Commission asks for time to inspect historic smokestack

The city's Historic Preservation Commission is asking the City Council to examine alternatives to razing the Sinclair smokestack.

A letter to the council, approved last night by the commission, asks for additional time so a professional with experience in historic masonry towers can inspect the structure.

Last month, the City Council approved emergency demolition of the former slaughterhouse complex, 1600 Third St. SE, which was damaged in two fires last year.

That plan includes razing the 100-year-old brick smokestack. City workers declared the smokestack an imminent threat because of cracks.

Bids for the demolition are due today.

“We do not ask that the Smokestack remain regardless of other considerations, including health and safety, but we do advise that alternative solutions to razing this Cedar Rapids landmark be investigated,” the letter states.

The site is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. As a landmark of what was the fourth largest meat processing plant in the world, funding is available for the smokestack that would not be for other structures.

Commission Chairwoman Maura Pilcher said potential sources include federal funding and Silos & Smokestacks, a northeast Iowa National Heritage Area.

Federal money becomes available for mitigation anytime federal projects require demolishing historic structures.

Homes and other buildings in historic neighborhoods have been demolished since the June 2008 floods, resulting in a pool of funding for mitigation projects.

The city has cited the cost of refurbishing the smokestack at $1 million, based on an estimate for a similar project with the Shot Tower in Dubuque.

Pilcher said the Shot Tower had also been in disrepair, but has since been restored and is integral to Dubuque's historic district.

Sinclair's smokestack, originally 193-feet tall, was built in 1909.

Cedar Rapids historian Mark Stoffer Hunter said the structure served more than a utilitarian purpose. The Sinclair name was embedded high into the smokestack to be seen by train passengers coming through the city.