The Cornerstone of Our Business
Penzel Construction's Dave Parker, removes the Building “A” cornerstone.
Penzel Construction has been constructing SEMO schools, churches, manufacturing facilities and commercial buildings since its founding. And, our commitment to quality work and exceptional customer service has been the cornerstone of our business.
My great-grandfather, Linus Penzel, hung out the Penzel Construction shingle in 1910. Within 10 years, our company’s founder was building Jackson High School, a classically-styled red brick American school that would serve the Jackson, Missouri community for nearly a century. But times and needs change.
I am sure you are probably aware of some of those changes. The Jackson School District Board, advancing a $22 million bond issue for renovation, recently determined that the cost of constructing a new building would be more economical than incorporating the original structure. And so, the demolition of Linus’ big project and a beloved community landmark was completed in June of 2017.
For us, the cornerstone in this case—as represented by Jackson High School—is real and tangible. And, we were honored and pleased that Penzel Construction was allowed to take possession of this 97-year-old building element. With permission of the school superintendent, the cornerstone was recently gently removed by a Penzel Construction team. It bears the names of the 1920 school board, as well as the name of the architect and our construction firm.
The gesture means a lot. Not only did my great-grandfather, Linus Penzel, build it, but all of my immediate family, including my own two daughters, attended Jackson High School. We have enjoyed a long relationship with the school and also had the pleasure to build later facilities—the most recent a 2007 project which brought existing and newer structures together in a fluid 110,000-square-foot footprint (you can read more about it here).
Our family has fond memories of this school which spans many decades. It's a long history we want to honor and preserve.
We haven’t yet decided what we will do with the cornerstone, but you can bet we will put it some place where the citizens of Jackson can see it and enjoy it. Perhaps we’ll display it with the contract for the original construction of what later came to be known as “Building A.” We still have it, as you can see. This is the last page of the five-page document. It provides an amazing glimpse back in time to an era in which construction contracts were created on manual typewriters and every office had a good supply of carbon paper for duplicate copies.
We’ll provide more details as soon as we know where the cornerstone will have its new home. This architectural artifact means a great deal to us. In the meantime, we wish the school board, teachers, students, and community of Jackson the best of luck as they move forward into a fresh era.
ABOUT PENZEL CONSTRUCTION
At Penzel, we are always innovating and finding ways to help our clients achieve their goals—through design-build construction delivery systems, competent trained employees, and state-of-the-art equipment and techniques.
We have come a long way in the last century and we intend to be here doing what we do best for many decades to come.
