Muscatine couple are new owners of historic Gold Coast home

Throughovergrown shrubs and brush, Richard Stone could see the outline of what was once a beautiful Italianate-style house with a tower on top. Walking throughDavenport's historic Gold Coast neighborhood during a home tour in September, Stone remarked to his wife, Linda, that there didn't seem to be anyone taking care of the property behind the brush.

Stone later learnedthat the city of Davenport was buying the abandoned house through condemnation proceedings and would put out "requests for proposals" from people interested in rehabilitating it and making it their home.

The Stones, ofMuscatine, have always been interested in old homes, so they submitted a proposal the only one, as it turned out. On Friday they became theowners ofthe Lambrite-Iles-Petersen house at 510 W. 6th St.

The building is consideredone of the mostsignificantin the historic Gold Coast neighborhood because ofitsassociation with prominent citizens, its architectural style and the architect who designed it.

The Stones paid$38,000, which allows the city to recoup the cost of acquisitionandinitial clean-up.

The couple expects to spend an additional$310,000 restoring the home to its1850-1860 appearance by September 2017. And although they've only seen the inside once, the Stones believe they have the experience and knowledge to see the project through.

Stonerecently retired as the engineering manager for H.J. Heinz Co. in Muscatine, a job thatincluded the management of capital and maintenance projects in addition to engineering. In that capacity, he workedwith regulatory organizations, contractors, equipment vendors, and local, state and federal governments.

Before that, he worked for Nestl, Gerber and the state of Minnesota in the engineering or research fields. He has a master's degree in engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

His previous building work has included doing more than 80 percent of the labor in constructing athree-bedroom house in Michigan, the rehabilitation of a flood-damaged home in Illinois and the restoration and conversion back to single-family use of an1890s Victorian home in Waverly, Iowa, that had been made into three apartments.

"I have always had an interest in historical buildings and (have been) an advocate for restoration rather than tearing them down or letting them deteriorate," he said in his written proposal to the city.

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Muscatine couple are new owners of historic Gold Coast home