Bergman house sold, will be restored as residence

After months of uncertainty about its future, the August Bergman House has a new owner and she has big plans for the 100-year-old structure.

Lila Arrowood of Des Moines purchased the historic house and plans to restore it and make it her home.

“I’ve had my eye on this house for 20 years,” Arrowood said. “I didn’t want to see it torn down and I wanted to do something to save it, so I bought it.”

Arrowood purchased it for a family project. She has six children who live throughout the U.S. and wanted a place for everyone to be able to come home and enjoy the holidays. With the family numbering more than 100, she needed a place that could hold everyone comfortably.

“I am going to live here eventually and it will be a family retreat. We will have a place for Christmas and holidays,” Arrowood said.

The City of Newton was originally approached by the Newton Historical Society and a group that had formed to “Save the Bergman” to purchase the house in late 2014.

After several presentations by the group, the city council decided against purchasing the home in February, citing major problems with the funding for the historical society to eventually purchase the house from the city to the ultimate disposition of the property. The council felt that it was in the best interest of the community to encourage the private sector to assume responsibility of the historic house which, only a few months later, has happened.

Having signed the papers Wednesday, Arrowood is already hard at work cleaning and getting the appropriate help for the many tasks the house has presented.

“The roof is the biggest project. I want to restore what we can restore, and what we can’t, we will repair.”

She plans to use the same tiles that already cover the structure and repair the roof back to working order. Cleaning up the walls and yard will take the bulk of her time but, she was pleasantly surprised at the good condition of the woodwork and flooring.

This is not the first house that Arrowood has restored. In the 1980s she purchased a home in Montezuma, restored it and lived in it before selling and moving on. The second house she purchased for restoration was in West Union and was built in the 1840s.

“We had lots of fun doing that one and it is a bed and breakfast now,” Arrowood said. “Restoration is just a passion, something I really enjoy doing.”

In the coming weeks, she plans to contact the historical society about getting photographs of the original interior of the home to bring it back to life as it was during Bergman’s days. She has the original blueprints for the house, showing the structure from day one.

“They are all on the original form boards, not on paper that you roll up. I’m going to frame them and put them in the library,” Arrowood said. “One of my passions is to put the library like it was. It’s on the main floor, and the bookcases have been torn out, but we’re going to try to get all of it restored and get the books back in.”

Although she has a lot of work ahead of her, Arrowood is happy to put in the time to make one of Newton’s most recognizable homes a place to be proud of.

“I just see potential. You look at the house and the structure is good. It’s solid and I just couldn’t see it bulldozed down,” Arrowood said. “Well, we saved it. I don’t know fast it will get done, but we’re working on it. I hope to make the city proud.”

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com