LJWorld.com

The old seed company building in the 800 block of New Hampshire Street that's undergoing rejuvenation dates back more than 100 years.

Stepping into the old warehouse is like stepping back in time.

Lines of massive wooden beams march off into the building's dark depths. There are stone walls two feet thick and floors built to hold tons of grain.

"It's remarkable what people without power machines could do," John Nitcher says reverently, pointing out hundreds of floor joists shaped by craftsmen using hand-powered tools and running his hands over rough stone walls.

The building now known as the Kansas Seed House is three stories of space, all built by the sweat of Lawrence's earliest settlers.

As its new owners go about converting the downtown landmark into professional office and retail space, they say attention is being paid to respecting the building's history.

"The great thing about all the people who are involved in the Kansas Seed House organization is that we're all committed to trying to keep a sense of the building, and to take advantage of the building as it stands now," Nitcher says.

Recycling wood

Obviously, changes are being made. A couple of lines of those heavy beams came out, for example.

Though needed for structural integrity when the building was a warehouse, they're in the way now.

The wooden beams that were removed are being reused to replace elements that had failed elsewhere in the building.

"We're trying to recycle the building materials," Nitcher said.

The same goes for stone removed from the walls when about a half-dozen new windows were cut.

The stone eventually will be used to close other openings or make repairs elsewhere on the building, which will retain its airy, open beam warehouse feel in its new incarnation.

Such evolution is nothing new for the building, which actually is three buildings erected during a period of years in the 1800s.

The northern section of the warehouse was the first, built in 1856 and rebuilt soon after Quantrill's raid in 1863 by Ridenour and Baker Grocery.

Back in business

According to "Douglas County Historic Building Survey -- A Photo Sampler," reconstruction started the morning after the raid, and the stone building was one of the first to rise from the ashes of the bloody attack.

Though it's now better known as the former home of Quantrill's Flea Market, the massive stone structure has much more history as Barteldes Seed Co., a company established in 1867 as the Kansas Seed Co.

The warehouse at 805-811 N.H. was acquired by Barteldes in the mid-1880s, when Ridenour and Baker moved to Kansas City.

At the same time, Barteldes took over the building at 804 Mass. that now houses Sunflower Surplus Co., and set up a retail operation and offices there.

The Massachusetts Street store and the New Hampshire Street warehouse were connected by a walkway over the alley. Remnants of the steel beams that held the skywalk aloft are still visible on both structures.

Adding on

The first addition to the warehouse building -- the center portion -- was added shortly after Barteldes acquired the property.

The second and final addition was built in the late 1890s.

Barteldes grew to sell seed nationally and internationally, and continued business in downtown Lawrence well into the 20th century. The company shut down Lawrence operations in 1962, when it moved to Denver.

By the early 1970s, the building had new life as Quantrill's Flea Market and Lawrence Glass Co.

Other tenants included Johnson Furniture Co., which had warehouse space there, and Kansas University, which rented storage space.

In 1976, the building and business was purchased by Douglas County resident Randy Davis. In 1993, he expanded the flea market to the building's second level. He also changed the name to include its new operations as an antique mall.

But plans to expand into the top level were thwarted by rules requiring sprinkler systems and other safety systems. Between such problems, increasing competition, rising property taxes and parking restrictions, Davis said Quantrill's became unprofitable to operate. He pulled the plug on the antique mall and put the building up for sale.

"The building became too expensive for us to be in it," he said at the time.

Even as a flea market, the building told visitors of its past. As late as the mid-1990s, shoppers perusing antiques would sometimes be surprised by grain dropping from floor crevices where it had lodged for decades.

When Kansas Seed House LLC bought it in August, the building had been vacant about 14 months.

-- Richard Brack's phone message number is 832-7194. His e-mail address is rbrack@ljworld.com.