United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in National Register Bulletin, How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. 1. Name of Property Historic name Kester Millwork Shop Other names/site number Neligh Planing Mill
Name of related multiple property listing N/A (Enter “N/A” if property is not part of a multiple property listing) 2. Location Street & Number 212 Chestnut Street City or town Neligh State Nebraska County Antelope Not for publication [] Vicinity []
3. State/Federal Agency Certification
As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this [x] nomination [] request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property [x] meets [] does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant at the following level(s) of significance: [] national [x] statewide [] local
Applicable National Register Criteria: [x] A [] B [x] C [] D
SHPO/Director Signature of certifying official/Title: Date Nebraska State Historical Society State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government
In my opinion, the property [] meets [] does not meet the National Register criteria.
Signature of Commenting Official Date
Title State of Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government
4. National Park Service Certification I, hereby, certify that this property is: [ ] entered in the National Register. [ ] determined eligible for the National Register. [ ] determined not eligible for the National Register. [ ] removed from the National Register. [ ] other, (explain):
Signature of Keeper Date of Action
United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
5. Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply) Category of Property (Check only one box) [x] Private [x] Building(s) [] Public-local [] District [] Public-state [] Site [] Public-federal [] Structure [] Object Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count.) Contributing Noncontributing 1 Buildings Sites Structures Objects 1 Total
Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register 0
6. Function or Use
Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) INDUSTRY: Manufacturing facility/mill INDUSTRY: Manufacturing facility/mill
7. Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions.) No Style/Vernacular
Materials (enter categories from instructions.) Principal exterior materials of the property: Asbestos Siding
2 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
Description
Summary Paragraph
The Kester Millwork Shop, constructed in 1911-1912, is a fully equipped early 20th century wood- working shop. It retains exceptional integrity, complete with its original power-drive system and equipment, summarized as “millwork” by industrial historians. The vernacular building is a 3-level wood-frame, gable-end shop, clad in asbestos siding applied to original shiplap siding about 1950. A raised full basement houses the ceiling-mounted electric motor and the first lines of shafts and pulleys, powering equipment on the main floor above, via leather belts. The open-plan main floor is the heart of the mill, once supporting up to 10 belt-driven machine tools. Today 5 original tools—2 planers, 1 table saw, 1 dovetail cutter, and 1 lathe—are linked to the power system through the floor and a second ceiling-mounted group of line shafts, with later independent-power tools spaced across the floor. The full attic is also an open plan, accessed by an enclosed staircase and a floor hatch from the main floor. Ample windows allow for ventilation and light.
Narrative Description
LOCATION and SETTING
Neligh, Nebraska, is located in the northeastern region of the state. The county, population about 6,600 (2010 census), is an agricultural county, located in the Elkhorn River drainage. Neligh, population 1,600, is the county seat and the county’s major city. It was founded on the north bank of the Elkhorn River and platted in an orthogonal street grid surveyed in 1873. When the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad was built through the southern part of the city in 1880 from southeast to northwest, part of the earlier plat was adjusted to accommodate the railroad’s diagonal right of way. The layout of nearby light industrial buildings reflects this irregular plat. The Chicago & North Western Railroad absorbed the FE&MV line in 1903, and abandoned service through Antelope County in 1978. The right-of way is still evident, converted to a recreational trail.
The Kester Millwork Shop was one of several operations in this area of the city. It occupies Lot 1 of Block 42 at the corner of Chestnut and 4th Streets. After removal of the predecessor millwork shop on Lot 2, and later removal of a small building to the west on Lot 1, the Kester building stands as the only improvement on this small triangular city block. The building sits at the head of Depot Street, about a block from the site of the town’s former railway station (see 1920 Sanborn Map on page 17) and about two blocks from the central business district. To the shop’s east is the active Carhart Lumber Company complex; to the south are an active grain mill and silos along the old railroad right of way; and to the north and northwest is a neatly kept residential area. About 2.5 blocks to the southeast, closer to the river and former railroad, is the Nebraska State Historical Society’s Neligh Mill State Historic Site.
DESIGN, MATERIALS, and WORKMANSHIP
The Kester Millwork Shop is a vernacular building designed by its builders to provide a sturdy structural frame for machinery, open space for workplaces, and natural light and ventilation through multiple windows on each level. The wood-frame building is constructed of 2x4s (roughly planed to 1⅝x3¼-
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
inch) studs and 2x12 (planed to 1⅝x11¼ -inch) joists, all on 16-inch centers, with three 6x6 (planed to 5¼x5¼-inch) posts in a central line on each of the lower floors. It shelters three levels: a raised full basement of brick, a main floor, and a full attic. The building plan’s overall dimensions are about 30x50 feet, with an 8x10-feet attached shed on the west side. While exhibiting no obvious additional bracing or oversized framing, the building carried the weight and vibration of its electric motor, millwork, and machinery throughout its years of constant operation, without any appearances of structural stress.
The single entry door is on the east elevation at the ground level, facing the lumberyard across the street. Signs on this elevation are made of wooden or fiberboard letters advertising the shop’s offerings: “CABINETS…GLASS[:] WINDOW, PLATE, AUTO.” Another single elevated door on the east main floor accommodated shipments of lumber and deliveries of completed projects to and from the main level, as do double doors into the main floor from the west elevation. A single exterior door into the attic from the west gable performs a similar function. A 1-story 8x10-feet gable-end attached shed extends from the west side of the basement; its double exterior doors accommodate lumber entry and storage in the connecting basement.
Basement windows are 3-over-3 wood sash. Main floor and dormer windows are doubled sets of 1- over-1 wood sash. The gable-end attic windows are single 1-over-1 wood sashes.
Clad originally with milled wood—probably shiplap—siding, the exterior is now finished with asbestos- shingle siding in grain-textured and wave-edged, 11x27-inch tabs. The roof’s original wood shingles are covered with aging composition shingles on the north half, and corrugated metal sheets on the south half and on the north dormer’s roof. After partial collapse of the north brick foundation wall about 2012, probably from absence of gutters and stable roofing above, present custodian Mike Kester rebuilt that wall of cast-in-place reinforced concrete.
The raised basement is an open plan supporting the ceiling-mounted electric motor and its first series of millwork line shafts and pulley drives. The main floor is an open plan, except for the original staircase in the southeast corner and the original 11x13-feet partitioned office in the northeast corner. The main floor is the main manufacturing area. Many machines are power driven by leather belts through the floor; some are driven by belts from the second series of line shafts on the main floor’s ceiling. The 3rd level is an open attic accessed by continuation of the staircase, and broken in volume only by the 2 large north-facing dormers.
FEELING and ASSOCIATION
Most of the shop’s interior walls and ceilings are unfinished, except the office with c. 1970 plywood paneling and acoustical ceiling tiles. A large historic “Warm Morning” iron stove sits outside the office on the main floor, piped into the brick flue that runs vertically from basement floor to the attic.
The building remains almost completely intact with equipment and accessories as when the firm was in full operation. Individual machines associated with the original planing mill were acquired by Howard Kester from former mill operator Fred Thornton in 1902. The original bill of sale (Antelope County Clerk 1902) included:
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
. Upright Engine and Boiler with All Connections . Rabs [sp?] Power Planer and All Attachments . Whittlesly [sic] Power Tumer [?] and All Attachments . Rogers Power Mortiser and All Attachments . [J.A.] Fay Power Jointer and All Attachments . Eagan [sic, Egan] Power Wood Lathe and All Attachments . Marston Power Band Saw and All Attachments . Power Boring Machine and All Attachments . Barnes Power Circular Saw and All Attachments . Power Grind Stone and All Attachments . [W.F. & J.] Barnes Power Former and All Attachments . “Together with all Wrenches Bits Knives heads Screws Belts line Shafts and Pulley and Hangers belonging to above Mentioned Machinery All Work Benches Vices Tressles [sic] Ladders Clamps and [“Warm Morning”] Stove Now used in the Property….”
In 2014, surviving central-power, belt-driven machines in the Kester Shop included:
. Lathe (the Egan Power Wood Lathe) . Dovetail Cutter (probably the Rogers Power Mortiser), also accepting power from the basement line shaft and distributing power across the main floor ceiling via the second line shaft (see circa 1910 photo above) . Planer (probably the Rabs [sp?] Power Planer) . Another Planer (the J.A. Fay & Co. Power Jointer) . Table Saw (probably the Barnes Power Circular Saw) . An operator-seated miter table (the W.F. & J. Barnes Co. Power Former) is detached and stored in the attic.
The interior still holds a large quantity of shop drawings, hand tools, and hardware sitting on workbenches and otherwise stored in cabinets and boxes on all three levels. Early records, catalogues, and papers are housed in the office. All give the appearance of the business still in operation. The Kester family carpentry operation is no longer dependent on the building, but it is still owned and maintained by the family in operating condition. In 2013–2014, the building was documented to Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) modified-Level III standards (digital photography and CAD measured drawings).
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
8. Statement of Significance Areas of Significance Applicable National Register Criteria (Enter categories from instructions.) (Mark “X” in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the Architecture property for National Register listing.) Engineering
Industry x A Property is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. B Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. x C Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or represents the Period of Significance work of a master, or possesses high 1911–1964
artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack individual distinction. D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield Significant Dates information important in prehistory or 1911–12 history.
Criteria Considerations Significant Person (Mark “X” in all the boxes that apply.) (Complete if Criterion B is marked above.) N/A Property is:
A Owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes. Cultural Affiliation B Removed from its original location. N/A C A birthplace or a grave. D A cemetery. A reconstructed building, object, or E structure. Architect/Builder F A commemorative property. Howard Kester, Master Carpenter G Less than 50 years of age or achieved significance within the past 50 years.
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
Statement of Significance Summary Paragraph
The Kester Millwork Shop—also variously known as the Neligh Planing Mill, Kester Cabinet Shop, and Kester & Sons Construction Company—is a fully equipped wood-working shop two blocks from downtown Neligh. Four generations of the local Kester family, beginning with master carpenter Howard Kester, operated the business from 1901 through the early 2000s. The intact shop is a rare surviving example in Nebraska, complete with its power system and functional uses. The Kester Millwork Shop is therefore eligible for listing at the Statewide level under Criterion A in the area of Industry as a rare example characterizing the evolution of light manufacturing, namely line shaft millwork systems. Its power-drive system displays the evolution of light manufacturing between the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The shop is also eligible under Criterion C in the areas of Architecture and Engineering, for its 1911– 1912 shop building outfitted with a rare and intact engineering array of line shafts, pulleys and belts, and connected machinery throughout the building. Its period of significance begins in 1911, its construction start, to 1964, the traditional 50-year cutoff (in 2014) for the National Register of Historic Places.
Narrative Statement of Significance
COMMUNITY CONTEXT
After the establishment of Antelope County in 1871 and selection of Oakdale as county seat, developer and grain-miller John D. Neligh in 1872 purchased land on the Elkhorn River closer to the county’s center, and platted a new town named Neligh City (Leach 1909; Buecker 1980a). In 1880 the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad pushed north-westward along the Elkhorn River through Oakdale and Neligh, providing John Neligh’s 1874 water-powered mill with an essential link to regional farming and consumer markets. In 1969, John Neligh’s riverside operation became the Neligh Mill State Historic Site. Following arrival of the railroad, several other industries such as J.N. Mills’ Lumber and Grain Elevator and J.J. Melick’s Lumber Yard developed near the tracks.
In 1881 the Congregational Church chose Neligh for its new Gates College (or Academy), and in 1883 the settlement won election for county seat (Wagner 2014). Throughout the 1880s into the 1890s the Neligh community continued to grow, and voters passed a county tax levy in 1894 to build a new brick courthouse in Neligh. With plans drawn by architect George MacDonald of Lincoln and additional drawings by Neligh Planing Mill owner Fred Thornton, the county hired lumberman and contractor J.N. Mills to assemble the building. Mills received instructions “to hire county labor for the work” and “to give preference to home work and materials when ever possible” (Buecker 1980a:8/1). Thornton’s Neligh Planing Mill benefitted from the “home work” provisions of Mills’ contract. Drawings of the courthouse, perhaps Thornton’s “finished” set from 1894, survive in the attic of the present Kester Millwork Shop.
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
Jason Kester, born in Ohio in 1839 and trained as a “mechanic” in a term of the day that included carpenters, moved with his wife Sarah and four children to a farm north of Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1877. The Kesters moved in 1881 to a farm near Orchard in Antelope County (Risinger 1984:1). Their second-oldest son, Howard Jonathan Kester, in 1892 found work in Neligh with contractors Silas W. Lytle and Fred Thornton. Thornton’s planing mill furnished material, and employed young Kester, to construct the 1894 Antelope County Courthouse and many other local buildings. Howard Kester, in the employment of Lytle and Thornton, “helped build the courthouse in 1894,” according to family historian Marie Kester Krohn (Antelope County Historical Society 1986:527). “Howard Kester actually put the ball on the flagpole atop the steeple of the courthouse,” his son Harold later related (Kisinger 1984:1).
Kester purchased the business in 1901 for $650, and continued operation in the old planing mill for 10 years. Thornton’s steam-powered woodworking shop was located near the railroad depot on Chestnut and Coe (now West 3rd) Streets (Sanborn 1899, 1904). The acquisition included “all interest in lease of the fraction of lot two Block forty two” occupied by Thornton’s building on a partial 1875 platted block that had been truncated by the railroad in 1880 (see Sanborn map of 1920 on page 17). In 1902, Kester bought the adjacent Lot 1, Block 42 at the corner of Chestnut and Putney (now West 4th) Streets from Judson B. Lytle (younger brother of Silas) and wife Caroline for $200 (Antelope County Clerk 1902).
Kester and his planing mill profited from Neligh’s early 20th century economic growth. “From 1905 until 1918,” wrote Krohn (Antelope County Historical Society 1986:527), “Howard employed a crew of 12 to 20 men during the [summer] building season and from six to eight men all winter,” probably in the planing mill. His operation produced dimension- and milled-lumber and cabinetry for numerous buildings and furnishings in Neligh and throughout Antelope County. “He built more than 100 homes in Neligh and a similar number in the Neligh vicinity,” according to Krohn. “Howard Kester also built several Neligh business buildings,” she continued, and Neligh’s West Ward School.
In addition to the scores of Kester-built buildings throughout the county, much custom-built cabinetry and interior woodwork survives in the area as well, according to family and others. Perhaps most recognized is a stairway in the former Matt Hoffman home, now Hoepfinger-Beyer Funeral Home in Neligh (Susan Risinger, Neligh News and Leader,1984:1). Howard Kester was a master with wood in any form, and made at least two violins. He built his new millworks in 1911–1912, and became the first of four generations of male carpenters to operate in the building. Some family members believe that patriarch Jason Kester also worked alongside son Howard at the planing mill in the early 1900s (Risinger 1984), adding a possible fifth generation’s association to the business. Howard remained active in the business as Kester & Sons Construction Company until his death in 1943. His sons, Harold and Homer, carried on the tradition. Among his cabinetry work, Harold Kester built the altar in the local Masonic Lodge
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
and another altar for Antelope Memorial Hospital in the Sisters’ Chapel. Harold died in 1957, and passed the business to his sons Harold Jr., Kenneth, and Daniel, who worked actively in the building through about 2002 (Risinger 1984:1; Kester 2013).
Today the undivided estate and millwork shop is shared by Kenneth and wife Henrietta’s children Patrick, Michael, Daniel, Pamela, and Elizabeth (Risinger 1984:2; Antelope County Clerk). Mike Kester, a building contractor, is most involved with maintaining the 1911 shop building at present (2014), but he has moved most of his carpentry work to a shop in his home outside Neligh (Kester 2013).
SIGNIFICANCE – CRITERION A, INDUSTRY
In 1911 Howard Kester and his crew began construction of the new planing mill adjacent to the old steam-powered Neligh Planing Mill (Antelope County Assessor 2013; Sanborn 1893). Kester family tradition holds that as the new building neared completion, Kester and crew laid wide planks spanning window to window from the old shop to the new shop, and hauled each machine out the old window and through the new window (Wood 2013).
The 1911 Kester Mill’s windows themselves, according to family memory, “came from the old Gates Academy building” (Risinger 1984:1). Indeed, Gates College had reduced activities by 1900, selling its 1892 gymnasium to the county for use as a jail (extant as the Antelope County Museum) (Buecker 1980b:8/1). No records surfaced for this study to reveal which 1880s Gates College building, possibly built by Thornton and Lytle, supplied windows and probably doors for the 1911 millwork shop.
Light manufacturing operations, as preserved with the Kester Shop, can be best compared to the evolution of motive power used nationally. Motive power includes millwork run by water, steam, diesel engines, and electricity. When the 1911 Neligh building was constructed, Howard Kester disassembled from the 1890s building what had been an engineered “Direct Drive” system with the steam engine as “Prime Mover,” in contextual descriptions of engineer Warren Devine in his “From Shafts to Wires: Historical Perspective on [early 20th century] Electrification” (1983:353). Kester reassembled the millwork components into what Devine labeled an “Electric Line Shaft Drive.” And in a related work, industrial historian Louis C. Hunter in his History of Industrial Power in the United States, 1780–1930, Volume One (1979:462–480) describes the British factory origins of line shaft systems, followed by U.S. factory improvements through quiet belts instead of noisy gears. These millwork systems powered many industries during the “first industrial revolution,” including flour mills, factories, and various other manufacturing businesses (Volume Three: the Transmission of Power, Hunter and Bryant 1991:115). In his Volume Three, Hunter and coauthor Lynwood Bryant further described a national shift in the 1890s at large American factories, from typically one central steam plant to a series of small steam engines each driving small arrays of millwork (Hunter and Bryant, 1991:120,136). This “sub-divided power,” resembling in part the original steam-
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
powered Neligh Planing Mill, required less maintenance than large central machines, and encouraged maintenance and quick repairs for the resulting small systems.
Once common in the nation and Nebraska, few similar examples of such small industrial buildings, complete with motive power and power-drive systems, have been recorded. The Nebraska Historic Resource Survey and Inventory, maintained by the Nebraska State Historical Society’s State Historic Preservation Office, is the state’s comprehensive and authoritative record of historic places. Since 1974 the NeHRSI has surveyed some 78,000 properties, and only five comparable examples to the Kester Millwork Shop have been inventoried; all are listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Perhaps the best examples documented in Nebraska are small nineteenth-century water-powered flour mills. By 1900, steam power surpassed water as the chief motive power for flour mills. Champion Mill in Chase County, Nebraska’s last operational water-powered flour mill (1892, with later additions in 1918 and 1929, NRHP), still retains its system of shafts and hangers, but does not retain its original milling equipment. The DeWitt Flour Mills (not extant, formerly NRHP listed), first used water as motive power and converted to an electric generator in 1919-1929, continuing to supply electricity to the town of DeWitt through the 1950s. The Neligh Mill, southeast of the Kester Shop, retains its power-drive system and is the only nineteenth-century flour mill in the state with all of its original equipment and power-drive system. Although no longer operational, it now serves as a museum operated by the Nebraska State Historical Society. It converted from direct water power to electricity in 1920. However, in 1900 the Neligh Mill installed an electric light generator, powered by water. The mill’s excess electricity was sold to the city, making a power source that would have been available to Kester’s shop. Another recorded example is the Wauneta Roller Mills (1925, NRHP), constructed to run on a diesel engine.
Probably the state’s finest example of an intact power-drive system and original equipment applied to light manufacturing is found at the Kregel Wind Mill Company’s factory building in Nebraska City (c. 1905, NRHP listed). It furnished windmills and parts to a small regional market, compared with the extensive Dempster Manufacturing Company factory (not NRHP listed) in Beatrice, Nebraska, that eventually expanded into farm implements and other industrial products. The Kregel Mill, almost completely intact with equipment and line shaft millwork system, it is said to have been converted from steam to electric power after its construction.
The original steam powered Neligh Planing Mill fit the national trend for small factories. With the construction of the new building, Howard Kester chose electric-driven line shafts, all extant. When Kester assembled the ceiling-mounted line shaft drive in his new building by 1912, he likely installed most if not all of the old planing machinery purchased from Thornton in 1902 and converted the millwork to electric power. Kester’s 1902 inventory of equipment included several machines that are in the building today: . Rabs [sp?] Power Planer and All Attachments (extant in 2014) . Rogers Power Mortiser and All Attachments (extant in 2014)
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
. [J.A.] Fay Power Jointer and All Attachments (extant in 2014) . Eagan [sic, Egan] Power Wood Lathe and All Attachments (extant in 2014) . Barnes Power Circular Saw and All Attachments (extant in 2014) . [W.F. & J.] Barnes Power Former and All Attachments (extant in 2014)
Kester’s construction of his millworks to accommodate electric power marked an intermediate step in the evolution of power-drive systems. In describing national factory advancements after 1900, Hunter and Bryant (1991:120.136) praised the most common electrical improvements with powering each individual machine, rather than the entire old millwork system. Despite this and probably due to the small-scale of their operation, the Kesters relied upon their direct line system for another 90 years. Subsequent Kester generations eventually caught up with the more popular trend, as evidenced by several mid-century electric-powered machines surviving today in the shop, including a dedicated-motor circular miter saw and an independent-motor band saw. The Kester millwork thus holds great value in interpreting and documenting this evolution. The use of an electric power-drive system, an industry trend nationally and still evident in the Kester millworks, results in significance under Criterion A at the Statewide level for its ample ability to represent this trend.
SIGNIFICANCE: CRITERION C, ARCHITECTURE and ENGINEERING
The Kester Millwork Shop is eligible at the Statewide level of significance under Criterion C for Architecture and Engineering. The building is exemplary for the type of light manufacturing done by the Kesters. Architecturally, the Kester Millwork Shop was designed by its builders to provide a sturdy structural frame for machinery. Hunter and Bryant in their Volume Three: the Transmission of Power (1991:120,136) acknowledged that such power-drive systems required sturdy buildings that allowed “for vibration as well as weight” in their construction, demonstrated by the Kester Shop. Additionally, the three levels accommodated the operation with storage, manufacturing, and its power-drive system. Its rather sophisticated and intact array of line shafts, pulleys and belts, and connected machinery represent the engineering that went into this power system. Although Howard Kester and his crew were likely unaware of national high-style architectural- design trends in 1911, they nevertheless produced a durable vernacular building. The Millwork Shop sheltered their specific needs for power-transmission and machinery, while reflecting—as vernacular buildings do—popular trends of their time. Americans in the 1910s, for example, embraced the Colonial Revival style as symbolic of the Republic yet straightforward in massing and lines (McAlester 2013:408–414), as exhibited by the Kester Shop. Further, the iconic Shaker craftsmen of New England and the Midwest in the nineteenth century produced buildings for living and working (NPS 2014) that followed the same formula resulting in the Kester Shop. With the Shakers, form followed function as they built sturdy weatherproof frames for generous interior work spaces. The Kester building likewise accommodated open spaces for workplaces and storage, plus natural light and ventilation through multiple windows on each level. Its two
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
floors and raised basement accommodated the Kester operation and the power system to drive the machinery on the main floor. While asbestos siding covers the original milled-wood siding on the building’s exterior, that alteration is more than 50 years old and has gained historic association within the building’s Period of significance, 1911–1964. Otherwise, the building as an example of small town Nebraska vernacular architecture is remarkably intact with no other major cosmetic or structural alterations. Given the rarity of the building and millworks, which are exceptionally rare examples in Nebraska of a light manufacturing factory, motive drive, and complete power-drive system still in place, the Kester Millwork Shop warrants Statewide significance under Criterion C. CONCLUSION
The Kester Millwork Shop’s line shaft millwork system, which transmitted power from one source to as many as 10 specialized machines throughout the building, was a once-common system throughout the industrializing world (Devine 1983). These millwork systems powered many industries during the “first industrial revolution,” including flour mills, factories, and various other manufacturing businesses (Hunter and Bryant 1991:115). Today the Kester shop is a rare surviving example of the machine shops that built Nebraska and the nation, within a building assembled by the same skilled woodworkers who operated the machines for more than four generations.
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
9. Major Bibliographic References
Bibliography
Antelope County Assessor 2013 “Parcel Information…LOT 1 EXC RR BLK 42 NELIGH CITY.” Electronic document: http://www.antelope.assessor.gisworkshop.com/#. Accessed 21 October 2013.
Antelope County Clerk 1902 Bill of Sale. Sale of Neligh Planing Mill and contents by Fred Thornton to Jason Kester. Sale on 2 March 1901. Filed on 27 January 1902. Deed Record. Sale of Lot 1, Block 42, by J.B. and Caroline Lytle to Jason Kester. Sale on 21 July 1902. Entered 25 July 1902. Copies provided by Kester descendant Betty Wood. November 2013.
Antelope County Historical Society 1986 The History of Antelope County Nebraska, 1868–1985. Antelope County Historical Society. Curtis Media Corporation. Dallas, Texas.
Buecker, Tom 1980a “Antelope County Courthouse (AP04-1).” National Register of Historic Places, Inventory— Nomination Form. Available at: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/antelope/AP04- 001_Antelope_CntyCthse.pdf. Accessed 31 January 2014.
Buecker, Tom 1980b “Gates College Gymnasium – Antelope County Jail (AP04-2).” National Register of Historic Places, Inventory—Nomination Form. Available at: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/histpres/nebraska/antelope/AP04- 002_Antelope_CntyJail.pdf. Accessed 31 January 2014.
Devine, Warren D., Jr. 1983 “From Shafts to Wires: Historical Perspective on Electrification.” In The Journal of Economic History. Volume 43, Issue 2 (June 1983). Pages 347-372. Electronic document: http://www.j-bradford- delong.net/teaching_folder/Econ_210c_spring_2002/Readings/Devine.pdf. Accessed 31 January 2014.
Hunter, Louis C. 1979 A History of Industrial Power in the United States, 1780–1930. Volume One: Waterpower. The University Press of Virginia. Charlottesville.
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
Hunter, Louis C., and Lynwood Bryant 1991 A History of Industrial Power in the United States, 1780–1930. Volume Three: The Transmission of Power. The MIT Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Kester, Michael 2013 Personal communications between the Kester descendant and the author.
Leach, A.J. 1909 “History of Antelope County Nebraska 1868–1883.” Electronic document: http://www.memoriallibrary.com/NE/Antelope/1868/toc.htm. Accessed 31 January 2014.
Miller, Greg, David Murphy and Joni Gilkerson 1992 “Kregel Wind Mill Company.” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. Nebraska State Historical Society. Available at: http://www.nebraskahistory.org /histpres/nebraska/otoe/OT06_A016_Kregel_WindmillCo.pdf. Accessed 18 February 2014.
McAlester, Virginia Savage 2013 A Field Guide to American Houses. Alfred A. Knopf. New York.
McClelland, Linda F. 1997 Guidelines for Completing National Register of Historic Places Forms, Part A, How to Complete the National Register Registration Form. National Park Service. Washington, D.C.
National Park Service (NPS) 2014 “Shaker Style.” Electronic document: http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/shaker/shakerstyle.htm. Accessed 21 March 2014.
Risinger, Susan 1984 “Since 1881 Kester Family Has Helped Build Neligh.” Neligh News and Leader. October 31, 1984. Pages 1–2.
Sanborn Map Company Various “Neligh, Antelope Co., Nebraska.” Map sets from 1893, 1899, 1904, 1920, and 1934 provided as scans from black & white microfilm by Nebraska State Historical Society.
Wagner, Ruth A. 2014 “Neligh Antelope County.” Electronic document: http://www.casde.unl.edu/history/counties/antelope/neligh/index.php. Accessed 31 January 2014.
Weber, Austin 2003 “Line Shafts and Belts.” From Assembly online magazine. Electronic document: http://www.assemblymag.com/articles/82814-line-shafts-and-belts. Accessed 31 January 2014. Section 8 page 14
United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
Wood, Betty Sutton 2013 Personal communications—eMail, mail, and telephone—between the Kester descendant and the HABS-report author. Wood is responsible for the exhibit of Jason Kester’s carpentry tools at the National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence, Missouri, detailed at http://www.kesterhistory.com/kestertools.html.
Previous documentation on file (NPS): Primary location of additional data: preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67 has been requested) x State Historic Preservation Office previously listed in the National Register Other State agency previously determined eligible by the National Register Federal agency designated a National Historic Landmark x Local government recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey # University recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # x Other (Name of repository) Betty Sutton Wood, Family descendant recorded by Historic American Landscape Survey # see Section 9)
Historic Resources Survey Number (if assigned): AP04-170
10. Geographical Data
Acreage of property <1 acre USGS Quadrangle UTM References Datum (indicated on USGS map): NAD 1927 or x NAD 1983 1. Zone 14 Easting 579942.4 Northing 4664491.3
Verbal Boundary Description The Kester Millwork Shop occupies Lot 1 of Block 42 at the corner of Chestnut and 4th Streets in the City of Neligh, Antelope County, Nebraska.
Boundary Justification The Kester Millwork Shop is the only building on this city lot and block, its location since 1911.
11. Form Prepared By name/title James W. Steely / Senior Historian-Architectural Historian organization SWCA Environmental Consultants date 24 March 2014 street & number 295 Interlocken Blvd., Suite 300 telephone 303-487-1183 city or town Denver state CO zip code 80021 email [email protected]
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
Additional Documentation Submit the following items with the completed form:
• Maps: A USGS map or equivalent (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property's location.
• Sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources. Key all photographs to map.
• Additional items: (Check with the SHPO for any additional items.)
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
Sketch map:
Kester Millwork Shop
The Sanborn fire insurance company map set of 1920 (Sanborn 1920:4), first Sanborn update for Neligh since 1909, shows Block 42 (center) truncated in 1880 by re-platting for the diagonal railroad. The 1911–1912 Kester Millwork Shop (arrow) occupies the north-most Lot 1, and the former 1890s Neligh Planing Mill building occupies the triangular south-most Lot 2. The old shop in 1920 was labeled “Produce” indicating its continued use for another business; its removal date is unknown.
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
Reflected Ceiling Plans, Basement (top) and Main Floor (bottom):
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United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
Kester Millwork Shop Antelope Co., Nebraska Name of Property County and State
Photographs Submit clear and descriptive photographs. The size of each image must be 1600x1200 pixels (minimum), 3000x2000 preferred, at 300 ppi (pixels per inch) or larger. Key all photographs to the sketch map. Each photograph must be numbered and that number must correspond to the photograph number on the photo log. For simplicity, the name of the photographer, photo date, etc. may be listed once on the photograph log and doesn’t need to be labeled on every photograph.
Photo Log
Name of Property Kester Millwork Shop
City or Vicinity Neligh County Antelope State Nebraska
Photographer James W. Steely Date Photographed 24–25 October 2013
Description of Photograph(s) and number, include description of view indicating direction of camera.
1. Kester Millwork Shop: South and West elevations, facing Northeast.
2. Kester Millwork Shop: North and East elevations, facing Southwest.
3. Kester Millwork Shop: Contextual view at intersections of 4th, P, and 3rd Streets, facing Southeast.
4. Kester Millwork Shop: Basement with overhead motor and millwork, facing Northeast.
5. Kester Millwork Shop: Basement with brick flue base, facing Southwest.
6. Kester Millwork Shop: Basement ceiling detail, motor at right, first line shaft at left.
7. Kester Millwork Shop: Main Floor, workbench on right, planer at extreme left, facing Southwest.
8. Kester Millwork Shop: Main Floor, “Warm Morning” stove, easy chair, storage, facing Southeast.
9. Kester Millwork Shop: Main Floor office, facing Southeast.
10. Kester Millwork Shop: Main Floor, Rabs (sp?) Power Planer, facing Northwest.
11. Kester Millwork Shop: Main Floor ceiling detail, line shaft and hangers, pulleys, and belts.
12. Kester Millwork Shop: Attic, facing East.
Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C.460 et seq.). Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 100 hours per response including time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Office of Planning and Performance Management. U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 1849 C. Street, NW, Washington, DC.
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