The downtown area of Le Mars may be listed on the National Register of Historic Places this fall.
The Iowa Nomination Review Committee approved the application for the National Register listing Friday in Dubuque, according to Iris Hemmingson, chairwoman, Le Mars Historic Preservation Commission.
“Le Mars needs to be extremely proud of their Main Street district,” she said.
There are some minor changes to be made prior to submitting the area to the National Park Service for final consideration for the historic district designation, Hemmingson said.
The application had been read by 18-20 people by the time the state review committee met last week, she said.
“They questioned some priority on certain issues like the farm crisis of the 1930s,” she said. “They thought that needed to be clarified a little bit more.”
The heritage of the people of Le Mars was an area of interest to the review committee members, Hemmingson said.
“They were quite interested in the English presence and one of them asked when all the Germans came in (to the community),” she said.
The commission also asked for more information about the expansion of a dairy delivery business into the company that would become Wells Enterprises of Le Mars, Hemmingson said.
The project to nominate the downtown area of Le Mars to the National Register began more than a year ago.
The local historic preservation commission hired consultant Kerry Davis of Preservation Solutions, Wamego, Kansas, and a series of public meetings were held.
Davis and the local historic preservation commission worked volunteers prepared the nomination for the downtown Le Mars historic district.
Davis will make the minor changes requested and the commission will review the paperwork again before the application is submitted to the National Park Service, Hemmingson said.
The local historic preservation commission does not have a date the National Park Service will consider the nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
“All we know is sometime this fall,” she said.
A listing on the National Register of Historic Places provides formal recognition of an area’s historical, architectural or archaeological significance based on national standards used by every state, according to the local historical preservation commission.
The area proposed for the district is not as big as the historical preservation commission had hoped, Hemmingson said.
“The section between the railroad tracks, south on Central Avenue to the Le Mars Arts Center also includes buildings we wanted on the Register,” she explained.
Davis felt the state review committee would not accept that area, according to Hemmingson.
If some of the buildings there are returned to a more original condition, the area could be added to the district at a later time, Hemmingson said.
Tours of the area included in the nomination to the National Register will be offered during Ice Cream Days.
The Le Mars Historic Preservation Commission-sponsored tours will begin at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the Arts Center, 200 Central Ave. S.E.
“The tours will focus on the details of the upper parts of downtown buildings,” Hemmingson said.
The tours will be offered without charge, according to the commission.
If the National Park Service approves the downtown district, Le Mars would have nine listings on the National Register of Historic Places.
Existing properties are the register are the Plymouth County Courthouse; St. George’s Episcopal Church; the former Central School building which houses the Plymouth County Historical Museum; the Arts Center; the Round Barn on the Plymouth County Fairgrounds; Sacred Heart Hospital which has been converted to Floyd Valley Apartments; and the Foster Park and Le Mars Municipal Park Historic Districts.