Historic buildings in Jefferson City rebuild months after tornado

Several historic buildings were damaged after the EF-3 tornado tore through areas of Jefferson City in May.

Chairman and Founder of Communique Inc., Steve Veile, is an owner of a historic building on Capitol Avenue. Veile said his company has been in the building for 36 years, before the tornado hit.

“We lost our entire eastern wall, three layers of brick just blown away,” he said.

Veile said the city had been working on restoring the neighborhood with new lighting and sidewalks before the tornado.

“Mother nature came in and hit us, kind of a cruel blow there, but we’re strong, we’re going to fight back, and we’re going to bring East Capitol back,” he said.

He said the few weeks after the tornado, he couldn’t believe what had happened to his property. Now, he’s been working with contractors to begin the rebuilding process.

The building was built in 1873, and Veile wants it to look just the way it did before the storm.

“I want to make sure that when we build it back, we do make it fit back into the 1880’s kind of atmosphere,” Veile said. “We are going to do our very best to do that using some modern construction techniques.”

The city recently put new requirements of building in the area, to make sure any new buildings fit into the style of the historic properties on East Capitol.

Veile said he helped start the Capitol Avenue restoration fund, to help other building in the area rebuild. He said that his company is not receiving any of those funds or funds from the Historic City of Jefferson to rebuild the property.

“We want to help out those we can,” Veile said. “We’re a for profit company, and we can get ourselves back together, but you know there are a lot of people who perhaps can’t do that.”