A Modern Arts and Crafts Loft

Produced by Carol Schalla. Written by Grant Fairchild. Photographs by Kim Cornelison

Reviving a building from her past, Anita Kealey of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, creates a modern home and business space for her future.

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Living a legacy

Anita Kealey's Sioux Falls loft once was the historic R.F. Pettigrew Building's top-floor ballroom, where Anita took ballet lessons as a teen and where her father's orchestra played in the 1940s and '50s. Built in 1889 by Sen. R.F. Pettigrew, the building originally had a third-floor assembly hall for the Odd Fellows with offices and apartments below.

In the early 1980s, Anita moved back to Sioux Falls from New York, where she attended design school. As a 25-year-old interior designer, she inquired about the three-story quartzite building and bought it. "I just thought this building was so cool, especially since I had this history with it," she says.