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US: An 1883 South Dakota building that once played host to Buffalo Bill Cody is being restored into a boutique hotel.
The Kleemann House, in Custer, South Dakota, has been bought by Clifford and Christine Mumm – Christine has a background in historical preservation, and has had her eye on the building since the couple moved in to the local area in 2005.
The building has been condemned since the early 1990s, and there were calls for it to be demolished.
“It was kind of just falling down,” Mumm told the Rapid City Journal. “It was kind of an eyesore. I kept saying, ‘Well somebody should do something about that. One day we walked by and there was a ‘sold’ sign (in the window). And I said, ‘Darn it, we should have bought that and fixed it up.'”
Her husband had a surprise for her at dinner that night: “My husband threw the keys (to the Kleemann House) across the table at me. He had bought it.”
The couple and their extended family have worked on the project for two years, and the five-bedroom Kleemann House will reopen in its latest incarnation as a boutique hotel in spring 2013.
“While it doesn’t look exactly like it would have in the 1880s, the flavour is still there,” said Mumm. “We’re really happy with the outcome.”
