If you’ve ever driven through Clear Lake via hwy 24 you’ve seen it. The big Dutch Colonel house on the edge of town. 

 

Built in 1898, the once grand home stood empty for 25 years before Tom Boelz came by, was intrigued by its look, and purchased it on May 1, 1960 from Clear Lake resident Harold Kiffmeyer.

 

The house was in bad shape. Every window had been broken out, all the plaster was on the floor, the roof leaked and pigeon manure had built up six to seven inches deep. 

 

Everyone told him it wasn’t worth his time or effort and he should burn it down, however, Boelz said, “It’s pretty hard to tell me what to do when I make up my mind about something.”

 

Banker Charles Schwab and his wife, Lavina, originally built the house. They resided there until 1908 when Schwab became treasurer for the Pan Motor Company and they moved to St. Cloud. There was only a Torrens title for the property when Boelz purchased it so he’s unsure of whom the Schwabs sold it to, but believes it may have been a family named Helminosky. The property was rented for a time before it sat empty, and he doesn’t know whom Kiffmeyer purchased it from. 

 

To begin the restoration Boelz removed all the pigeon manure and old plaster, shoveling it out the windows, and took off all the remaining shingles from the roof, hauling away countless loads in his dump truck. Next he started working on one of the adjacent barns that was leaning to one side 14 inches, straightening and bracing it back up.

 

During this time Boelz was also working for concrete companies, farming 80 acres of land and caring for his elderly parents who were both ailing, so the going was slow. 

 

The property needed a new well, as the wooden pump rod on the original one had broken off 55 feet down. It took he and a well driller two weeks to get to the bottom and get the pipe up. He added a windmill that he had to first repair because the tower had been bent when the farmer he’d gotten it from had taken it down. A sewer was needed so a cesspool was installed, and he added Masonite siding to the exterior of the house. He was able to keep the original cedar shingles that were on the gables that still grace the house today.

 

One of the windows that Boelz installed wasn’t part of the original design. He purchased a large arched window from Dr. Clugston, who was the Dean of Men at St. Cloud State University, when his home was torn down to make way for more St. Cloud State University buildings. He placed the window on the south side of the house.

 

For a few years Boelz wasn’t able to do much work on the house because of time constraints, but by 1975 most of the structural changes had been completed, electricity had been installed and he was finally able to move in.

 

He wasn’t finished with his renovating however. In 1986 the kitchen was remodeled and cabinets added. Before this he and his partner, Emilie Trushenski, who had moved in the year before, used a little kitchen area in the basement because it had a small stove and sink.

 

In 1987 steps from the front porch down to the sidewalk along hwy 24 were added, and a year later an addition they call “the great room” was completed along with a garage and attached walkway. The house was also completely resided with cedar.

 

Boelz knew that it was going to be difficult to work on the top level exterior of the house, so after the Sartell paper mill had completed their expansion in 1982 he purchased 10 sections of scaffolding from them. When it came time to paint the gables that scaffolding was set up all around the outside. It also came in handy when he redid the tops of the chimneys so they were corbeled (flared out) like they had been built originally. 

 

Around this same time Boelz purchased a large outdoor clock that had originally come from Goodman Jewelers in St. Cloud. Using an old Pure Oil signpost, he mounted the clock in his front yard along the road. He and a friend created the decorative ironwork that completes it. It worked up until it was hit by lightning during a storm.

 

The completed house is 4,266 square feet, has 55 windows, three levels plus an attic, and nine-foot-four-inch high ceilings on the main floor.

 

Although much of the woodwork had to be replaced a lot of it is still original, including the front door and some of the interior doors, some of the indoor railings, the decorative ceiling brick-a-brac and the flooring.

 

Boelz is still in the process of renovating his house, but, he laughs, it may never get done. He hasn’t regretted a moment.