haven’t shared those specifically. Had they said something sooner, I think we could have had a discussion that was different, but they knew this was going to be sensitive,” Crozier stated.

Per the current demolition ordinance, HPC is asked to call a special meeting to review the permit. That was the purpose of last Thursday’s meeting.

“We don’t have any power to stop [the demolition], but we do have an obligation, because it’s a National Register-listed building, to ask the owner if we can get in the building and take interior and exterior pictures and, if possible, get measurements and document what was there before it’s demolished,” explained HPC Chair Duane Boelman.

Boelman said that request had been granted, and he and other commission members planned to tour the building on March 1. 

In addition to documenting the building, Boelman was working with fellow HPC member Michelle Pettit to compile a history of the service station, which was constructed in 1938 as a Mobil super service station. The site once held Hill’s Fish Market as well as McGregor’s flatiron building, according to a July 28, 1938 article in the North Iowa Times. 

Bruce Ferguson closed the Twin Cities service station at the end of 2023, after decades maintaining automobiles for McGregor and surrounding residents. The Westphals purchased the property from Ferguson.

“I found that, when it was built, they called it a Swiss-inspired design because the slogan for McGregor was the ‘Little Switzerland of America,’” Boelman said.

The building is a contributing structure in the National Register listing because it symbolizes the transition from horse and buggy to automobiles, he continued. 

“It was probably the first super service station and, at that time, there weren’t a lot with a bay where you could do car repair work too. It is, in that respect, kind of an important building. It’s also the last one of the original filling stations in town,” Boelman said.

According to the permit application, the owners claimed they did not know the building was a historic property.

HPC members and other city officials worry how this situation could impact other historic structures in McGregor.

“That just brings up, again, that we need to have some kind of ordinance about historic buildings,” said city council member Mel Wild.

“We also don’t want to let properties go un-maintained for so long that the owners are making these decisions to tear them down because it’s more affordable to tear them down and start over than it is to fix them up,” added Crozier. 

Steps are being taken to address property maintenance through an ordinance that will come before the city council later this month. HPC and McGregor’s economic development commission, the Pocket City Progress Commission, have already given their blessing.

A meatier ordinance addressing the demolition of buildings, as well as an updated permit application, is also expected to come before HPC and the council.

“This has inspired us to look at our ordinances, but this could be anyone in the future. We need to be thinking about what we need to do to preserve downtown McGregor from all sorts of situations,” Crozier said. “Any property owner could spring this on us right now, and we’re not really all that protected.”

Per a conversation with the State Historic Preservation Office, Boelman stressed the demolition of this building will not impact the downtown historic district’s status on the National Register. 

“That’s a misconception about the register. They don’t actually police anything. It’s just on a listing,” he said.

The loss of multiple buildings could impact eligibility, though, noted HPC member Sheila Oberreuter.

“Let’s say the tornado took out the entire north side of the block, then you could mess with the eligibility, because that would change things so drastically,” she said.

Measures are necessary, said HPC member Maureen Wild, to preserve McGregor’s historic charm.

“We need something because the old buildings make people come here. It’s a big draw,” she said.