Work is going forward on schedule on the new visitor center and the surrounding Thomas Jefferson Gardens.
C & R Construction is back at work on the outside of the visitor center adding a Federalist façade to the former filling station/bank/insurance office. Greene County Chamber executive director and past president of the Jefferson Matters: Main Street board Chris Henning said the new look was designed by 2011 J-S graduate Ashley Danielson, an architecture major at Iowa State University. Danielson used a design by Main Street consultant Tim Reiders, but modified it to make it more easily affordable.
“What’s exciting about what’s going on with that building is that it shows that the Swiss chalet look that a lot of our downtown businesses went with in the 1970s can be taken down and something new can be done pretty easily without a lot of expense,” Henning said. “This is a model that probably a dozen or so businesses could follow.”
In the foreground of the picture is a replica moldboard plow built by Robby Pedersen. Thomas Jefferson designed and used a moldboard plow at Monticello.
The exterior of the building is on schedule to be finished in the next three weeks, in time for the dedication of the Thomas Jefferson Gardens June 14 during the Bell Tower Festival. (Click on the ad for a complete schedule for activities that weekend.)
While C & R Construction is working on the building, volunteers Don Orris, John Turpin and others have done a lot of planting. In addition to the five trees planted earlier this month, there are now more than 120 flowering plants on the west side of the garden.
The Thomas Jefferson Gardens will be dedicated June 14 at 1:30 pm, with the dedication of the nearby Rotary pavilion at 2 pm.
