McGregor’s brick streets listed on National Register of Historic Places
The brick portions of McGregor’s A and First streets, adjacent to Triangle Park, have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the McGregor Commercial Historic District. (Photos by Audrey Posten)
The distinguishable bricked sections date back to 1916, and are the last exposed brick pavers of a large-scale commercial paving project that spanned the entire length of Main Street.
Historian Jan Full, who wrote a nomination amendment to expand the bricks into the commercial historic district boundaries, said brick paver streets have not been much appreciated since modern paving and automobiles came to dominate transportation. “That made it very easy to lay asphalt over brick pavers as a part of street improvement projects. As such, good intact brick streets are becoming more rare nationwide every year,” she shared. “Communities like McGregor are fortunate to have recognized their brick streets for their beauty and historic character while they still had a few.”
By Audrey Posten, Times-Register
The brick portions of McGregor’s A and First streets have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the McGregor Commercial Historic District. Together with the 100 block of Main Street, the distinguishable bricked sections form a triangle around the city’s well-known Triangle Park.
The designation came with the help of historian Jan Full, who was involved in the original State Historical Society project that nominated McGregor’s commercial district to the National Register in 2002. She said her part in the overall project, in which five commercial districts of various sizes in multiple counties were nominated, was to write the related history of Main Street architecture in Iowa.
“A few years later, my husband and I bought a cabin and land up on McGregor Heights,” said Full. “When I heard the brick streets were in dire need of repair, I knew there was a grant program available, but only if the brick streets were within the historic district. They weren’t, so last summer I wrote a nomination amendment to expand the district boundaries to include them. I wanted to help because I’m a committed preservationist as well as a historian, and consider McGregor a sort of second home town.”
The brick streets are listed as a contributing structure, which is one of five different categories of eligible properties for the National Register along with buildings, objects, sites and districts.
Full said an object might be a statue, for example. A site might contain archaeological remains, or be a designed garden or landscape like a college campus. A structure is a property intended for a purpose other than human shelter, such as a corncrib, a bridge or tunnel or, as in this case, a brick street.
“There are over 90,000 properties in the National Register and many of these would be structures,” she added. “All properties need to be either contributing to an eligible historic district or be individually eligible themselves.”
The brick portions of A and First streets date back to 1916, and are the last exposed brick pavers of a large-scale commercial paving project that spanned the entire length of Main Street. The Purington Paver bricks were brought in by carload on the railroad and laid by hand.
“All of Main Street looked like that at one point,” noted Duane Boelman, McGregor’s deputy clerk and economic development lead. “Some of the bricks are still under there.”
In her nomination amendment, Full said the brick paving project was likely part of the Good Roads Movement, a national effort to promote grading and improvements of roads that were increasingly being used for inter-city travel as well as farm-to-market trips. Referencing a William H. Thompson DOT publication from 1989 called “Transportation in Iowa: A Historical Summary,” Full said the movement was especially welcomed in Iowa because the state’s deep, black prairie soils became quite impassible during wet seasons.
“The original dirt streets, hard-packed by wagon traffic, became mud wallows here just as they did throughout the state. They were not suitable for the narrow tires of a growing number of motor vehicles,” the nomination documents note. “The brick-paved streets reflect the modernization of the town’s infrastructure.”
What saved the A and First Street bricks from eventually being paved over like the rest of Main Street? McGregor City Administrator Lynette McManus described it as “preservation by neglect.” These brick portions have also received less use over the years than Main Street. While Triangle Park and the streets around it were once a commercial hub in the community, the area has now evolved into more of a social gathering spot and public green space.
Full said brick paver streets have not been much appreciated since modern paving and automobiles came to dominate transportation.
“That made it very easy to lay asphalt over brick pavers as a part of street improvement projects. As such, good intact brick streets are becoming more rare nationwide every year,” she shared. “Communities like McGregor are fortunate to have recognized their brick streets for their beauty and historic character while they still had a few.”
The reddish-brown bricks look much as they did over 100 years ago, but show signs of wear. Some have become chipped or broken, and the streets have developed uneven low spots. The city of McGregor has imposed a vehicle weight restriction on the sections to help prevent further deterioration.
The National Register listing will open the streets up to much-needed sources of preservation funding.
“That might help with a restoration project for the brick streets,” Boelman said.
For a small city like McGregor, with a tight budget, “there’s never enough money,” added McManus, “so those opportunities for funding are very important.”
Additionally, Boelman said the National Register designation will serve as a heads-up to future generations and city leaders to not remove or pave over these historical features.
“The more that’s recognized as historic in McGregor the better,” Boelman reflected. “It’s one of the main reasons people travel here. They like the look.”
