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1913-Ivanhoe K of P Building-Downtown Palestine, TX


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#1 eshigginbotham

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Posted 01 June 2006 - 03:19 PM

I want more of these type of people in my hometown.
Old building; new owner

20-year-old owner plans apartments in downtown

By CHERIL VERNON, H-P Community Editor
The Palestine Herald



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Ivanhoe No. 15 K of P


Palestine — The new owner of a historic building in downtown Palestine is hoping to help revitalize the downtown area by restoring the three-story Ivanhoe building located at 201 E. Oak St.

"I plan on doing apartment lofts on the top two floors then some kind of businesses on the bottom floor — potential restaurant or commercial office space," said new owner Kyle Bostic of Montalba.

The Ivanhoe building, built in 1913 as the organizational meeting for the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal organization, has hosted several businesses over the years including a furniture manufacturing company, a garment factory, a food pantry and a computer repair shop. In recent years the bottom floor has been used for commercial office space — while the top two floors have remained vacant.

Bostic plans to put in around 10 apartment lofts altogether eventually, saying the renovations on the 15,000 square-foot building would take two to three years.

Bostic purchased the building for $74,000.

"It needs an absolute total renovation on the exterior and interior," Bostic said. "The exterior will be renovated to the original historical appearance."

Local officials were on hand last week as Bostic led a tour of the building and discussed his plans for the future of the building.

"I'm looking forward to seeing the building restored and adding another historical landmark to downtown Palestine," Palestine Landmark Commission member Hugh Summers said.

April Johnston, co-owner of Texas Art Depot in downtown Palestine and a member of the Downtown Merchant Retailers Association, said she hopes this will serve as an incentive to others to reinvest in the future of Palestine.

"I think this will encourage other people and give them an incentive," Johnston said.

Kathi Masonheimer, president-elect of the Palestine Area Chamber of Commerce, said it is a great start to "getting folks here in the downtown area and hopefully the start of the beginning of living, dining and entertainment in the central business district."

Currently the Redlands is the only building in downtown Palestine to have apartments on its upper floors.

Bostic, who said he found the building for sale while looking on the Internet, said he was interested in residential property primarily.

"When I found out the City of Palestine allowed residential in the buildings downtown, it was the perfect opportunity," Bostic said. "This building offered the best opportunities and had the best qualities."

Warren Oakley, director of developmental services for the city, said renovations will bring back the historical value to the building.

"It's a unique building because it's one of our few multi-story buildings and with restoration will really add asset to the city and revitalize the area," Oakley said. "Not everyone is willing to take on a building of this size."

What makes this purchase unique is that Bostic is only 20 years old.

A 2003 graduate of Palestine High School, Bostic graduated in May with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Texas at Tyler. He graduated early due to credits he received through the concurrent college program he took while attending high school.

The Montalba resident is a third-generation remodeler — following in the footsteps of his father, the late Tim Bostic, and his grandfather, Harold Bostic, who died last week. Uniquely, at one time his grandmother worked in a factory that existed in the building.

"This is my second building to renovate, though this one is a lot larger than my first one," Bostic said. "This is what I've decided to do. I've been doing it since I was 18 and this is what I want to do for a living."

Bostic said he hopes the renovation of the building will not only spark revitalization in the downtown area, but also help with providing extra rental space to Palestine.

Century 21 real estate agent Mary Alice Largent sold the property to Bostic.

"I think that this young man is going to go far, and I really believe that renovating this building will help the downtown area grow," Largent said.


Edited by TCUTrumpetGuy, 01 June 2006 - 09:57 PM.

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#2 safly

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Posted 01 June 2006 - 10:22 PM

would love to see more pic's of the building and the town.

restaurant eh?
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#3 eshigginbotham

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Posted 01 June 2006 - 11:46 PM

One day I'll actually go and take pictures myself but for now look at these from City of Palestine & Texasescapes.com... Another source to go look at evidentally is here. Other building that I don't have pictures of that are cool would be IG&N Railroad Hospital, the rest of downtown, schools, and other stuff.



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Another pic of Ivanhoe. Church in the backgroud is the 1955 sanctuary of First Christian Church (DOC) founded by J. Addison & Randolph Clark in 1847.



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Anderson County Federal Building

Used to be post office of old. Now houses Dogwood Trails Narcotics Task Force and other federal programs?



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Neches Depot

They tore down the Palestine depot when I was little that was at Magnolia & Spring a few blocks from here. This has been located in a few places but now it rest by the farmers' market at US 287 (Spring) & US 84 (W. Oak). The day they moved it to it's present location I was watch this instead of infront of me and hit a curb head on going about 30. So much for the wheel and tire on my mom's car.



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Carnegie Library Building

The most recent tenent was the Chamber of Commerce but it has moved two blocks south on N. Queen to the newly restored Geo. Dilley building.



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Old City Hall

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New City Hall/Police Station

Horrible Horrible Horrible. Shares a parking lot with the Carnegie Building.





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Anderson County Courthouse

The Third One I think. Completed in 1913? after arson destroyed the previous one designed by W. C. Dobson was destroyed by arson.





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1939 Photo



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December 2005





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Looking East on W. Oak toward N. Queen?

On the left past the intersection is The Redlands Building, originally built as a $100,000 hotel to house the St. Louis Browns (baseball) for spring training. Sometime in the 1950s? remodeled into home of the IG&N railroad. Then MoPac or SoPac left this building for one across Spring and it now houses aparments on the upper floor and retail/restaurant on the first floor.



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Redlands Hotel 2000



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Texas Art Depot W. Oak @ N. John?





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The Texas Theater Home of Palestine Community Theatre-Crawford @ John



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John H. Reagan Building

Currently home to the Museum for East Texas Culture. Former John H. Reagan High School named for US Rep & Senator/Confederate Post Master General/Texas RR Commissioner. The building sits atop a hill at Reagan Park.



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Reagan Park

Taken from the Monument of John H. Reagan. Notice behind the tree is the Museum for East Texas Culture.



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John H. Reagan Statue



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Historic Homes like this around town. This one is currently for sale.



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MoPac Depot that was demolished. ( Maurice Higginbotham postcard but don't how related to me.)
















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#4 John T Roberts

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Posted 03 June 2006 - 10:50 AM

Those are some interesting old photos, and I also like the building that is slated for the restoration. It's really good to see these old buildings being restored in some of the surrounding communities.

#5 eshigginbotham

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Posted 07 June 2006 - 04:17 PM

QUOTE(John T Roberts @ Jun 3 2006, 11:50 AM) View Post
Those are some interesting old photos, and I also like the building that is slated for the restoration. It's really good to see these old buildings being restored in some of the surrounding communities.




I'm not sure how y'all forum fieldtrips work but you take one to Palestine/Anderson County (Old Magnolia) sometime.


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#6 eshigginbotham

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Posted 12 October 2006 - 07:25 PM

A message I received from the 20 year old owner of the building:



Hello everyone, my name is Kyle Bostic, owner of the Ivanhoe building. I am currently finishing up on another project and hope to begin work on the Ivanhoe within the next few weeks. The first phase will be to make the necessary repairs to prevent further deterioration, to clean up, and to repair the main floor offices. I plan to lease the offices while the rest of the project is underway. For those of you that don't know, the plan is to restore the exterior of the building, construct apartments on the upper floors, and construct some type of commercial space on the main floor such as a restaurant or office space. Please feel free to email me your suggestions or comments. I will have pictures posted of the buildings current state sometime in the near future. My email address is bosticproperties@aol.com
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#7 Dismuke

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Posted 12 October 2006 - 10:07 PM

VERY nice about the building being renovated.

The picture of the Redlands Hotel building looks interesting. What is the building currently being used for? Is it still a hotel?
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#8 eshigginbotham

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Posted 12 October 2006 - 11:32 PM

QUOTE(Dismuke @ Oct 12 2006, 11:07 PM) View Post
VERY nice about the building being renovated.

The picture of the Redlands Hotel building looks interesting. What is the building currently being used for? Is it still a hotel?




The Redlands is apartments and retail as well. The first floor houses a barbershop, 1 or 2 clothing botiques, a hair salon and a chinese restaurant. Floors 2-4 are the apartments and the top floor is the penthouse.
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#9 eshigginbotham

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Posted 23 January 2012 - 09:20 PM

Well the apartments never happened, the owner let the building fall into even more disrepair and late last year the roof collapsed. Now it is being demolished.


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#10 John S.

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Posted 24 January 2012 - 01:17 PM

Somehow that doesn't surprise me. My wife and I have made periodic trips out to Palestine for over 20 years and each time there's less to see. I own a copy of Windswept Land written by a Palestine native Carl Avera in the 1960's; even then the author was lamenting the loss of so many important Palestine, Texas landmarks. There's a Nicholas Clayton designed Victorian era commercial building (vacant) that was standing in the middle of a field the last time I visited Palestine however, all of the commercial buildings that were once around it are long gone. We looked into buying a house in Palestine about a decade ago but after some contacts with locals, we decided not to. A few in Palestine try to preserve some of the old architecture but many others are quite willing to just let it all fall to neglect. The remoteness and decades-long sluggish local economy of Palestine do not help to save local history. Better hurry to see what's left before it too is gone.

#11 eshigginbotham

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Posted 24 January 2012 - 06:24 PM

I was born and raised in Palestine. I came back here in December 2006. They don't preserve what we have and don't have a vision for the future either. As soon as I finish my internship that I just started here, I want to move away.
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