Historic mansion being restored in Cathedral neighborhood

An early 20th century mansion in the Cathedral neighborhood is being restored — and you’ll eventually be able to take a look inside it.

Matt Luke, owner of Luke Properties, bought the home at 201 N. Prairie Ave. and its neighbor to the west last year.

“I love history, and I love the idea of preserving a home in the historic district,” he said. “I thought it would be an amazing project to work on. It’s a little different than what we normally do, but I was totally game for it, and I’m having a blast doing it.”

Luke Properties was started 15 years ago and is a property investment firm that handles residential and commercial rental properties. Acquiring a century-old home hasn’t been in keeping with the portfolio, but the past year has presented a lot of learning.

“I’m still trying to learn about it,” Luke said.

What he knows so far is that original owner George H. Perry was a prominent area businessman whose family owned the East Sioux Falls town site for more than 100 years. At one point, Perry was the owner of Sioux Falls Granite Co. and East Sioux Falls Quarry Co.

In 1999, the family donated much of the former town site to Minnehaha County, which has developed it as Perry Nature Area.

It’s unclear how long Perry lived in his Cathedral neighborhood mansion, and Luke still is tracing its uses over time. He purchased it from an owner who had lived there about 20 years — and the work began.

“It was in disrepair,” he said. “We were able to come in and clean up the yard and the house and take out the carpet, and we spent about three days … taking garbage out of the house.”

They filled three dumpsters, spent two weeks cleaning and then started “figuring out where we’re at with the restoration process,” Luke said.

“The structure is great. The bones of the house are in great condition. Fortunately, much of the woodwork was not damaged to the point we couldn’t restore it.”

Essentially, every inch of the house has been touched in the past year.

“We’ve been really taking our time to do it the right way, making sure everything is exactly how we want. It’s meticulous,” Luke said, adding many needed pieces for the work had to be sourced online or through antique shops.

“So getting the materials here takes longer, which makes the process longer as well, matching paint, but pretty much every room we’ve gone through and taken our time to bring it back to what we envisioned it was in 1911.”

Certain areas clearly stand out, such as the dining room, which features 6-foot wainscoting in an all-wood “incredibly ornate design,” Luke said.

“We stripped the paint off floors, refinished floors and had somebody spend about two weeks going through it fixing up baseboards and doors and built-in cabinets and wainscoting.”

To fully appreciate the work that has been done, take a look at these before-and-after images:

Luke Properties also acquired the home to the west and thinks of it as a guest house. Between the two properties, there’s 8,000 square feet, eight bedrooms and four bathrooms.

“The unique thing is they shared a backyard, so by us being able to purchase that home, whoever is using the property can enjoy the backyard without having to share with a neighbor,” Luke said.

Long-term vision

For a year, Luke and his team have kept fairly quiet about their work on the mansion.

“It can be overwhelming,” he said. “I enjoy this, so it doesn’t overwhelm me necessarily, but we’re now starting to get to the point where people can see it being brought back to its original glory.”

As he has started to share it with the neighbors and preservationists, excitement has built.

“The first person I brought in about fell over,” he said. “He’d seen the house for years and was amazed someone has decided to restore this back to what it was rather than turn it into an apartment complex.”

Luke doesn’t plan to turn the mansion into apartments. He also doesn’t plan to live there or sell it to another owner.

“The long-term plan is unknown, but we do know we’re going to share it with the community and provide opportunities for people to be inside, take a look, tour,” he said. “It’s going to be available to the community on some level as part of the downtown and the historic district and something we hopefully can use to provide Sioux Falls another opportunity to revitalize the area.”

He’s now shifting to restore the neighboring house as well as the Perry Mansion’s exterior.

“There are rotting boards that need to be replaced, and we need to scrape the last coat of paint off before we start painting again,” he said. “We’re looking at photos from as far back as we can find to get ideas for how the house looked originally.”

As word gets out about his project, that input is coming too. Today, he received a call from someone who used to live there.

“If I sold it, I’d probably cry 50 years from now,” he said. “We’re going to hold onto it as a family and give it back to Sioux Falls for people to enjoy.”