Old structures are nice and they preserve and highlight our history but there is a point in time when repairs must be made to preserve the building itself and those repairs are costly.

The original Government Agency building was built to serve as the headquarters for the Government Agent to the Potawatomi. The original building is a two-room stone structure built in 1857, and was eventually known as the Indian Pay Station because of the payments to the Potawatomi that were made from there. This building is listed on both the State and National Historic Registries.

Attached to the original building is an addition which was possibly added in the 1920s when the building became a caretaker’s residence for the original St. Mary’s College. Some of the five windows in the addition may have been replaced or modified in 1968 or before and others were not touched. They are old, deteriorating, and in need of replacement.

We recently had one company give us an estimate for replacement for five basic windows. SHOCKED is an understatement for how we felt when the estimate was returned. We thought surely there was some mistake, so we had estimates made by two other companies. And they were all similar.

The proposal for either fiberglass or heavy vinyl windows, removal, reinsulating and installation ran from a low of $9991.19 to a high of $10,519.56!

We hope that you will consider investing in the preservation of this historic structure.