‘The Dutch on 7th’ is reborn in Cathedral neighborhood — with a mission

By Jill Callison, for Pigeon605

It was, with little exaggeration, the roughest, toughest house on the block.

It was the house everyone in a neighborhood dreads, the rental property that frequently draws police officers to its front door.

The party house. The drug house.

But if you looked closely, you could see that it had good bones. That with a little love and, yes, faith, it could be renewed. It could be brought back to life.

“People tell me this house has been trouble for years,” said Pastor Adam Weber. “You needed to see this place to know how horrible it was. But — I don’t know how to explain this in a non-pastor way —  thought it was something God wanted us to look into. But I did not want to do it. I went into this kicking and screaming.”

The kicking and screaming stopped — mostly — when Weber and his wife, Becky, became owners of their neighborhood trouble spot Aug. 22, 2019. Since then, Weber, who denies the appellation handyman and jokes he’s ready to sign up for a “manhood class” whenever it’s offered, has received an education in how to renovate a historic home while keeping it true to its origins.

It fits into what Weber, founder and lead pastor of the multisite Embrace church headquartered in Sioux Falls, sees as his life’s pattern.

“The overarching theme of my life is seeing something that was dead brought back to life,” he said. “Whether it’s a car, a house or a person, someone says it is too far gone or worthless or too late, I just know it’s got a story to it. It speaks to the core of who I am.”

Weber isn’t the only person fascinated by the story of bringing this house in the historic Cathedral District back to life.

He took others with him on this resurrection story by frequently posting stories and pictures on Instagram. It continues today as what the Webers dubbed “The Dutch on 7th” receives the final touches while operating as a place of respite for visiting missionaries and others in need, interspersed with stretches as a bed-and-breakfast.

Along the way, enthusiasts told Weber stories about the origins of the Dutch Colonial, which first welcomed a family under its roof in 1913.

One of its most interesting features is the abundance of tin panels used throughout the house. There is a story behind that, Weber has been told.

“I’ve had five people tell me that years ago when the Masonic Temple was being built in Sioux Falls, they placed the order wrong and got way more tin than it needed,” he said. “Supposedly, you can tell where Masons lived in Sioux Falls because of all the tin in a house. The Masons got a deal on the surplus.”

Another story came from a man who stopped to see how the remodeling was going. He had been friends with the couple who owned the house after leaving Germany in World War II’s aftermath. Because of being bombed, they added a shelter in the basement during the 1950s Cold War. The Dutch on 7th does have a room that matches the description, Weber said.

His research also revealed the original owner was a woman who moved in after the death of her husband. She left her house on Spring Avenue to start over.

Starting over is essentially what Weber had to do when it came time to tackle the run-down 106-year-old house a little over two years ago. First, however, he had to acknowledge that homeownership appeared to be inevitable. When the Webers inquired and learned the house had been appraised accurately, they assured the Realtor it would sell quickly. Just not to them.

“What’s your offer?” they were asked.

“We don’t have an offer,” the Webers replied.

Again, they were asked, “What’s your offer?”

“We bid $20,000 less, and they accepted it,” Weber said, still sounding a bit dazed. “When they told me, I was like, you’re supposed to say no. When someone offers $20,000 less, the answer is supposed to be no.”

The Webers had been considering options for Becky with the youngest of their four children headed off to kindergarten.

Operating a bed-and-breakfast through Airbnb with their own healing twist seemed ideal,  Weber said. They want it to be a place where people can escape threats of violence in their own homes, or where missionaries can stay while visiting sponsoring churches, or a refuge for friends who need a staycation.

First, though, they had to make it habitable. The photograph from the day of the sale reveals the only was to approach the front door was via a death-defying staircase. The house exterior itself seemed serviceable if a little unwelcoming. The interior, well, how does foreboding sound? How about permeated with the smell of human waste? How about we move on?

Because the Instagram photos show what loving care can do to and for an elderly frame. The bathroom was stripped to the studs. The original vents that added character to the rooms had been ripped out decades earlier, and the replacements were jarring. Original light fixtures had vanished. There was no history there.

That changed room by room.

Multiple visits were made to stores that offer vintage housing supplies. Friends alerted the Webers to an authentic pedestal sink in a house that was being torn down in another state. It now graces the bathroom.

“Even the plumber on that one said, what are you doing?” Adam Weber said. “He didn’t understand why we brought it into the house.”

Several wood refinishers looked at the house after the linoleum had been lifted and said the original flooring couldn’t be restored. A young Realtor disagreed and took over the project with eventual waxed and shining success.

Central air will be installed later this year, replacing a window unit.

Weber hopes The Dutch on 7th will encourage others to invest love and care in resurrecting other older houses in the Cathedral District, which he calls the city’s hidden gem.

Every house of a certain age has a story, he said, and every story can be retold so it has a happy ending.

His own quest to bring something dead back to life isn’t over yet.

The Dutch on 7th’s garage now holds a 1947 Crossley automobile, and Weber plans to take Instagram followers along on that restoration project.

Editor’s note: The house does not include a gas fireplace, and the article has been updated to reflect that.