Historic Renovation & Restoration Projects

This project consisted of the historic renovation and restoration of Mark Twain’s childhood home in Hannibal, MO. His home was originally built in 1844 by Mark Twain’s father, Samuel Clemens. It’s currently on the National Historic Landmark and is listed on the Register of Historic Places. The house was leaning nearly 10 inches out of plumb-making this project very difficult to restore. Prost Builders solved the problem by applying pressure to the wall timbers. This action allowed the home to be cleaned up to plumb by using the pressure to move the house ¾ of an inch every other day until plumb. A restored chimney and an addition to the back of the home brought it back into conformance with the original design and size that Samuel Clemens remembered as a child, after removing other additions and changes not original to the home. To the left is the brownstone that houses the Mark Twain Foundation Museum.

This project consisted of the adaptive re-use and renovation of the historic Marquette Hotel which was built in 1928. The building was in the Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival Style and was slated for demolition. This 55,000 square foot hotel was turned into offices for the State of Missouri and private entities. Prost Builders used careful attention to preserve the building’s beauty and history, while also revitalizing the downtown business district. Governor Bob Holden and the town of Cape Girardeau were very pleased the historic building was saved from demolition through the restoration of this iconic building.

Jesse Hall, the main administration building for the University of Missouri-Columbia campus, has a beautiful iconic dome that towers over the campus at 100 feet with a copper orb at the top of the dome. The paint was stripped up the dome to allow for the application of a new, shining epoxy paint finish. New aluminum windows were installed to replace the wood windows that had started to rot, and portions of the slate roof section and wood substrate were replaced. The dome is primarily made from galvanized sheet metal which had corroded in some areas. The damage was to such an extent that replacement was necessary with stainless steel metal and galvanized steel metal for a more intricate design and shape.