Projects

Other county projects outside of the Iowa Lakes RC&D area:

Winnebago County
Technical Assistance Network (TAN): completed a site inventory form to help determine whether or not the country school in Bolan would be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Worth County
Technical Assistance Network (TAN): completed a site inventory form to help determine whether or not a downtown vacant building in Buffalo Center would be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Currently working on writing a Country School Grant to assist with preservation work that needs to be completed on the country school south of Buffalo Center.

Pocahontas County
Pocahontas, St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, 1883: The SS. Peter and Paul Catholic Church was constructed in July 1883 by pioneer settlers from Bohemia.  It was moved less than one mile in 1894 to make it more accessible to its members (they had to cross a flood plain to reach the church and it presented problems several times during the year).  In 1895, an additional 1,600 square feet was added.

The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places under criteria A for its association with the settlement of Bohemian people in Pocahontas County; for being the first Roman Catholic Church in the county; and as a tangible expression of the arriving Catholic contingent in the county’s religious makeup. 

It is also significant under criteria C as the best example of Italianate and Greek Revival influenced church design in Pocahontas and as one of the best surviving examples of the design skills of Will Hubel, a local pioneer builder who erected many of the first buildings in the community and surrounding vicinity.  The church is the last of five wood frame church buildings standing in the community at the turn of the century and one of fewer-than five remaining in Pocahontas County. 

The church was founded by Bohemian pioneers.  Some arrived directly from their native Bohemia; others made stops in Chicago, IL; Tama, Johnson, and Winneshiek counties in Iowa before settling in Pocahontas and surrounding townships.

Photo taken after the new cedar shingle roof was complete, September 2007.