The Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission will hold a public hearing during its Thursday evening meeting on the possibility of conferring landmark status on the Northside building that’s been home to Pagliai’s Pizza since 1969. The building at 302-316 E Bloomington St, properly known as the Slezak-Holub-Skarda Building, dates back to 1876 and, despite the hyphenated name, is still owned by a member of the same family that has owned it since it was built.
The building’s current owner Gary Skarda listed the property for sale in late September last year.
Skarda told the Daily Iowan in October that he decided to sell the building because of his advancing age and medical issues, including the amputation of his right leg.
“I was unable to do things at the property that I was able to do before,” he said. “I can’t even drive right now because I need special tools in the car to be able to drive because it was my right leg.”
News of a possible sale raised concerns about the iconic building being torn down and replaced by a new owner, especially since the sale listings on Realtor.com and Zillow described the building as “a true Landmark property” but also explained it’s not legally speaking a landmark building: “NOT listed on Historic Register. PERFECT site for future development.” (All caps in the original.)
The reference to the building lacking landmark status and the possibility of future development has since been removed from both listings. But the $5 million asking price is one that would most likely appeal only to a buyer interested in redeveloping the site and tearing down the existing structure. According to the current valuation on the Iowa City Assessor’s Office site, the current valuation of the property is $1,530,570.
Members of the Historic Preservation Commission met with Skarda in October to discuss the possibility of landmarking the building. Although Skarda is proud of his family’s almost century-and-a-half of stewardship of the building and hopes that any buyer would continue his approach, he is not interested in landmarking it.
Responding to public interest, the Historic Preservation Commission had a discussion at its Oct. 12 meeting about the possibility of designating the property as an Iowa Historic Landmark, eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Members of the public who spoke at the meeting encouraged the commission to do so.
The Friends of Historic Preservation hired historian Jennifer Price of Price Preservation Research to prepare a report on whether the Slezak-Holub-Skarda Building meets the architectural and historic criteria for landmark status and for being listed on the National Register. Price concluded it does.
The original footprint and design of this Italianate style building complex is intact, and the workmanship and materials of the original builders is visible on all sides. Extant original character-defining features — including the face brick, fenestration pattern, hood molds, brackets and cornices, and Baroque pediments — have been preserved throughout periods of remodeling and repurposing. The Slezak-Holub-Skarda Building conveys a feeling of time and place of a late-nineteenth-century Italianate commercial block — even with its modern commercial tenants — that the building’s original owners and customers would instantly recognize.
Price’s report, which is included in the commission’s agenda package for its Feb. 8 meeting, examines the history of the property, including the Narodni Sin (National Hall) that was once on the building’s second floor and was “the venue for numerous dances, parties, sporting events, and staged entertainments” as well as community meetings for the city’s Bohemian immigrants for four decades.
Price notes that the building has long been informally considered a local landmark. In 1900 the Iowa City Daily Republican called it “one of the landmarks of the city.” A 1996 report that laid the groundwork for the creation of the Northside Historic District listed the building as one of 10 sites that “appear to be individually significant” and likely “eligible for the NRHP and/or local landmark designation.”
Although Skarda “chose not to pursue National Register listing or local landmark status at the time of the survey, he has continued to maintain the historic building complex to a high degree,” Price writes. When the boundaries of the Northside Historic District were drawn, the Slezak-Holub-Skarda Building was left just beyond its southern border.
“Designation of the property as an Iowa City Historic Landmark will require Commission approval of any significant changes to the exterior of the building,” the commission staff explains in its summary of the issue. “Landmark status will also make the property eligible for special exceptions that would allow the Board of Adjustment to waive or modify certain zoning requirements and for State Tax Credit funding of rehabilitation work. The property would also be eligible for the City’s Historic Preservation Fund to help with exterior repair work.”
The Historic Preservation Commission does not have the authority to designate a property as a landmark, but can issue a recommendation that the Iowa City Council do so. Although landmark status is normally conferred at a property owner’s request, the city council can designate a landmark without such a request if it determines it is in the public interest to do it. Without the owner’s consent, it requires a supermajority of councilmembers — six out of seven — to confer landmark status on a property.
The public hearing on designating the Slezak-Holub-Skarda Building as a landmark will be the first item discussed at the Historic Preservation Commission meeting on Thursday at Iowa City Hall. A vote on the matter will be held in the meeting after the hearing concludes. The commission meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m.
Editor’s note: Little Village art director Jordan Sellergren is the current chair of the Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission.
