ALEXANDER YOUNG--1491 MAIN

The Alexander Young Home, later Behr's Funeral Home, remains one of the most elegant buildings in the city.

ALEXANDER YOUNG HOME. Completion of the house for Alexander Young brought an elegance to Dubuque not before seen in our city. The residence contains eight hand polished imported marble fireplaces surmounted by priceless matching Chippendale gilt and exotic wood mirrors, original Satsuma china and brass chandeliers, stencil painted ceilings and walls, inlaid wood floors, and wheel cut and etched glass in the interior doors. Rumors were begun of doors adorned with plates and knobs of gold, and former President Grant was rumored to have been entertained at a banquet in his honor at the residence shortly after its completion. Alexander Young died after a brief illness on August 1, 1880 at the age of 66 - less than one year after taking possession of their home. Ms. Elizabeth (Bates) Young continued living in the home until her death on January 14, 1897.

In 1897 Ms. Nannie (Richards) Bell (wife of the late John BELL) purchased the home from Mrs. Young's estate and resided there with her son and daughter-in-law, Frank and Laura (Coates) Bell. Mr. John Bell was born in 1818 in England and came to Dubuque in 1838 and engaged in mining. His business continued for some time when he went to Platte River, Wisconsin where he established a smelting furnace which operated until he married and moved to Dubuque. He entered the mercantile business with Pratt & Mason on Main between 2nd and 3rd Streets. He eventually sold out to Coates & Wilde and became interested in the Dubuque Harbor and Central Island Improvement Company, and was one of the leading men in these corporations. In 1861 Mr. Bell again entered the mercantile business and bought out Coates Bros. General Store at Second and Main with James WALLIS under the name of John Bell & Company. In 1864 this firm was enlarged with the addition of Mr. John Vincent RIDER, and they purchased the stock of Wood, Luke & Company whose place of business was in the old town clock building. A few years later the firm closed out of its retail department and entered on an extensive scale into the wholesale trade, in which he took a very active part until 1886, when he disposed of his interest to his partners, after which time he entered into the real estate and banking businesses. He became president of the GERMAN TRUST AND SAVINGS BANK - a position he held until a year before his death, on July 29, 1896.

Nannie Bell resided at her home in the companionship of Frank and Laura until her death in November 1910. Her home was left to her son Frank and his wife.

Frank Bell married Laura Coates on June 4, 1907. Mr. Bell was described as an honest, far-seeing and capable financier. He and brother Fred operated BELL BROTHERS COMPANY located at 4th and Locust Streets which manufacturing overalls, pants, shirts, duck coats, etc. as well as importing notions, hosiery, furnishing goods, gloves and mitts. Until ill health made him give up active business he was the president of Bell Bros. Company and a director of the Second National Bank (later the CONSOLIDATED NATIONAL BANK) and until his death a director of the IOWA OIL COMPANY. Frank Bell died on July 2, 1927. Laura Bell was very active in the affairs of ST. LUKE'S UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, and at the time of her death was a member of the church board of trustees.

Mrs. Bell was approached by a young funeral director in Dubuque by the name of Norbert BEHR to purchase the residence for a funeral home. Mrs. Bell declined the offer at the time but directed in her will to sell the building to Mr. Behr regardless of price upon her death. Mrs. Bell died in December 1947 at the age of 81.

In 1948 Norb Behr bought and began converting the single-family home into Behr's Funeral Home. The home was of ample size to allow for the business on the main floor and a comfortable apartment upstairs for the new owner and his growing family. The original carriage house was converted to apartments upstairs and garage space below. The conversion to apartments over the carriage house unfortunately resulted in the removal of the Mansard roof - replacing it with a flat roof easier to maintain. Behr's Funeral Home opened for business in 1936 and moved to its new location at 1491 Main Street in October 1949. Norb Behr died on December 30, 2000. The building in 2010 was owned by Kathleen (Behr) Conlon and with her son Kevin J. Conlon and his wife Nancy.

Starting in early 2000 Phase 1 plans were underway for a complete interior and exterior restoration. The original plan was restore one area of the building at a time while still maintaining a viable business and beginning with the areas needing the most attention. The summer of 2000 saw the removal of the steel siding covering the original brick on the 2nd floor and the brick and frame additions of the early 1980s were bricked to better fit the architecture of the building and an outside staircase was moved out of the courtyard area on 15th street to the south courtyard out of sight. Interior spaces included turning congested offices and unusable spaces inside into a turn-of-the-century library complete with built-in bookcases, desks and wainscoting. Wallpapers were removed, textured plaster walls from the last 50 years were smoothed and painted the deep, bold colors of the period. Steel double doors in the 15th street courtyard installed in the 80's gave way to new oak doors designed to compliment the original doors on the front of the building, which were also stripped and re-finished. New windows were designed and installed in the courtyard to match the custom arches of the main building and new 7" wide oak trims were fabricated to exactly match the original millwork. Small baseboard trim was replaced with 3 piece 11' high baseboard matching the original.

Phase 2 of the project, completed in the fall of 2001, included removal of the original cast iron fence around the building and replacing the age-broken cut stone below to re-align and stabilize the fence. The original fence was repaired where needed and re-installed. Phase 2 also called for new curbs on 15th street, sidewalks, steps, trees, tree grates, copper down spouts, and four new city standard street lights on 15th and Main Streets. The old tall curbs were removed and smaller curbs were installed. Original brick pavers were removed, re-leveled, replaced if necessary, and re-installed to repair and bring the street back to it's former glory.

Restoration of the carriage house exterior and replacement of its mansard roof was Phase 3 and was completed in 2005. Photos were obtained in 2000 of the actual removal of the original mansard roof in 1948. The photos supplied all the information needed to re-construct the mansard "to the brick" the way it was originally built. All metal work and built-in guttering was replicated and re-applied, all window, door, hay door and carriage door openings were returned to their original locations and proportions and bricked-in openings were opened. In addition to re-construction all utilities were re-located to eliminate as much outside clutter as possible. Fall 2005 saw the addition of the windows and doors to the carriage house to replicate the originals in the 1948 photos as much as possible while still allowing for the completion of a single apartment in what was originally a hay loft and small living quarters for the stable-hand.

Phase 4 was completed in 2008 restoring the main house roof slate and replace 130 year old metal roof flashing and gutter-lining. Window openings not original to the house were removed, aging window trim was replicated and missing detail was re-applied. Chimneys were stripped of paint, tuckpointed and all flashings were replaced.

Phase 5 moved back inside to repair sections of the original handrail removed on second and third floor landings and restore the original appearance of the third floor rooms used to house the servants quarters. Due to a water leak in 2001 Phase 5 was begun early. The third floor apartments and their 1948 cast iron plumbing were removed, as were seven window air conditioners. The steam radiators and their associated cast iron piping were removed along with the air conditioners. The HVAC duties are now performed by forced air units concealed in the floor between second and third floors.

The third floor pipe problem necessitated the removal of all cast iron pipe in the building and replacement with more durable plastic waste piping. The second floor restoration work was completed in 2007. All plaster work was repaired, wallpaper was removed, original paint colors were researched and original hand painted wall artwork was restored. All second floor doors, windows, and hardware were removed, stripped of 130 years of paint and chips, repaired and replaced. Window sashes were removed, disassembled, stripped, painted and new glass installed and new bronze sash chains installed. Aluminum storm windows were removed and replaced with custom wood units mirroring the originals to reveal the unique arch top windows. Wood baseboard on the second floor were replicated and repaired were needed. Original doors opening to the stone porch over the front door were replicated and re-installed.

Third floor work will continue in 2009 to restore the hand-pained walls in the servants' quarters, reading room, and third floor ballroom. The original diamond-top window and side-lights on the front of the building were replaced completing the third floor outside restoration.

The completion date for the entire project is expected to be sometime mid- to late 2010.

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Source:

Information prepared by Kevin Conlon.

Sommer, Lawrence. The Heritage of Dubuque. East Dubuque: Tel Graphics, October 1975, p. 96-97