Rodney and Susan Krutsinger's Modern Auto building on North Main Street in Chariton is a carefully preserved 1926 service station that took a direct hit early last year from an out of control vehicle driving at considerable speed that struck and caved in the front of its somewhat later service bays.
In response, the Krutsingers carefully restored the structure and now you'd never know that the crash occurred. Here's how the building looked during July last year, after the front had been rebuilt but not yet repainted.
That restoration effort as well as their long-term care of Chariton's best preserved original service station is why the family on Monday was awarded the Chariton Historic Preservation Commission's 2020 Historic Preservation Award. The Krutsingers are at left; commissioners (from left) Dave Edwards, Alyse Hunter, Frank Myers and Melody Wilson, at right.
The award goes annually to building owners who adapt and when necessary upgrade vintage structures for modern use while preserving or restoring the integrity of their original design.
Before 1926, this corner was the location of the Gardner House, dating from the 1850s and one of the city's oldest hotels, operated until 1896 by the N.B. Gardner family and owned by descendants into the 1920s.
During January of 1926, the hotel's site was sold to the Shaffer Oil and Refining Company and a Deep Rock Petroleum Company "oil station" built after the old hotel had been demolished. That station, the north half of the current structure, still looks much as it did then thanks to the Krutsingers.
1 comment:
AWESOME!!!
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