Category: Most Endangered

Endangered: Wilson High School, Cherokee

Preservation Iowa’s Most Endangered 2018:  Wilson High School, Cherokee (Cherokee County) This two-story former high School building at 100 E. Willow Street was constructed between 1915 and 1917. Built of brick and Bedford limestone in the Simplified Classical Revival Style, the structure was designed by Proudfoot, Bird, and Rawson of Des Moines who were well… Read more »

Endangered: Carnegie Library, Rockwell City

Preservation Iowa’s Most Endangered 2018:  Carnegie Library, Rockwell City (Calhoun County) Completed in 1909 with city support and a grant from the Carnegie Foundation, this brick building served for 90 years as both the city library and community center. The structure hosted not only library patrons but also 4-H meetings, civic club meetings, fundraising luncheons,… Read more »

Endangered: White House Bathing Palace, Le Mars

Preservation Iowa’s Most Endangered 2018: White House Bathing Palace, Le Mars, Plymouth County The White House Bathing Palace first appears on the 1907 Sanborn map as containing a public bath house. Primary customers were railroad passengers stopping in Le Mars, but with the spread of indoor plumbing, its use as a public bath house diminished…. Read more »

Endangered: Jackson County Jail, Andrew

Preservation Iowa’s Most Endangered 2018: Jackson County Jail, Andrew (Jackson County) The Andrew Jail was constructed in 1871 of locally quarried Niagara limestone and is the only structural reminder that Andrew once served as the Jackson County seat (1841-1851 and 1861-1873). Even after the county seat moved to Maquoketa in 1873, the jail at Andrew… Read more »

Endangered: Thomas D. Murphy Co., Red Oak

Preservation Iowa’s Most Endangered 2018: Thomas D. Murphy Co., Red Oak (Montgomery County) The oldest section of this three-story brick factory was built in 1905 to house the world renowned Thomas D. Murphy Co., at one-time one of the nation’s largest makers of advertising art calendars. Designed by Omaha architect Harry Lawrie, the building was… Read more »

Endangered: Dr. J.W. Smith Building, Charles City

Preservation Iowa’s Most Endangered 2018: Dr. J.W. Smith Building, Charles City (Floyd County) The Dr. J.W. Smith Building at 201-203 N. Main was built in 1866 by Dr. Joel Washington Smith, one of the first physicians to move to what was then St. Charles and open a practice. For many years the building housed a… Read more »

2018 PI Most Endangered Properties Call for Nominations

The Most Endangered Properties program started in 1995 to educate Iowans about the special buildings, sites, and structures that are slowly and gradually slipping away from us. Preservation Iowa designated nine properties as the 2017 Most Endangered Properties and some of these properties have been highlighted in other preservation publications since their designation. In the… Read more »

Preservation Iowa Announces 2017 “Most Endangered Properties”

Preservation Iowa has designated 9 properties for 2017 Most Endangered Designations. Here are the 2017 Most Endangered Properties: Preservation Iowa’s Most Endangered Property program was started in 1995 and was implemented to educate Iowans about the special buildings and historic sites that are slowly and gradually slipping away from us. In the past 20 years,… Read more »

Endangered: Red Bridge, Monroe

Preservation Iowa’s 2017 Most Endangered Buildings: Red Bridge, Monroe (Jasper County) Red Bridge is a Warren Truss bridge built in 1892, costing $3515.34. It spans South Skunk River south of Reasnor in Fairview Township, Jasper County. The bridge functioned as built until it was extensively damaged by flooding in 1947. The county then replaced one… Read more »

Endangered: Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, Waterloo

Preservation Iowa’s 2017 Most Endangered Buildings: Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, Waterloo (Black Hawk County) Grace Methodist Episcopal Church built the church in 1911 and it was dedicated in 1912. The church was designed in a Neoclassical Revival style by the architectural firm of Turnbull & Jones of Elgin, Illinois, which disbanded shortly after the… Read more »