Union Block, Mount Pleasant Iowa

Built in 1861, the Union Block building holds an important place in the history of Mount Pleasant in addition to its national significance as the served as a meeting hall for the community including abolitionists, women's rights advocates, prohibitionists, and temperance supporters. Several nationally known figures gave lectures here including Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Susan B. Anthony. In 1869, this building saw history as Arabella Mansfield became the first woman admitted to practice law by a state bar association at this site. Union Block is also significant for its Italianate architecture with a red brick exterior, arched windows with brick-patterned hoodmolds, and a bracketed cornice. Today the building includes commercial space on the first and second floors and an event venue on the third floor. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Lawyer Henry Amber and dry-goods salesman, E.L. Penn, built the Union Block as a joint investment. Information about why they decided to build it is not readily available, but they may have recognized that the community needed a community gathering place. The building functioned then like it does now. Businesses occupied the first floor, the second floor contained offices, and the third floor was a meeting hall.

Over the years, the building gradually fell into disrepair. A local organization called Main Street Mount Pleasant led the effort to have the building designated one of Iowa's "most endangered properties" in 2008. In 2011, a fire severely damaged the building. Fortunately, the building was renovated and restored in 2014 with additional work being completed in the following years.

Arabella Mansfield, who was also known as Bella, was just 24 years old when she became the first female lawyer in the country. She studied law in her brother's local law office and took and passed the bar exam in the Union Block (her husband, John, took and passed the exam as well). At that time, only white men 21 or older were allowed to become lawyers in Iowa. As a result, she had fight for her admittance into the bar in court, which ruled in her favor. She was then sworn in at the Union Block. Mansfield never practiced law, however, as her main interests were teaching and women's rights activism. She taught at Iowa Wesleyan College (now university) and at what was is now DePauw University in Indiana. A monument dedicated to her is located nearby on the Iowa Wesleyan University campus.

"A More Perfect Union in Mount Pleasant, Iowa." Mount Pleasant Iowa. Accessed November 16, 2021. https://mountpleasantiowa.org/union-block/.

Johnson, Cheryl Fusco. "The Union Block Building: Mount Pleasant Citizens Rescue a Structure with Ties to the Nation’s First Female Lawyer." The Iowa Source. January 20, 2020. https://www.iowasource.com/2020/01/20/union-block-building.

Naumann, Molly Myers. "Union Block." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. September 6, 1991. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/9db9de36-cb95-4987-a722-5e7976e2eb25.

"Union Block." Preservation Iowa. Accessed November 16, 2021. http://www.preservationiowa.org/preservation-at-its-best/union-block-building.