ST. CHARLES — Over the course of a day, St. Charles brothers Nate and Jeff Droste are historians, detectives and building contractors.
They conduct research at the St. Charles County Historical Society, where they dig through old photographs, newspaper clippings and the occasional artist rendering of a historic building in its prime.
They brush up on their expansive knowledge of St. Charles’ building codes, then start engineering plans to breathe new life into their latest building renovation.
“That’s the fun part of it all — the figuring it all out,†said Nate Droste, president of Droste & Sons Construction Co.
That process — research, plan, renovate — has played out more than 15 times already for the Droste brothers in historic downtown St. Charles. Main Street, which dates back more than 250 years, is dotted with major landmarks that have been revamped by the brothers’ company.
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Among the notable renovations in recent years, all on Main Street, are the old St. Charles post office, now a workspace shared by entrepreneurs and business startups; the former city hall building known as the Old Market and Fish House; the former International Order of Odd Fellows Hall; and the former Elks Hall.
And the efforts of the company, founded 90 years ago by the brothers’ great-grandfather, have earned the family a vaunted place among preservationists in St. Charles County.
“The Droste name is an old St. Charles name,†said Amy Haake, archivist at the St. Charles County Historical Society. “It is nice to know that an old St. Charles name like Droste can still have such a positive effect on St. Charles’ future.â€
A family affair
Droste & Sons Construction Co. was founded in 1933 by Alvin Droste. After World War II, his sons, Robert and Raymond, joined the company and helped establish its reputation as a custom homebuilder.
The company focused for decades on building homes, but in the 1970s, under the guidance of Alvin’s grandsons, it began constructing commercial properties, too.
Then, about a decade later, the company expanded into historic restorations.
That part of the company has flourished ever since.
“Our dad was very St. Charles proud and very St. Charles through and through,†said Jeff Droste, vice president of the company. “He honestly didn’t want to venture off into other municipalities to do what he could do here. His passion was for St. Charles and for historic restoration.â€
The brothers adopted the same affinity early on. Some of their first jobs as teenagers were carrying 5-gallon buckets of dirt out from underneath the buildings that were under restoration by the family company.
Now, as a bonus, the company often finds historical artifacts during renovation, especially during a project’s demolition phase, Nate Droste said.
“Sometimes we find these artifacts buried, buried deep behind other things within the building,†Droste said. “These artifacts can be as simple as a newspaper clipping, which is what we find most of the time, but sometimes it is something that looks like it was important to someone like a family memento, such as a family photo in a frame.â€
The company’s most recent project, which began in August, is restoring the exterior of an 1850s storefront at 108 South Main Street that once housed a stove and tinware shop. It will soon be a new eatery.
Inside the building’s walls, workers found a pre-Civil War-era sword and scabbard that had been concealed for years, said the building’s owner, Randy Schilling.
During that renovation, Schilling said they rediscovered several large, sepia-toned paintings by artist Sharon Short-Mueller. The paintings re-create photographs by famed St. Charles photographer Rudolph Goebels, who documented scenes in ºüÀêÊÓƵ and surrounding counties until his death in 1923.
“Finding a treasure like this is just astounding,†said Haake, the archivist, who plans to host a public viewing of the paintings. She said the art was donated to the historical society in the 1960s but had been stored at 108 South Main Street because of a lack of space at the society’s museum across the street.
The paintings were forgotten over the years and eventually were stored on the enclosed back porch at 108 South Main Street. When Schilling and others were cleaning the porch, they initially thought the paintings, which were wrapped in heavy plastic, were just large window frames.
‘Cornerstone of our community’
St. Charles business leaders and community officials both praise the Drostes for helping rejuvenate the city’s historic business district, which decades ago was a neighborhood that Economic Development Director Mike Klinghammer said was avoided by people and businesses alike.
“The Drostes have a legacy in St. Charles that goes back generations, and over the years, they’ve become what I would call a real cornerstone of our community,†Klinghammer said. “Their attention to detail is so important because they know that it’s those tiny details that really make these old buildings so special.â€
Schilling, who has partnered with the Drostes on a dozen restoration projects dating to his first with Nate and Jeff’s father, Jim, in 1992, praised the brothers, too.
“It is a special relationship. It is much more than a monetary transaction whenever we get the chance to work together. It is an opportunity to envision how these old, sometimes vacant buildings, can be totally transformed,†Schilling said.
He said the brothers’ work transforming the Old Post Office building from “an eyesore†to “a beacon for the block†is a testament to the family’s commitment to St. Charles.
“People ask me: How do you create a strong community that people want to be a part of? It starts with having people like the Drostes,†he said.
‘New life’
The Droste brothers say business shows no sign of slowing. They have several new construction projects planned, and Nate is going to oversee a multiphase restoration effort of a St. Charles home that has sat atop his wish list of projects for years.
“There are a couple of residences, not on Main Street, that are woefully neglected,†Nate Droste said. “They have been waiting for the right owner to buy it and for that owner to make the investment into it, because we are talking about decades and decades of neglect.â€
Meanwhile, Jeff Droste is focusing on exploring other restoration projects along St. Charles’ Main Street and in the city’s Frenchtown neighborhood.
“Frenchtown is just a bit of a different animal,†Jeff said of the neighborhood where the company’s headquarters are located.
Nate agreed: “It’s got a bit more of The Grove feel to it. The types of buildings over there are different too, and the focus is not on historic restoration, even though some of the buildings are old and historically significant. The goal there, at least in our view, is not necessarily to bring it back to how it was originally built, but to bring new life to existing buildings.â€
Meanwhile, as the brothers look to the next 50 years and beyond, they’re proud of what their family has built — and restored — in downtown St. Charles.
They hope their own children — who could become the fifth generation of the family business — will grow up to have the same pride and passion for St. Charles that they have.
“They’re interested in playing with the construction stuff,†Nate Droste said, “but they’re too young to really understand what all goes into it.â€