Julien's Journal May 2016 (Volume 41, Number 5) | Page 25

Restoring the Dream
The Buettell/Stoffel House
by Connie Cherba photos by Deb Otto

B

ill Stoffel is proud of his
Queen Ann Victorian-style
home, and he has good reason to be. Over a period of
ten years, Bill and his family have lovingly restored
the seven-bedroom, threestory home that has occupied the corner
of Langworthy and Alpine Streets for more
than 100 years. Now they are ready to
show off their historic home to the public
during the Old House Enthusiasts 2016
Tour of Homes scheduled for Saturday and
Sunday, May 21 and 22.
Bill likes to share the history of the house.
He has copies of the 1902 contract E.A.
Buettell, the original owner, signed with
architect and superintendent Martin Heer.
Actual construction of the home took place
between 1908 and 1909. Buettell, a wellrespected and accomplished business man,
worked alongside his brothers in a downtown Dubuque company appropriately
named Buettell Brothers, a business that
specialized in wholesale stationery, sporting goods, and toys. Buettell’s impressive
home reflected his affluent position in the
city’s society.

finally decided to buy this one.”
Bill, an engineer at John Deere and talented
home renovator, knew restoring the old
Buettell house would be a challenge, but
he isn’t new to carpentry, construction, or
renovation projects. He worked construction while a student at Hempstead High
School and later during his college days
at Iowa State. He also spent eight years
restoring a home in Muscatine.
Of course, some of the historic features of
the 3800-square-foot home at 225 Alpine
St. were missing when the Stoffels bought
the place twelve years ago. Other architectural details had been severely damaged
by time – in some cases, weather was the
main culprit. Bill, a man of many talents,
painstakingly recreated or restored many
of the details of the home, using old photos
and remnants of wood discovered in the
basement as guides.
According to Bill, the exterior of the house
has been the most challenging and the
most rewarding part of the restoration.

“When we moved in, all the detail work was
stored in the basement. But it was in really
bad repair, so I remade all of it. I made the
shingles, storm windows, and restored the
peaks from either reworking original pieces
or rebuilding them.”
He spent three years working on the outside of the house – restoring fifty-six windows and four exterior doors in his wellequipped, basement workshop. He used
seven different colors of paint to highlight
the details of the exterior of the house –
shades of green, cream, and eggplant.
The second floor of the house once had
five bedrooms. The two smallest bedrooms
have been converted – one into a walkin closet, the other into a second-floor
laundry. All the bedrooms and the two
bathrooms on the second floor have been
completely rebuilt. “The floors up here
were off by three inches,” said Bill. “Even
water in the bathtub ran away from the
drain.” So, he took out all the walls and put
in brand new floor joists to level the floor.
He also replaced the plumbing and electri-

Although the Buettell home has had several owners over the decades, many of
the home’s original details and much of
the original woodwork have survived. The
main floor boasts heartwood pine floors,
a cast iron and copper plated fireplace,
an elaborately carved, quarter-sawn oak
fo Y\