By Kevin Carbery
Monday, December 24, 2007

A historic structure in northwest Jefferson County has received some long-needed refurbishing work.

The Northwest Jefferson County Historical and Preservation Society paid for recent improvements made to the Hagemeister House, which sits in Byrnes Mill City Park.

"There's been at least $30,000 put into it so far," Alice Zangaro, the society's president, said. "This particular project was $14,000. The work was done by Tangible Touch, a local contractor."He was stabilizing, weatherizing, treating all the logs. He did work on the roof and the sides. He put in all new windows."

"It's closed in now," added her husband, Vince Zangaro. "(The carpenter) squared off, straightened everything. He worked on it five weeks overall."

Dan May, another member of the society, said the rehab effort has made the Hagemeister House sturdier. "It's in good shape now, after the work that's been done," May said. "It was disassembled (when it was moved by truck from House Springs several years ago), then put back together. I think it's an important part of local history."

Alice Zangaro said the log building is significant to the region.

"It's characteristic of the 1860s," she said. "Best as we can tell, it was built somewhere between 1870 and 1871. Most likely, they began with one room, then built another beside it and added what's called a 'dog trot' to link them. The Hagemeisters raised 11 kids in this house."

She said the Northwest Jefferson County Historical Society seeks structures like the Hagemeister House to help preserve some of the area's past.

"The organization is a not-for-profit group," Alice Zangaro said. "Our priorities are to find, identify and preserve historic buildings, sites or documents."

The Hagemeister House could become the organization's headquarters. "We're hoping we can use this for our meeting place," Alice Zangaro said. "We do fund raising. We will eventually have tours of the house. We'd like to have an open house, but haven't set a date yet. We hope to have it as soon as possible."

But much still needs to be done to the Hagemeister House to make it a suitable meeting place, however, she said.

"The original plan was there should be a bathroom and a meeting hall in the lower level," she said. "We'd still like to do this. We'd like the upper level to be set up with period furniture and the whole thing to be a kind of museum. The lower level would be for meetings.

"Our next goal is to complete the inside with water and concrete. We'd like to get water and sewer attached."

The society has conducted fund-raising events through the years to get the money to make repairs and improvements to Hagemeister House.

"We've raised funds through the Demaree Fair," Alice Zangaro said. "We'll have other fund raisers in the future. We have antiques appraisals. That's a good source of income. We've also had contributions from businesses."

The society president would like to have more people join her organization. "We're definitely looking for more members," she said. "We need new members very much. If you're interested, call me."

The Zangaros may be reached at 636-285-4179.

"The big thing right now, there are people with historic homes," Alice Zangaro said. "We'd like to know about them so we can research them."