WEBSTER CITY, Iowa — Nearly five months ago, the main road in Downtown Webster City was closed off after a large fire left the city questioning if they would be able to restore and save on of the best located buildings.
The community has been working to clean up and save as much of the historic buildings as possible.
"This is like a key piece of the, of the main block of downtown," said John Hawkins, mayor of Webster City.
On Nov. 29, 2023, the building next door to the Webster Theater caught on fire. While the inside of that building was a total loss, so was the theater because of extensive smoke and water damage.
"Which led to literally gutting it down to the bones," said Jeff Pingel, board president of HERO, the nonprofit that owns Webster Theater.
Lift WC is a local nonprofit fixing up the historic building next to the theater with goals of eventually selling it to a new business.
"It's all volunteer work, we've been up there shoveling the stuff out of there, all the burnt stuff that's upstairs, we've been filling dumpsters at the back," Hawkins said.
HERO said being closed all this time hasn't been easy, but they are still continuing to work on the next steps.
"Rebuild everything, I mean they had to tear out floors, ceilings, walls, everything," Pingel said.
Ultimately, Pingel reflected on what could have come from the fire and how grateful he is that the outcome wasn't worse.
"'Cause you know you go from complete and total fear standing across the street watching the fire," Pingel said. "When you have three giant fire trucks sitting outside, two out back, there's pretty good odds it's not going to go well, and so we're super excited that it's still even just here."
Both of the businesses hope to be open and fixed by sometime this year. Webster Theater has its 10-year anniversary in September, so they want to have their doors open for that.