Small improvements add up to big impact in Cathedral neighborhood

Solar speed signs, traffic circles and soon new historic photo signs are enhancing the north side of Sioux Falls.

“They’re smaller projects, but they have a big impact overall,” said Diane de Koeyer, the city’s neighborhood and preservation planner. “It’s pretty exciting to see it happening.”

The Historic Cathedral District applied for and received city neighborhood grants to support some of the improvements.

“The Cathedral District is a great place to find a cheap rental to flip as an investment,” resident Adam Weber said. “I want it to be known as a place where you’re trying so hard to get a home you can make your forever home.”

Weber is helping lead an effort to remind residents and visitors of the historic nature of many of the homes, which will be supported by the grant.

He took the idea from other cities where he saw historic photos of homes displayed in front of the current home.

“I think often people struggle with vision and seeing what something could become, whereas in the Cathedral it’s what something was and what it could return to,” he said. “You drive by a sixplex and it’s kind of a drag on the block, and then you look at a family standing in front with a horse coach and … it’s almost hard to imagine.”

The city awarded enough funding to place five photos initially, and the neighborhood voted on which to select.

“I was so grateful to the committee,” Weber said. “I could see it being the first of several years. We have seven photos that have been approved (so far) … but also neighbors saying, ‘I would love that photo on a pedestal in my yard.’ Some of the photos, I don’t know if they’ve even been seen very much, so even for our neighbors, I think it’ll be really neat.”

The photos will go up “as fast as Pride Neon can make the signs, and they’ve been fantastic to work with as well,” he said. “The voting is from the neighborhood, a person in our neighborhood will do the installation for free, so we’re trying to make it as much of a neighborhood effort too.”

The signs build on smaller, text-only interpretive signs already located in the area, de Koeyer said.

“One of the things that’s so cool about Cathedral is a lot of the pioneers of Sioux Falls originally lived there, which is why you have such grand homes,” she said. “From a historical standpoint, we like having that information out there for people to learn from.”

Another neighborhood enhancement, the addition of sculptures from SculptureWalk, also has been a success.

“We added one more this year, so we’re up to four, and we have two neighbors who want one for next year,” he said. “Our cap has been because of quartzite pedestals and not being able to get enough of them.”

The city grant also is funding an additional solar-powered speed sign to help with traffic calming in the neighborhood. The sign will flash drivers’ speed to warn them about slowing down. It’s located on Sixth Street between Duluth and Summit avenues and complements one already on Eighth Street.

“And they’re permanent once they go in; it’s not the portable ones,” de Koeyer said.

It complements another effort to improve traffic movement in the neighborhood. Traffic circles that were piloted earlier this year at Ninth Street and Duluth Avenue and at Ninth and Prairie Avenue are being made permanent. The city bid the work to be done yet this year.

Next year marks a milestone in the neighborhood – its 50th anniversary as a historic district.

“They were the first in the city and are still very active and do a great job with all their projects,” de Koeyer said.

The neighborhood is drawing more tourists and new residents, Weber said.

“I never saw the walkability, in terms of tourists, in McKennan Park that I see in the Cathedral district,” he said.

New residents are moving into the neighborhood, including families, he added.

“The neighborhood is definitely getting younger, and I think there are more people catching that vision of what it could be, who are new faces to the neighborhood,” Weber said.

“So it’s those families who have laid a foundation of change, and now you’re seeing new neighbors who just go do it. The ability to have some of those ideas and then to have people at the city who are amazing, no joke … I’ve never been so impressed with our city. I just think there’s so much potential.”

Beautifully restored, historic Cathedral neighborhood mansion opens for guests