402 13th Street | Belle Plaine, IA 52208
.jpg/:/rs=h:210,cg:true,m/qt=q:95)
Our Progress
YOu Can be a Part of the Legacy
Investment In A Legacy Preston's Celebrating 100 Years in 2023
YOu Can be a Part of the Legacy
The illustrious history of Preston’s Station is an important part of the legacy of the Lincoln Highway, and the City of Belle Plaine, and continues to be an important asset for Belle Plaine and surrounding communities.
While the buildings within Preston’s Station Historic District appear to be structurally sound, the improvements, restoration and preservation being planned are urgent, so this slice of Americana history is preserved. While we’ve made preservation progress, there is still much left to be done to preserve a story which began 100 years ago. We have a master plan outlining necessary steps but to achieve total restoration, WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Your support is critical to continuing Preston’s legacy for generations to come. If we don’t save our history now, it will be lost forever.
By ordering a brick you will help us preserve a Legacy while becoming a part of the Legacy.
We will use the bricks to surround an interpretive panel sharing the legacy of Preston’s Station. The interpretive panel will be installed on the east side of the Station once restoration is completed.
Thank you for your support.
Capital Campaign Overview
Investment In A Legacy Preston's Celebrating 100 Years in 2023
YOu Can be a Part of the Legacy
The approach to Preston’s Station Historic District, driving west on the Lincoln Highway through Belle Plaine, reveals Preston’s Corner; home to Preston’s Station, a three-room motel, and a garage/roadside museum featuring relics from the past. The Station remains frozen in a bygone era when it closed in 1989. As you walk Preston’s, you hear Lincoln Highway and Belle Plaine lore being told by George and Ronald. Some of the stories may be urban legend but only George and Ronald know where facts end and fiction begins. As George said many times, “if you don’t believe me go ask Blanche.”
The colorful history of Preston’s is an important part of the legacy of the Lincoln Highway and Belle Plaine. It is an asset for the community, but the goal to restore and preserve Preston’s is two-fold. First, an awareness of its historical significance in the community and the allure early automotive travel along the Lincoln Highway is a story which must be told. The restoration of the motel, station and museum will create economic and educational benefits for the community, while providing viable services for tourists following the historical route of the Lincoln Highway through Belle Plaine. The story of small American communities which lived, worked, and played together must not fade away.
The improvements, restoration and preservation being planned are urgent, so this slice of Americana history is preserved. While we’ve made preservation progress, there is still much left to be done to preserve a story which began 100 years ago. We have a master plan outlining necessary steps but to achieve total restoration, we need your help! Your support is critical to continuing Preston’s legacy for generations to come. If we don’t save our history now, it will be lost forever.
Investment In A Legacy Preston's Celebrating 100 Years in 2023
Investment In A Legacy Preston's Celebrating 100 Years in 2023
Benton County Community Foundation Awards Preston’s Station Historic District A restoration Grant
In 2023, Preston's Station celebrates 100 years!
The illustrious history of Preston’s Station is an important part of the legacy of the Lincoln Highway, and the City of Belle Plaine. Preston’s continues to be an important asset for Belle Plaine and surrounding communities. Our Master Plan outlines the highest priorities of our preservation efforts to ensure the integrity and distinctive characteristics are preserved.
Total projected cost to restore and preserve Preston’s Station Historic District is estimated at $500,000.
The restoration of Preston’s Station Historic District will provide an economic and educational resource with viable services for travelers and visitors along the Lincoln Highway in Belle Plaine.
While we’ve achieved so much since moving here in 2017, yet there is still much left to do. In order to preserve and continue the Legacy, we need your help! Your support is critical to continuing Preston’s legacy for all generations to enjoy.
We appreciate your consideration in making an investment in a Legacy.
Benton County Community Foundation Awards Preston’s Station Historic District A restoration Grant
Benton County Community Foundation Awards Preston’s Station Historic District A restoration Grant
Benton County Community Foundation Awards Preston’s Station Historic District A restoration Grant
Preston’s Station Historic District has been awarded a grant from the Benton County Community Foundation. Grant funds will be used to hire Wadsworth Construction to assess, stabilize, repair and restore the seven original windows on the Garage/Roadside Museum. Wadsworth Construction specializes in proper preservation methods, which will help mitigate further damage and protect Preston's from costly and irreversible mistakes.
“We are appreciative of the support from the Benton County Community Foundation in our efforts to preserve and restore Preston’s Station Historic District. The result from this project will allow us properly stabilize and restore the original windows on the Roadside Museum; all in an effort to restore Preston’s so we can this fragile piece of Iowa history,” said Mary Helen Preston, owner of Preston’s Station Historic District.
"The Benton County Community Foundation is proud to partner with our local nonprofit organizations and support their work to make Benton County a better place for everyone,” said Tim Peters, chair of the Benton County Community Foundation governing committee
Preston’s Station Historic District receives a preservation grant from national trust
Benton County Community Foundation Awards Preston’s Station Historic District A restoration Grant
Preston’s Station Historic District receives a preservation grant from national trust
Preston’s Station Historic District has been awarded a grant by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Grant funds will be used to hire Martin Gardner Architecture to develop a Master Stabilization and Rehabilitation Plan providing clear guidance for future preservation efforts from a thorough investigation and well-developed treatment plan.
“We are appreciative of the support we received from the National Trust for Historic Preservation for our efforts to preserve and restore Preston’s Station Historic District. The result from Martin Gardner’s efforts will allow efficient use of resources to properly preserve this cornerstone of our community. The Plan will protect Preston's from costly and irreversible mistakes being made to this fragile piece of Iowa history,” said Mary Helen Preston, owner of Preston’s Station Historic District.
"Organizations like Preston’s Station Historic District, help to ensure that communities all across America retain their unique sense of place," said Paul Edmondson, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. "We are honored to provide a grant to Preston’s, which will use the funds to help preserve an important piece of our shared national heritage."
Grants from the National Trust Preservation Fund range from $2,500 to $5,000 and have provided over $15 million since 2003. These matching grants are awarded to nonprofit organizations and public agencies across the country to support wide-ranging activities including consultant services for rehabilitating buildings, technical assistance for tourism that promotes historic resources, and the development of materials for education and outreach campaigns.
Preston’s Station Historic District TO Unveil New Interpretive Panel Saturday, May 1
Benton County Community Foundation Awards Preston’s Station Historic District A restoration Grant
Preston’s Station Historic District receives a preservation grant from national trust
April 12, 2021 (Ames, Iowa) — Tourists driving through Belle Plaine along the Iowa Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway™ – A National Scenic Byway can discover a treasured legacy that has stood for more than four generations. In celebration, Preston’s Station Historic District will unveil a new interpretive panel at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 1. Visitors viewing the panel will learn about its history and see the faces behind its legacy.
The Ames, Iowa-based not-for-profit Prairie Rivers of Iowa Lincoln Highway Heritage Byway program facilitated the interpretive panel’s design and construction as part of a ten-panel project using grant funding from the Union Pacific Railroad Community Ties Giving Program and Humanities of Iowa along with a cash match courtesy of the Burke Heritage Fund. The panels offer travelers and their families a safe, fun, educational and engaging activity.
“We are honored to be one the sites to have been selected to install an interpretive panel,” says Preston’s Station Historic District owner Mary Helen Preston, “This panel showcases four generations of Prestons that began in 1913 when my great grandfather followed the Union Pacific to Belle Plaine for work and saw an opportunity to provide a needed service when the Lincoln Highway was rerouted through town.”
From great grandfather to grandfather, to father, to daughter, the family has remained Preston's Station’s caretakers preserving the property and telling the story of how important the railroad and the Lincoln Highway have been to Belle Plaine.
Located at 402 13th Street in Belle Plaine, Preston’s Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in September 2020. It comprises an old gas station, a garage/roadside museum and motel. Visitors can appreciate what travel was like during the past along the Lincoln Highway while experiencing vintage gas pumps, signage and memorabilia.
Preston's Listed in National Register of Historic Places
PRESTON'S NAMED TO PRESERVATION IOWA'S 2019 MOST ENDANGERED PROPERTIES
PRESTON'S NAMED TO PRESERVATION IOWA'S 2019 MOST ENDANGERED PROPERTIES
Preston’s Station Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on September 21, 2020. Preston’s becomes the fifth such listing for Belle Plaine. Preston’s nomination is supported in part by the State Historical Society of Iowa, Historical Resource Development Program. Jennifer Price, Price Preservation Research, a historic preservation professional was retained to research and prepare the nomination.
Preston’s is in its original location on the north side of the old Lincoln Highway route on 13thStreet in Belle Plaine; paralleling the route of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, the tracks are still in use by the Union Pacific Railroad.
Preston’s Station Historic District conveys a feeling of time and place of an early to mid-twentieth-century “mom and pop” filling station, garage and roadside lodging, complete with family residence. The sign-covered filling station, itself, has been preserved almost as George Preston left it, so one would not be surprised to see George standing in the doorway. Preston’s close association with other such historic roadside building types and the Lincoln Highway has made Preston’s Station Historic District a must-see attraction for tourists following the historic route through Iowa.
“We are appreciative of the support our efforts to preserve and restore Preston's Station Historic District has received. Preston's Station is honored to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The listing will assist us with long-term preservation as a historic site and community asset. We are dedicated to educating and raising awareness of the historical significance of Preston’s, the city of Belle Plaine and the Lincoln Highway for all generations to appreciate and be inspired by the past,” said Mary Helen Preston, Preston’s Station Historic District President.
PRESTON'S NAMED TO PRESERVATION IOWA'S 2019 MOST ENDANGERED PROPERTIES
PRESTON'S NAMED TO PRESERVATION IOWA'S 2019 MOST ENDANGERED PROPERTIES
PRESTON'S NAMED TO PRESERVATION IOWA'S 2019 MOST ENDANGERED PROPERTIES
Preston’s Station Historic District is comprised of a gas station, garage, and motel which sit along the old Lincoln Highway, the nation’s first transcontinental highway. The filling station built in 1912 was purchased by G. W. Preston in the early 1920s and moved to its present location on 13th Street between 1928 and 1930. Originally constructed as a house-with canopy gas station, the post canopy was removed sometime before 1965. The exterior walls are wood siding and covered with antique advertising signs on all four sides. Historic and family memorabilia is displayed inside the station. The adjacent concrete-block garage was constructed in 1943 and features a sliding barn door on which more antique signs are displayed. The building served as a repair garage and then George H. Preston’s personal roadside museum and continues to house many items from Preston’s collection. A single story, three-unit motel on the property was built sometime after 1949. In its heyday, this business was a mainstay along the popular route and at present there is no other location like this left on the Lincoln Highway in Iowa.
Today, the property is still owned and maintained by the Preston family and continues to be a popular tourist attraction for enthusiasts looking for history and nostalgia along the historic route.
Overall, the District, however, is showing a lack of maintenance and deterioration. The advertising signs throughout the District demonstrate evidence of long exposure to the elements and need to be preserved. The Station’s interior and collection of historic and family memorabilia also show signs of deterioration due to exposure to sun and moisture. The screws used to fasten the tin roof of the garage/museum are deteriorating, pulling away, allowing exposure to the elements and causing the ceiling to fall on the collection of historic and family memorabilia in the building. The windows of the building are boarded up and need to be replaced. There are also signs of wood rot and possible termite damage on the buildings which need to be addressed.
A not-for-profit has been formed with the goal of raising money for the preservation of the buildings. Initial plans call for completion of a structure review and the development of a Historic Structure Report to direct preservation planning efforts for the site.
Preston's receives paint iowa beautiful grant
PRESTON'S NAMED TO PRESERVATION IOWA'S 2019 MOST ENDANGERED PROPERTIES
Preston's receives paint iowa beautiful grant
Preston's Station Historic District is honored to be a recipient of of a 2019 Paint Iowa Beautiful Grant; receiving paint from Diamond Vogel for our roadside museum/garage.
We are appreciative of Paint Iowa Beautiful/ Keep Iowa Beautiful and Diamond Vogel for their support and seeing the need for assistance in maintaining the significance of Preston's. We want to thank Hope Schultz, Diamond Vogel Store Manager at Marshalltown’s Diamond Vogel and Dave Goodell for your support and expertise from start to finish.
We are dedicated to preserving and restoring Preston's for all generation to enjoy.