By GUY PRIEL

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The designation of the Windhorn property as a locally significant historic property has faced delays at the state level that will change the timeline for approval by the New Ulm City Council.

The original goal of the Heritage Preservation Commission was to have the proposal approved by the State Historic Society in time to submit to the council before the end of the year, but the current delay may prevent that from happening, HPC President Christine DeSouza said.

"The council would rather we not submit properties individually, but in bulk, like four or five at a time," HPC Member Christine Carmichael said.

The Commission submitted the first draft of the proposal for designation to Michael Koop at the Minnesota Historical Society, who has reviewed the draft and submitted recommendations for a rewrite, Carmichael said.

"It was basically a rough draft that was submitted and it can not be designated based on this proposal," she said. "But he recommends that a complete documentation of the interior of the property is an important factor in the rewrite."

Windhorn's art needs to be the major focus of the proposal, rather than the fact that he was a major maker of signs in New Ulm, or the fact that he was a member of the Masons and held meetings in his home, she said.

"The state will also do some research on Windhorn himself to collect information that will help in determining the historic significance," Carmichael said. "We need to make him the most significant component of the final proposal."

There are some specific questions that need to be answered, but the idea should not be completely trashed, Carmichael said.

"This is a real attractive road to go down, but I do caution you that we might be giving preferential treatment to one property," she said. "I believe rewriting this proposal is out of the expertise of the commission members."

The difficulty in writing the proposal for the Windhorn property is that there is nothing historically significant about the property itself, because most historical properties are designated based on the outside of the structure. All the historical significance of the property is on the inside, current owner of the property Sid DeLeo said.

The DeLeos, who used to rent space from Ella Windhorn to park their sign trucks, have been pushing to get the property designated in an attempt to protect the property from future changes should ownership change at some point in the future.

"We don't want to make any changes to the property," DeLeo said. "It means too much to us to do that. We are trying to protect it and are making efforts to return things, such as the gardens, back to the way they were originally."

The commission is having a difficult time breaking ground on the matter because they may have to hire an expert to rewrite the proposal before final submission to the state, Carmichael said.

Windhorn was a prolific painter, who decorated the walls, ceilings, floors and cabinets throughout the house and workshop with several varieties of paint and art, although his paintings were classified as amateurish by one art critic who was called in to review the property prior to submission of the rough draft.

"The local artisan perspective needs to be a focus of the proposal," Carmichael said. "That would help make the property historically significant. This is not our baby. We are taking a lot of heat over this right now."

If a professional proposal writer needs to be called in for the rewrite, it is the hope of HPC members that the DeLeos will be able to help with some aspects of it, such as hiring a writer, or even providing some historical background, since they are familiar with Windhorn, HPC member Jim Bodine said.

"We need to see what can be done to get this taken care of," City Councilor and HPC member Ron Fleischmann said. "If someone walks in at some point in time and remodels the inside it destroys everything we have done."

Louis Windhorn, an importer of Indian art and furniture, died in 1979. He built the house sometime between 1938 and 1939 for he and his wife Ella. Attached to the house, via a tunnel, is his workshop and office complex, still housing many of his imported items.