Kester Planing Mill Neligh, Nebraska

Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form PDF for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.

The Kester Planing Mill, also commonly called the Neligh Planing Mill, is a fully equipped millwork shop dating to 1911-1912 complete with period equipment and power system. Four generations of the Kester family, beginning with master carpenter Howard Kester, operated the planing mill until 2002. The Kester Planing Mill warrants significance for listing under Criterion A in the area of industry. It is the finest known example of the types of planing mills that once operated in Nebraska. These operations served in the development of communities through supplying local and regional carpenters and contractors. The Kester shop also characterizes the evolution, adaptation, and development of motive power used in small, light manufacturing operations between the late 19th and early 20th century in Nebraska and nationally. It is therefore an important example of the technological advances in motive power adapted to these smaller operations during this period across the state, following national trends in these industries, again warranting statewide significance under Criterion A. It is also has a rare surviving example of a power-drive line-shaft system with its array of line shafts, pulleys, and belts still connected to a number of pieces of its original woodworking machinery. Kester's use of this system represents the technology of line-shafts in industry, again a trend nationally and within the state. The shop therefore warrants statewide significance under Criterion C in the area of engineering. Its period of significance begins in 1911, its construction start, to 1964, the traditional 50-year cutoff (in 2014) for the National Register of Historic Places. It is being nominated at the statewide level of significance for these factors.