Remembering the fire

Jan. 27--MOUNT PLEASANT -- It was 30 years ago that Jerry Shafar walked out of Lincoln Street Baptist Church and into a heavy smoke that filled the air over much of Mount Pleasant on Jan. 22, 1989.

"I thought at the time there's something burning that really shouldn't be burning," Shafar, an EMT at the time, said. "I just had that feeling."

About seven blocks southwest of the church, a fire had begun shortly before 11 a.m. in a rehearsal hall in the third floor of Iowa Wesleyan University's Old Main building, home to the university's music program, the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra offices and exhibit rooms of the P.E.O. Sisterhood.

Shafar drove past firetrucks and looked toward the building, seeing more smoke but no flames. A self-admitted shutterbug, he went home to grab his camera before heading back to the scene, where bystanders had gathered to watch helplessly as smoke billowed from the historic building and Mount Pleasant firefighters struggled to combat the blaze, its flames licking the interior walls of the third floor before spreading to the iconic cupola atop the building.

"There was so much emotion. I just remember so much sadness and terror. There was just a feeling in the air around that whole place, even with the fire department, I mean they were just trying so hard to put that fire out to save that building," Shafar said. "When that fire broke through into that cupola, and the cupola became just engulfed, people were just gasping and sobbing. It was very emotional watching that because they knew there wasn't anything they could do about it."

Built in 1854, Old Main was the second building to be constructed on Iowa Wesleyan's campus and was designed to have classrooms on the first two floors and the library, natural history museum and chapel on the third floor. It was also where the International P.E.O. Sisterhood was founded.

"Old Main is kind of the signature building for the campus," Shafar said. "That was the heart of the campus, as far as buildings are concerned."

The building had been placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and underwent a complete interior and exterior renovation from 1976 to 1980. Brick construction and firewalls added during the renovation helped contain the fire to the third floor, but those features couldn't save the gold-domed cupola, and it wasn't long before it collapsed and fell into the PEO Founders Room on the second floor.

"A lot of people went to school there. A lot of people had classes in that building," Shafar said. "When they saw (the cupola) going, I think a lot of people kind of felt like a piece of themselves was burning, was kind of being destroyed."

An EMT of 20 years, Shafar has seen his fair share of fires, big and small, but he noted the Old Main fire was more difficult than most to extinguish.

"It's one of the hardest-to-fight fires I think I've ever seen. They just put everything they had into trying to get that fire out," Shafar said.

The fire department did not have a ladder truck at the time, so rather than attack the flames from above, firefighters went in from the lower floors, aiming their hoses at the flames. The Fairfield and New London fire departments were called to the scene to assist, and it was in large part due to the Fairfield Fire Department's ladder truck that the fire was able to be put out, though the wind that day did not help matters.

"At the time, the wind was just taking the water away from the fire. They just could not get water on that fire," Shafar said.

In total, the fight lasted about 10 hours. The flames would destroy the entire third floor and roof of the building, and the firefight resulted in significant smoke and water damage to the first two floors. Luckily, no one was injured and there was no major structural damage.

Once the fire was controlled, firefighters and volunteers entered the building to save what they could from the first and second floors. Joan Bradshaw, P.E.O. president at the time, wrote that most of the items in the P.E.O. rooms were saved, while some were destroyed and others were damaged. Musical instruments, including grand pianos, worth more than $100,000 were lost in the the blaze.

Even after the fire was out, an engine remained on the scene well into the night to combat any flare-ups that might occur.

State fire marshal officials determined the cause of the fire to be arson, and an investigation by the state fire marshal's office, the Henry County Attorney's Office and the Mount Pleasant Fire Department ensued. No arrests were ever made.

REBUILDING

It would take $1.4 million and 477 days before the building's resurrection was completed.

A month after the fire, major clean-up and repairs were underway, as were plans to rebuild. The same architectural firm that oversaw renovation of Old Main in the 1970s was hired to draw up plans for the restoration, and the restoration was divided into three stages. The first was building the roof and base, the second was the interior remodeling and the third was the cupola and landscaping.

To maintain its listing on the National Registry of Historic Places, Old Main would need to be reconstructed as closely as possible to original specifications.

The damaged bricks could not be replaced with new ones. Instead, the contractor was required to locate bricks similar to the originals, which meant the replacement bricks were more than 90 years old, requiring a special mortar.

Contractors were able to salvage many of the decorative wooden brackets that were attached beneath the roof eaves, and parts from the original window frames were used as well.

The project's architect, Ed Sauer of Cedar Rapids-based Brown, Healy and Boch, likened meeting historical standards to being a detective.

"I feel a little like Sherlock Holmes," The Hawk Eye quoted him as saying in an article published Aug. 16, 1989.

There were no drawings of the cupola's original designs, and contractors relied largely on photos to create a new one.

Not everything was restored to the way it had been before. Redesigning the building's support system allowed the removal of poles that blocked sight lines in the recital hall and a new floor plan allowed for additional storage rooms and office space.

While the insurance money would cover most costs of restoring the building and its contents, it wouldn't cover additional fire prevention infrastructure, such as a sprinkler system, elevator and alarm system tied directly to the Henry County Law Center's fire board. The alarm that sounded during the Jan. 22 fire went to the physical plant building, which is closed on weekends.

Robert J. Prins, president of Iowa Wesleyan at the time, reopened the Old Main Fund to raise money for those expenses. The fund originally had been established to help fund the restoration of the building in the 1970s.

All wiring also needed to be replaced.

The building once again was deemed operational in April 1989 and fully reopened the following October, but it wouldn't be until May 14, 1990, that it was complete.

CUPOLA RETURNS

Music and students had returned to Old Main, but the long familiar cupola had yet to return.

The 26-foot, 6 1/2-ton wood and steel structure was built by H. Eugene Smith Construction Co. of Mount Pleasant, and the dome was built by Brockway-Harris Co. of Burlington. The dome was attached to the cupola tower in early April 1990 and was scheduled to be lifted into place in the final week of that month, but it was delayed by two weeks as the helicopter needed to lift the structure had been held up at a construction site in Illinois.

And so, the topping-off of the building was rescheduled for the morning of May 14. High winds postponed the ceremony, however, and it wasn't until noon that the long-awaited replacement was ready for take-off.

"This is sort of the capping off of the whole project," Iowa Wesleyan spokeswoman Karen Chabel told The Hawk Eye at the time.

With the morning rain gone and the sun shining, hundreds of people gathered around Old Main to watch as the helicopter, appropriately called "The Incredible Hulk" hoisted the cupola into the air and positioned it above the building before lowering it into place.

"To me, it looks exactly like the old one, except it's in nicer shape," Shafar said.

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