A mile west of the Cedar River town of Nashua (on Iowa 346) is one of Iowa's most popular monuments, the Little Brown Church in the Vale. The church became known through the popular hymn “The Church in the Wildwood,” written by William S. Pitts in the late 1850s after he...
The town of New Hampton was platted in 1857 on the open prairie between the Little Turkey River to the east and the Wapsipinicon River to the west. In 1879 the town was connected to the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Saint Paul Railroad. The original town plat placed the...
The community's city hall (1928) is located right on Iowa 299 as it passes northsouth through town. Under most circumstances the tiny city hall would not be recognized as a public building except for its name being cut into a limestone panel above the entrance door....
Northwood, situated on the east bank of the Shell Rock River, had its economic future assured when it became the county seat of Worth County in 1863, and when the Central Railroad of Iowa was completed through the town. The town was laid out in 1857 and again in 1858, and...
On entering Odebolt from the east on Iowa 175 one is confronted by the roadside “ruin” of a late 1920s service station. Its steeply pitched roof with a central gable dormer is loosely medieval, though the double-hung windows relate to the Colonial Revival. On the opposite...
Within Orville Christophel Park, at the northwest corner of First Avenue and First Street Southwest, is the Burch Log Cabin (1852). This split-log, one-and-a-half-story cabin was moved to the park in 1941. In the downtown at 110 North Frederick Street is a Streamline...
Osage was platted in 1853 on a low rise of the prairie, a little over a mile from the Cedar River. The extensive grid of the town was broken by a four-block public square, and, to the north, by Huldship Park, composed of another fourblock segment. In the center of the town's...
As one enters the town from the northwest on US 52 one will encounter a log cabin placed in a small park. This was brought to the park in 1976. The cabin is a one-and-a-half-story building with a shed-roof lean-to on one side. The logs for the walls have been squared up; the...
Two miles north of Plainfield to the west of US 218 is an early example of an octagonal barn (1887). This barn has walls of horizontal shiplap boards and a roof that is shingled. Soike speculates that there was probably either a cupola or a windmill at the apex of the...
In the design for the Pocahontas County Courthouse (1920–1923), the Des Moines firm of Proudfoot, Bird and Rawson produced one of its many Beaux-Arts schemes. The three-story block sheathed in light-colored Bedford limestone exhibits the traditional rusticated ground...
In March 1916 the community of Reinbeck in southern Grundy County received a modest grant of $6,000 from the Carnegie Corporation to construct a new public library building. A site was obtained, additional funds were acquired, and the community engaged the Waterloo...
This tiny community is located northeast of Mason City on route B20. The terrain at this point is hilly and wooded, and the Shell Rock River runs by the town. At the northwest corner of Glover and Jackson streets is the 1867 Old Stone Church (now United Methodist Church...
The town of Sac City was laid out in 1855 on the west bank of the Raccoon River, just above its juncture with Cedar Creek. The plan of the town is unusual for the Midwest. The center of the community is a large public square which is entered on the east or west by Main...
On entering town from the northwest on Iowa 105, one will encounter the First Lutheran Church (1864) on the west side of Main Street at Second Street. The general proportions of this stone church with a gable roof hark back to the Greek Revival, though its pointed...
In a good medieval manner, the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Luke's (1914) forms the visual centerpiece of this small community. The imagery of the church is Gothic, but it is mixed in its borrowing, in this case from both French and German sources. In design the...
Hidden away in the small community of Sheffield is a classic example of a Prairie school dwelling, the Storck house designed by Einar O. Broaten around 1920. The house is located on the northwest corner of Sherman and Seventh streets. Its design is based upon Frank Lloyd...
On the east side of the Shell River as it flows through the community of Shell Rock is the Shell Rock Grain and Milling Company building (1858). The two-and-a-half-story mill building sits on a high rock foundation looking directly over the river. The upper story, quite...
The site selected in 1869 for Spencer was an unforested section north of the Little Sioux River. The city has long served as the southern gateway to Iowa's Great Lakes area to the north and northeast. Though the usual highway commercial strip has developed along US 18, the...
The small Czech community of Spillville is situated on the Turkey River southwest of Decorah. The terrain at this point begins to form the soft, rolling prairie that we associate with central Iowa. On the river itself are the remains of Joseph Spielman's 1849 mill and...
When Dickinson County was organized in 1857, Spirit Lake became the county seat. The site of the town is a peninsula of land between Spirit Lake to the north and the two branches of Okoboji River to the south. Though visited by tourists because of nearby lakes, the town...
Though sections of Buena Vista County were settled in the late 1850s, the county's principal city, Storm Lake, was not established until 1870. The grid of streets was laid out just north of the lake of the same name. A meandering curving road, Lake Shore Drive, follows...
There are many variations on how a service station building with a cut-into corner might be designed. The one at the northeast corner of North Main Street and First Avenue in Titonka has a much wider than usual cut. Four piers are needed to accommodate the two lengths of...
In 1854 the owners of the land on both sides of the Cedar River at this point decided to join together to plat the new community of Waterloo. The grid in this case was established parallel to and perpendicular to the general southeasterly direction of the Cedar River. (As...
Webster City was described in 1904 as being “laid out on a smooth plateau with a variety of scenery including prairie, timber, and river bluffs.” 23The city's grid was platted in the early 1850s within a meandering...
The town of Wellsburg (originally spelled Wellsburgh) was laid out in 1884 by George W. Wells. Its north-south, east-west grid was platted south of the tracks of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids, and Northern Railroad. A depot, grain elevators, stockyards, and corncribs were...
The community of Wesley lies just south of US 81, west of Iowa 17, within Kossuth County. At 403 East Street is a handsome turn-of-the-century version of the Gothic, Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, built in 1901. The church is a wood version of the central-entrance-...
The town was initially platted in 1849 and was resurveyed in 1850. The plat was organized around Rush Hill, which was set aside as a “public square” in anticipation of receiving the county courthouse. The lots around the square were arranged for business buildings, and...
Within this region, two of Iowa's largest cities—Council Bluffs and Sioux City—were platted as early as the 1850s. The wide Missouri River provided the initial steamboat transporttation in the area, but by the mid-1860s the great transcontinental railroads had...
Though now appearing somewhat forlorn, the Chicago and Northwest Railroad Station at Alton presents a sophisticated image—c. 1915—that one often associates with suburban stations on Chicago's North Shore Line. The Alton station joins the image of the English cottage with the...
