The Skunk River provided water power for a number of the early mills of the 1840s and 1850s. The Wagaman Mill (Lynnville Mill) was the first mill in Jasper County, and it is one of the few still standing. It is situated on the south side of the North Skunk River (north...
In addition to having a really fine, well-preserved group of two-story nineteenth-century commercial blocks on its main street (US 63), the town possesses a dwelling with one of the most extravagant oriel bays to be found in the state. This is on the clapboard and wood-...
The site for the future seat of Iowa County was selected in 1845. The town site was then surveyed and lots were put on sale in October of the following year. The location of the town plat was in a section of open prairie just south of the Iowa River, east of its confluence...
Marion has been, to a considerable extent, absorbed within the urban area of Cedar Rapids, its larger neighbor to the southwest. Located on Indian Creek, Marion started out both as the county seat in 1839 and as the site for water-powered mills; later it served as a division...
“Marshalltown is situated on a handsome piece of ground near the Iowa River, some four miles east and a trifle north of the exact center of the county,” according to Huebinger. 41The site of the city on the rolling...
The small community of Montezuma was platted as the seat for Poweshiek County in 1848. The present courthouse was started in 1857 and was completed the following year. As originally built, the courthouse was Greek Revival in design. Thin, wide pilasters surround the...
Mount Vernon presents a classic picture of a midwestern college town. The buildings of Cornell College, especially the 1876 King Memorial Chapel, dominate the community. The small commercial downtown exists as a minor backdrop, and the built-up area around the campus...
This community, first named Newton Center, was platted in 1846 as the seat of the newly formed Jasper County. Some twelve years later a handsome two-story brick Greek Revival courthouse was built. On two sides this building had porticoes with Ionic columns, and there was an...
On Ogden's main street, Walnut, are two Streamline Moderne service stations of the late 1930s. Claussen's Texaco (c. 1936) at Fifth and Walnut streets has a raised center section, balanced on each side by low service wings. Curved corners and horizontal banding appear on the...
The town of Pella was established in 1847 by a group of Dutch settlers led by Peter Scholte. As with neighboring Oskaloosa to the southeast, Pella was laid out on the open prairie between the Des Moines and Skunk rivers. With its many simple brick buildings and its wonderful...
Near the center of the town, at the northeast corner of Third and Linda streets, is Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic Church (1901). The side walls of this stone-sheathed church with a gable roof are low, with the roof eaves brought close to the ground, so that each of the...
Just off Iowa 5 as it passes through Pleasantville, at the corner of Breckenridge and East Monroe streets, is the elementary school building (1922) designed by Frank E. Wetherell (of Wetherell and Harrison). At the turn of the century, several architects of the...
Those who are enamored of the Streamline Moderne of the late 1930s should proceed to Roland, at the outskirts of town on the northeast (off route R77). A part of the complex of buildings of the Great Lakes Pipe Line Company is Pump Station No. 65 (c. 1937). A checklist of...
The First Evangelical Lutheran Church (now Sheldahl Norwegian Lutheran Church) of 1883 is the perfect prototype of a prairie building that might be used as a grange hall, a schoolhouse, or, as in this instance, a church. Without a sign indicating use, this building could...
The present twin cities of Toledo and Tama were, until the end of the nineteenth century, separated from one another by a mile or more of open farmland. By the early 1900s the two communities had blended into one another, although they did retain their separate...
Traer and much of Tama County were initially settled in the middle to late 1850s. The site selected for the town was in a small grove of trees adjacent to Wolf Creek. In contrast, the surrounding lands were open prairie, and were quickly adapted to agriculture. In the...
Vinton became the county seat the same year it was platted on the south bank of the Cedar River, in 1849. To the east the landscape was wooded, while to the west it was open prairie dotted every now and then with groves of trees. A conventional grid was laid out, only...
The site for the future town of Washington was established near the center of Washington County by the appointed commissioners in 1838; and in 1839 it was platted as the seat for the county courthouse. Its site on the open prairie just east of the Crooked River placed it...
The small Linn County town of Waubeek lies up the Wapsipinicon River some 9 miles northwest of Stone City (see Anamosa, p. 39). Being this close to available good stone, builders erected several interesting limestone structures within the community, including the Gothic...
The 1867 Gracehill Moravian Church is situated southwest of West Chester. (Drive west of town on Iowa 92, turn south on county road 114; proceed 5 miles to the small community of Grace Hill.) This church is one of seven or more built by the Moravian Church in Iowa. The...
The town was established in 1865, and within a few years coal mining began in the surrounding region. After the depletion of the coal, attention was turned to the extensive deposits of a fine white clay that lent itself to the production of ceramic products.
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The site selected in 1849 for Winterset was in the “exact” center of Madison County. The rolling hills of the surrounding landscape meander down into the wooded valleys of the Middle River to the south and Cedar Creek to the north and east. The original grid of the...
The narrow band of the southern area of Iowa, which runs parallel to the state of Missouri, exhibits a much flatter terrain than one finds to the north. The four eastern counties—Jefferson, Van Buren, Wapello, and Davis—present a landscape, town patterns, and architecture closely...
The county commissioners had the town laid out as the county seat in 1845. The grid system was composed of square blocks, with one of the center blocks reserved for the future county courthouse. By the 1870s Albia was the crossroads of several railroads, and coal mining was...
The town of Bentonsport was platted on the north bank of the lower Des Moines River in 1839. In 1840 a dam and accompanying locks were built, helping to assure the town's importance for river navigation. River transportation was supplemented in 1857 by the arrival of...
Within this small crossroads village, on the east side of Iowa 1, is a two-story Queen Anne dwelling (c. 1885). Though its T-shaped form is relatively plain for this style, the house is set off from the usual by its patterned surfaces. The center of the street-front...
Bloomfield was platted and designated as the seat of Davis County in 1844. Its location at the geographic center of the county fulfilled the ideal of a county seat's being equidistant from all locales. In Bloomfield's situation on “dry rolling prairie with plenty of...
The original scheme in this area was to pose two towns across from one another on the Des Moines River. Napoleon was to be on the south bank and Bonaparte on the north, but only Bonaparte was realized. A gristmill and dam were built on the river during the years 1839–1841...
“The site of the town,” Andreas noted in 1875, “is located upon high ground, very near the center of the county, as its name indicates.” 4When Centerville was platted in 1846–1847, an octagonal courthouse square was...
