Official landmarks are few in St. Joseph

“They went through this weird phase in the 1980s where they were sort of anecdotally designating cool buildings and slapping plaques on,” said Kim Schutte, the city’s historic preservationist. “City Hall is an example of that.”

There are only nine true local landmarks that went through the proper process of being designated by both the Landmark Commission and the St. Joseph City Council.

The short list is a bit random. It includes what was the Second Presbyterian Church, across the street from the Patee House Museum, the Nathan Phipps Ogden Mansion, which is now the Shakespeare Chateau, and several residential properties, including two owned by Jennifer Baxter-Higgs.

“It’s not just preserving a building, its heritage,” Baxter-Higgs said. “There are stories in the structures. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.”

The story of Baxter-Higgs’ current landmark home is centered around a Catholic bishop. Known as the Buddy house, the three-story building stands out on Ninth Street with its eclectic colors. The original owner, Charles Buddy, had seven kids, with one, Charles Francis Buddy, becoming a bishop and founding the University of San Diego.

Baxter-Higgs was one of the last owners to get a property designated as a local landmark before the process went dormant for more than a decade.

“It was not promoted for a decade and a half,” Baxter-Higgs said. “Most people who have since moved into our city and are doing their best to renovate their properties, they never knew it existed.”

Schutte and the Landmark Commission are trying to be more proactive to increase the designation numbers.

“What the commission is doing is sort of trying to look around town and see what buildings would be good fits for this,” she said. “To develop information to give property owners about what the process is, what are the benefits, what are the restrictions.”

The limited number of local landmarks also could be due to hesitation from property owners. Any building designated as a landmark must abide by the Landmark Commission’s design guidelines on external work.

This is why the city council withdrew an ordinance in 2019 to make City Hall a local landmark. There were concerns that designating it as such would keep officials from having the final say when it comes to projects that may alter the exterior of the building.

Baxter-Higgs said the design guidelines are important, and the protection as a landmark makes up for all the hard work it takes to restore historic buildings.

“When you put that much in and the years, years and years it takes to renovate these old buildings … you want to make sure that it’s protected under that umbrella as a landmark,” Baxter-Higgs said. “We as landmark owners, what we do is we show what St. Joseph used to be and what it can be in the future.”