The building on the corner of 3rd and Main has been a long-time treasure of the community. Local history touts that Laurence Welk once played there and most recently it was home to the Garretson Senior Center and the Jesse James Opera House. Because of internal damage due to a roof leak, the historic building was sold to Norm DeWitt. For the last several months he’s been engaged in a major restoration and transformation construction project to repurpose the building into a downtown apartment complex. Nearly complete, Mr. DeWitt told the Gazette last week that he would be hosting open house tours from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to showcase these new apartments on Dec. 19.
The City Council has noted in numerous meetings over the last five years that more housing options are desperately needed in Garretson, which is why they have been working on street expansion and residential developments on the south end of town. This project, when complete, would create more residential living options with easy access to all of the downtown businesses and restaurants for residents.
Look for more on this story in the next few issues of the Garretson Gazette.
