Thanks to community effort, Tuthill Park House renovation nearly finished

No longer do Kathy English and Margaret Blomberg need to climb a ladder to reach the Tuthill Park House’s second floor.

While it will be another month or so before the restoration of the historic 144-year-old home is completed, the two women who serve as the house’s godmothers now can climb stairs to inspect the work taking place upstairs.

The Sioux Falls Parks & Recreation Department is not yet taking reservations for the house, which came close to being demolished as surplus and unused city property. Staff will wait until the house is completed to do that. Reservations for Tuthill Park itself and its gazebo, scene of many weddings, can be made at 605-367-8222.

English and Blomberg, whose homes abut each other and they can see the Tuthill Park House from their windows, didn’t let that happen. It took a lot of time, effort, the support of volunteers and generous donations from numerous businesses, but the house is here to stay.

Jon Beatch and his father, Charlie, are familiar with the Tuthill Park neighborhood. Their firm, Beatch Connstruction, has worked on numerous houses there and is overseeing the renovation.

“I just think it’s cool for the city for this building to stand for another umpteen years and to be used by the public,” Jon Beatch said.

The newly renovated house will see increased usage, English predicted.

“It’s a gorgeous, affordable venue for anybody regardless of what their budget is,” she said. The mother of five children who has lived across the street from the Tuthill Park House since 1977, she has used it for family events like bachelor parties, wedding prenuptials and graduation parties.

The house’s interior now will serve as a beautiful backdrop for photographs, said Blomberg, who moved to the neighborhood in 1990. She envisions family gatherings at the holidays and throughout the years.

The house’s renovation will be finished in June, capping a whirlwind effort to save it that led English and Blomberg to a first-name basis with city officials and the formation of a neighborhood association for Tuthill Park. A resource group also joined the effort; that includes Alex Halbach, Andrea Kuehn, Kristina Kuehn, Rachael Meyerink, Lance Meyerink and Adam Nyhaug.

It started in the fall of 2020, when a postcard invited Tuthill Park residents to a meeting. The last item on the agenda: a matter-of-fact statement that the house would be demolished. Its fate, apparently, already had been determined.

“They started talking about drainage and etcetera and then, ‘oh, by the way, by the end of the year we’re going to demolish this house,’” English said. “(The city) took this house in 1993 and never did a thing with it. But now they’re going to demolish it.”

English and Blomberg, friends and neighbors, didn’t want that to happen. Part of the problem, they said, was the perception of city officials that Tuthill Park is a neighborhood gathering place. It’s not, they assert. It’s something used and treasured by the entire city.

English and Blomberg started knocking on doors and making phone calls. They contacted the Sioux Falls Board of Historic Preservation for assistance. They asked Beatch to give them an estimate on restoring the house’s exterior: new siding, windows, a new roof.

During all this, the clock kept ticking away steadily. They had hoped for a year to begin collecting financial support. Instead, they had two months. After the parks board recommendation to declare the house surplus and tear it down — English and Blomberg call it a rubber stamp — a lawyer volunteered to look at the requirements for declaring city property surplus. It did not meet city guidelines, and the women and other concerned citizens took it to the City Council and got a reprieve. Councilors voted unanimously to save the house. It was gifted to the neighborhood association. After restorations, it will return to the city.

Those restorations have expanded, as has the cost. Original exterior renovations would have cost an estimated $118,000. Now, with the decision to restore the interior, the expected cost has climbed to $350,000. When the final $20,000 is raised, a patio will replace a deck that had been added on years ago.

Some of the increased expenses came from the city’s decision in the 1990s to close off the upper floor. The need for a handicapped accessible bathroom meant the staircase was removed. All the upstairs duct work had been pulled out and needed replacing.

Everyone who walked inside immediately knew light fixtures had to be replaced. The functional-but-ugly box of fluorescent lights in the lower-level rooms have been taken out. Some of the original glass light fixtures upstairs remained and were reused, sometimes in different rooms.

A woman who had saved her grandmother’s old clawfoot bathtub donated it to the house, and other donors are giving antique furniture for the bride’s dressing room. A donated fireplace insert will provide a cheery atmosphere without heat on the fireplace, which will have its original mantel restored.

Windows on the main floor could not be saved, but the replacement windows mimic the originals in how the glass panes are designed. The windows in the kitchen area remain the originals. An add-on to the back preserved the original siding; contractors used that when selecting the new materials. When it is completed, the house will be painted white with black trim—in traditional farmhouse style, the women said.

Linoleum stripped from the downstairs floors revealed the original fir used when the house was built more than 140 years ago. It was too thin to be used, so a similar replacement flooring was chosen. The original flooring wasn’t just discarded, however. First Lutheran Church in downtown Sioux Falls has a woodworking group. English and Blomberg are working with them to see the salvaged wood turned into picture frames for historic photos.

The house had stood near the Big Sioux River for several decades before Arthur and Dot Tuthill purchased the house in 1915. It was used as their summer residence. The land was donated to the city in 1953 with several caveats, including no alcohol and the preservation of Dot Tuthill’s delphiniums. Tuthill Park opened in 1956. The park superintendent and his family lived in the house until the city turned it in to an events site.

English and Blomberg are almost gleeful as they inspect the changes that are taking place in the house. But their work might not be over yet. The city plans to build a new restroom and a building for parks department staff. The women want to make sure it doesn’t disrupt the view from the Tuthill Park House’s windows.

“Margaret and I go to any city office, and they’ll slam the doors shut,” English joked.

In-kind donors

Businesses that have supported the Tuthill Park House restoration with in-kind donations include the following:

• American Roofing Supply, formerly Builders Supply Co.
• Schoeneman’s Building Materials Center
• Handy Man Home Remodeling Center
• Norberg Paints
• Fireplace Professionals
• Frisbees
• Syverson Tile & Stone
• Karl’s TV, Audio, Appliances & Furniture
• Stan Huston Equipment
• Foundation Building Materials
• Phoenician Wood Floors
• Bullseye Custom Cabinetry
• Formatop
• Mahlander’s Appliance and Lighting