An iconic structure in Downtown Lebanon has received some renovations.
The Joe Knight building at the corner of West Commercial and Madison has a new roof.
A Downtown Lebanon press release said that a grant helped pay for roof replacement, window and glass block repair. The current owners Robert and Melissa Walker contributed the matching portion of the grant by replacing the exterior's awning.
They used their own money to renovate a space upstairs for a bed and breakfast type rental. The grant covered only the roof, Walker said.
It’s taken some time to get the work done since they applied for the grant.
“It's been a long, drawn out process,” Robert Walker said, adding that they had wanted to do something for the extra space in the interior of the building. “We love this building as much as the town loves it."
He added that they used local people for the renovations as much as possible.
The structure opened for business in 1948 and housed the Joe Knight Drugstore. The business closed with the retirement of Joe Knight on June 15, 1977. Other businesses were then located there, including the Madison Grill and the current occupant, Mel’s on Madison.
The Walkers bought the building in 2021 and made plans to renovate it. Lebanon Main Street helped them begin the year-long process to become approved for the Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant.
Robert Walker said the grant, which is a reimbursement grant with a 10 percent matching requirement, is only available to buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.
The grant was facilitated by Missouri Main Street Connection and distributed by the National Parks Service.
Robert Walker said the upstairs space had been vacant and the building had the potential for other uses.
“We own the entire building. It's a historic building. We're only using less than 50% of it with the restaurant, it has all its potentials. We started with this one space here, as kind of phase one for the project and then hopefully we can move forward with restoring some of the rest of the building,” he said.
The space will be known as the “Knight Nest” in honor of Joe Knight, the original owner of the building.
He said they want to preserve the history of the building.
“The glass blocks will never change. We want to keep all that intact,” Walker said.
