Renovation reveals long-hidden scene of Iowa City street

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - In the process of renovating the building formerly occupied by Whitey's Ice Cream in downtown Iowa City, a portal to the past was opened.

During the week of Jan. 5, as Darren Spenler, an owner of Swisher-based TD Builders LLC, was tearing down old drywall and wallpaper at 112 E. Washington St., he uncovered a fresco streetscape of East Washington Street - signed F. Leach - and immediately sent a picture to the building's owner.

The fresco depicts a view of East Washington Street from the corner of South Clinton and East Washington Streets looking east, and shows the businesses that used to occupy the buildings there, including Lubin's Drug Store and Bremers Clothing.

"We knew there could be some interesting historic details inside the building, and we were approaching the demo a little softer anyway because we didn't know how fragile the brick and substructure were," Mark Ginsberg, the building's owner, told the Iowa City Press-Citizen (http://icp-c.com/1Ewwbu3). "Darren was pulling all that off because we had to get down to the brick, but we didn't know it was there until we were demoing. Once that corner came loose, Darren was pretty careful with pulling the rest off."

Spurred by curiosity about the painting, Ginsberg spoke with Jack Ashby, one of the building's previous owners. Ashby, who owned the building for more than 30 years, said the former Whitey's location used to be a Lorenz Boot Shop until 1983.

Ashby said he took a job at the boot shop in 1957, and had been told at the time that the fresco was painted by Fred Leach, who is believed to have been an art student at the University of Iowa at the time.

"In 1955, Lorenz moved from 119 E. Washington St. to 112 E. Washington St., where Whitey's is now. I knew it was painted that year because it was something we just knew. It may have been commissioned by the four Lorenz brothers as part of the renovation, but I'm not sure," Ashby said. "I do know a lot of people stopped in to see it, and it was a big conversation piece."

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, a fresco is a method of painting that uses water-based pigments on freshly-applied plaster, usually dry wall surfaces. The colors of paint are made by grinding dry pigments in pure water, which then dry and set with the plaster to become a permanent part of the wall.

In the painting, Leach signed his name on what would have been the Domby Boot Shop's sign.

Ginsberg said that as a part of restoring the building and recreating what it would have looked like in 1905, every effort will be made to restore the piece.

"I'm looking at restoring it, and looking into the restoration process. It's going to be tough with the glue on there, but we're going to try," Ginsberg said.

He said the renovation could be finished by July, and that he would like to see a future tenant live and work in the same building.

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Information from: Iowa City Press-Citizen, http://www.press-citizen.com/