By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
ROSEVILLE, Iowa — The Roseville General Store, which sat across Highway 14 from St. Mary’s Catholic Church, led a parade last week to its new home on the Cedar Valley Engine Club grounds three miles to the north.
Along the way, crews from Butler County REC, Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy moved power lines.
The store sat on a trailer pulled by a truck from Ron Holland Housemoving Inc.
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in Forest City. Family, Cedar Valley Engine Club members and people attached to the old store snaked along behind.
The procession moved about 10 mph. Due to the high cost of removing power lines on Highway 14, the store took a little longer route west on 240th St., north on Kirkwood Ave. and then east on the Rockford blacktop. The trip took about 90 minutes.
With still cameras clicking and video cameras rolling, movers delicately maneuvered through the gate at the Engine Club. Part of a tree had to come down to get the store to the spot where it will sit on movers blocks until a foundation is built.
"We are just so pleased with everyone who helped us," said Mary Koenigsfeld
of Charles City who organized the move with her husband, Al. "The people from Ron Holland are just an amazing crew of hard-working guys. They spent many hours of preparation."
The Cedar Valley Engine Club and the Koenigsfeld family have teamed up to preserve the store.
In the next few years, it will get a new roof and paint. The windows, overhang, gas pumps and inside rooms will be restored.
Mary said they hope to have the wiring done so that they can sell ice cream and show people progress on the store during the Cedar Valley Engine Club’s Labor Day show.
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Jake Keifer built the general store in 1903 and sold it two years later to Bill Haggeman. John Sinwell Jr. bought it two years after that.
He closed the store in 1910 and used it as a home for his parents. Peter and Dora Koenigsfeld and their son Lawrence bought the home in 1932, and it became a store again with living quarters in all of the upstairs and part of the downstairs.
