116-year-old Drake house in Des Moines gets a second chance at life

A 116-year-old Des Moines house is getting a second chance at life after a local nonprofit took on the fixer-upper in hopes to maintain the historic property.

Before the renovation, the house located at 3114 Cottage Grove Ave. was divided into three apartment units. Invest DSM, a nonprofit that specializes in community development, took the property under its care and did a full gut and renovation.

The renovation is part of a project established by the neighborhood association and approved by City Council. It aims to save 20 homes that are multi-family but originally built as single-family structures. The entire project is facilitated by Invest DSM, which acquires the property, makes plans for renovations, hires the contractor and funds the entire project.

At the time of acquisition, one of the furnaces didn’t work. There were electrical and plumbing problems. The house also was fairly outdated.

Once these historic houses are gone, there is no getting them back, said Christopher Civitate, Invest DSM’s neighborhood development manager.

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“We can’t put back history,” Civitate said. “While we can take steps to design things well and try to build things that are similar, once it is gone, it is gone.”

What’s new about the 3114 Cottage Grove home?

The layout of the 2,560-square-foot property, which was built in 1908, was completely removed and redone. The house now has five bedrooms with three ½ bathrooms. There is a two car garage. The roof was replaced. All of the plumbing and electrical work was redone. There is new flooring, carpeting and ceilings. The appliances also had a face lift.