S.D. County Discovers National Register-listed Meth Lab
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | Aug. 25, 2010
Berg & Estensen Store, Sherman, S.D.
Credit: Minnehaha County, S.D.
When tax collectors visited a former general store in Sherman, S.D., last week, they found an abandoned, heavily damaged building with telltale stains on its walls and ceilings. They soon realized the 1919 Berg & Estensen Store had been used to manufacture methamphetamine.
"It's a wreck inside," says Paul Porter, restoration specialist in the State Historic Preservation Office. Porter was contacted by Minnehaha County officials who wanted to know what to do with the building, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2001. "I've never had a question like that come across."
Minnehaha County took possession of the property in June because its owner, listed as Elizabeth Jane Foeller, owed $4,000 in taxes, according to County Auditor Sue Roust. Now the county will likely sell the seized property, Roust says. There's an auction tentatively scheduled for Sept. 25, and Roust plans to recommend to the county commission that the house be offered then with a minimum bid of $1.
"The good news is we've had interest from people in Sherman because they know it's an eyesore that needs to be cleaned up—meth contamination and the mold that is surely growing in the [flooded] basement right now," Roust says.
Roust had wondered if the damaged Berg & Estensen Store should be stripped of its National Register status, awarded in 2001. But Paul Porter says it should retain the designation: "Even though the building has had some damage to it, it still retains its integrity," he says.
While South Dakota has few reported cases of meth labs operating inside of historic buildings, in other states it is a more common occurrence. Sharon Ferraro, historic preservation coordinator at the City of Kalamazoo Development Center in Michigan, says, "We've probably had at least a dozen meth busts and one serious fire—that's just in our designated historic districts. It would be hard for me to guess citywide how many we've had."
Abating a space that has been used to produce methamphetamine is "not extremely expensive," Ferraro says. "It depends on the level of contamination." She cites cleanups that have cost as little as $5,000, and one (the restoration of an 1885 house that was damaged by a meth-related fire) that cost $16,000.
"The level of contamination is directly proportional to how long [the building] was used as a meth lab," says Porter, who received advice from Forum-L, the e-mail list for National Trust Forum members. for the Berg & Estensen Store, that contamination period was about two years.
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