William Englert and his wife, Etta, built the theater in 1912.&nbsp;The theater&nbsp;contained over 1,000 seats and were films were shown in addition the vaudeville acts. William and his family lived on the second floor and the acts stayed on the third floor. William died of a brain hemorrhage in 1920. Etta hired A.H Blank and Nate Chapman to manage the theater. Nate passed away in 1925 but his wife Dora and her brother partnered with Blank to manage operations. A fire in 1926 almost destroyed the theater but the partners rebuilt it. It was modernized in the 1970s-1980s and sold in 1999 to a bar owner but the City of Iowa City later bought it so that funds could be raised for renovations, which were completed in&nbsp;2004.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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The Englert Theater is an historic, vaudeville era theater built in 1912 in downtown Iowa City, Iowa. It was designed by Vorse, Kraitsch, & Kraitsch, and Wiley & Son in the Renaissance Revival style. It is now a community arts center operated by the non-profit art organization, Englert Civic Theater. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. 

Englert Theater

Explore the history of Iowa City with this brief walking tour that includes historic buildings such as the Union Brewery, Englert Theatre, the former Iowa Capitol, and the Johnson County Courthouse. The tour also includes a stop at a home that was part of the Underground Railroad and the Centennial Building, home to one of the two research centers operated by the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI). Many of the entries in this tour were created by faculty and students at the University of Iowa and we hope to add additional sites to the tour in the near future. 

Iowa City Walking Tour

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The museum's origins date to the early 1960s when a Cedar Rapids couple, Owen and Leone Elliot, offered to donate their art collection of 20th-century paintings, prints, antique silver, and jade to the university. However, the Elliots would only do so if the university built a museum to house their collection as well as university's collection. The university agreed and, with financial support from the community, built the museum in 1969. In 1976, a 27,000 square-foot addition was built.A flood in 2008 forced the evacuation of the museum's collection, which was first put into temporary storage in Chicago. In 2009 the Figge Art Museum offered to house the collection and present exhibitions until the university erected a new museum. In August an art venue on the university campus now called the Stanley Visual Classroom was opened in the Iowa Memorial Union. It houses over 500 works from the museum's collection.The university began developing plans to build the new museum in 2014. In 2017, the university received a $10 million dollar donation for the project Richard and. Mary Jo Stanley. In 2018, the museum was renamed after them in recognition of their gift. The new building will be located a few blocks to the south.

Established in 1969, the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art is considered to be one of the country's leading university art museums. It houses an impressive collection of around 15,500 works of art from Iowa and around the world. The collection includes paintings, photographs, drawings, sculpture, prints, textiles, jade, silver, and ceramics. Notable artists represented in the collection include Picasso, Matisse, Miró, and Kandinsky. The museum houses one of the country's best collections of African art, 6,000 prints spanning Western printmaking, 2,000 Pre-Columbian objects, Chinese art, Etruscan and Roman art, Native American ledger drawings, and 20th century American paintings and sculpture. Perhaps the museum's most well-known works are Max Beckmann's painting Karneval, and Jackson Pollock's Mural. As of 2021, the museum in the process of constructing a new building scheduled to open in 2022 but offers exhibitions in temporary locations including the Figge Art Museum in Davenport.

Stanley Museum of Art

The Iowa General Assembly established the museum in 1858 and instructed the university, which was founded in 1855, to house specimens from the State Natural History and Geological Surveys in the Old Capitol building. The museum began as a repository called a "cabinet" where specimens could be housed and studied. As such, the museum was first named the Cabinet of Natural History (it was later given its current name in 1887). The faculty at the time called for such a facility to be established to help teach the natural sciences. Geological specimens were the first to be collected in the early years of the museum. Under the leadership of geology professor Samuel Calvin, who became curator in 1873, the cabinet's collection grew to include mammal, fossil, and bird specimens. In 1885, the museum moved to what is now known as Calvin Hall, which was first known as Science Hall.The museum continued to grow during the 41-year tenure of the next curator, Charles C. Nutting, who was one of Calvin's graduate students. Nutting became curator in 1886 and specialized in the taxonomy and geographic distribution of animals. He was also very interested in marine biology. Over the course of his tenure, Nutting organized and led several university expeditions to collect specimens and gave public lectures about them. He also created a number of popular exhibits for the public to showcase his work.The size of the collection grew during these years as well and by 1895 Nutting started calling for a new, larger building for the museum. The effort finally paid off in when the university's board of regents approved of the project in 1904. Construction of the new building, originally called the Natural Sciences Building, was completed in 1908. It was renamed Macbride Hall in 1934. The Laysan Cyclorama was created in 1914 and was one of the first in the world to showcase birds or animals in their natural habitat in a cycloramic format. One of the few cycloramas to still exist, it is twelve feet tall and features a 138-foot long mural.By the 1960s, use of the museum collection for instruction had declined. The university president at the time, Howard R. Bowen, saw no educational value to the collection (aside from being popular with school children) and proposed closing the museum. Student enrollment had also increased significantly and there was a need for additional space in the central part of campus. However, the students, faculty, and alumni strongly disagreed with Bowen's plan and the museum was not closed. Beginning in 1972 when a new curator was hired, the museum's exhibits were redesigned. This effort was successful and the museum started to attract visitors. The museum has remained popular since then.

Founded in 1858, the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History is the second oldest university museum west of the Mississippi River. It houses a collection of 140,000 specimens, objects, and artifacts from Iowa and around the world. The museum features several permanent exhibits: Iowa Hall, which explores the state's geological, cultural, and ecological history; the William and Eleanor Hagebock Hall of Birds; the Biosphere Discovery Hub, which explores the relationship between people and the environment; the Laysan Island Cyclorama, which is a 360-degree diorama of a Hawaiian atoll called Laysan; Mammal Hall; and Diversity of Life, which features exhibits in the ground-floor hallway displaying a variety of specimens. The museum is housed in Macbride Hall, which is part of the Pentacrest area of campus that features four buildings surrounding the Old Capitol building. Pentracrest is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The University of Iowa Museum of Natural History

As the University of Iowa&nbsp;grew, the Old Capitol served as a library, chapel, and classroom and office space.&nbsp;The building also held the law school and continued to function as a classroom and office building until the 1970s. University presidents had their offices in the building as well. In the early 1970s, the state and the university decided to completely restore the historic building as a museum that preserves and shares the history of the state and the university. The structure is one of the most significant historic buildings in the state and one of only a few National Historic Landmarks in the area.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Constructed in stages beginning in 1840, this former state capitol now stands as the most prominent landmark at the center of the University of Iowa's campus. The governor and state assembly met at this location from 1840, when the building was partially completed, to 1857 when the legislature voted to move the state capitol further west to the growing city of Des Moines. The building was almost complete when the legislature voted to move the state capital to Des Moines. From 1857 to 1863, the former state capitol served as the first and only building of the University of Iowa. From 1868 to 1910, this building held the university's law school. Following many years of renovation, the former capitol opened as a museum and a National Historic Landmark in 1976. 

Old Capitol Building and Museum, Iowa City

<div>At the time, universities were using radio to reach far away audiences by broadcasting lectures and round table discussions from their professors. Video provided a better method of communication and content delivery. Despite the use of TV, radio still had to be used as an audio source because video and audio signals could not be simultaneously transmitted.&nbsp;</div><div> </div><div>At the time of launch, the University of Iowa had only one program that aired 7:00-7:30pm, once a week. The building where the broadcast took place is next door to Van Allen Hall, the building named after famous U of Iowa professor, Dr. James Van Allen, who played a critical role in Space education and innovation in the mid-1900s.</div>

At this location in 1933, the University of Iowa became the first American university to broadcast a television program. The first TV broadcast in the state was just two years prior in 1931 at the Iowa State Fair and University scientists were intrigued by the technology and opportunity. The broadcasts were made from the university's former engineering building which was located where the "Biology Building East" now stands. The audio was broadcast separately on the university's campus radio signal while W9XK broadcast the television signal. The programs were broadcast for seven years from the basement of the former engineering building and letters from viewers in neighboring states demonstrate that the signal was strong enough to reach up to five hundred miles. To date, there is not a historical marker on the University of Iowa campus to commemorate this achievement. 

Site of the World's First Educational TV Broadcast

In 1856 German immigrant Simeon Hotz built the first structure of the brewery. However, his initial business was shoemaking. It was not until 1868 that he, along with his son-in-law Anton Geiger, founded Union Brewery. Three other breweries opened in the city at this time and they were connected by the beer caves, which are actually&nbsp;tunnels. Additions to the first building were constructed in two other phases. The company continued to make beer&nbsp;until 1966, when it became a bottling business. Eventually, the building was bought and made available to new businesses. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

The Union Brewery Building is an historic building located in downtown Iowa City, Iowa. Beer is no longer made there and now houses private businesses. It was not built at one time but was added onto over several years (the first portion was built in 1856). The building has several addresses attached to it: 127-131 N. Linn and 221-227 E. Market. It is famous for its "beer caves", which, if efforts are successful, will become available for tours or other commercial activities.

Union Brewery Building

Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli (his birth name in Italian was Carlo Gaetano Samuele Mazzuchelli) was born to a wealthy family on November 4, 1806 in Milan, Italy. His father wanted him to become a politician but Mazzuchelli developed a strong affinity for Catholicism during his childhood. As a result, he decided to renounce his wealthy life and joined the Dominican Order as a novitiate when he was 17. He studied at the Dominican college in Rome before being ordained a subdeacon in 1827. It was there that he met and became friends with future Pope Gregoy XVI.After becoming a subdeacon, the Vicar General of the Diocese of Cincinnati, Fr. Frederick Rese, asked Mazzuchelli to come to the United States conduct missionary work in the Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, and eastern Iowa region. He arrived Cincinnati in 1828 where Bishop Edward Fenwick officially ordained him as a priest (since Mazzuchelli was only 23, he received a special dispensation to be ordained). Mazzuchelli was first assigned to Mackinac Island in Michigan, which at the time had an American fort and was a thriving fur trading hub. He restored a small unoccupied church and hosted a series of conferences where he defended Catholicism against a local Presbyterian minister.By 1831, Mazzuchelli had moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin. He built a stone church in called St. John the Evangelist, and established schools for children and adults (both European and Indian). To teach Catholicism, music, geometry, math, and American history to the local Indians, he prepared texts in the Menominee language (it is not clear whether he wrote these texts or could speak the language). Mazzuchelli also taught Indians how to build houses and grow crops using European methods. He also taught Indian women how to sew. By the mid-1830s, there were 1,000 Christian Indians living in Green Bay. In 1833, Mazzuchelli wrote a letter to his old friend and now Pope Gregory XVI describing the evangelizing work he had done in Wisconsin, and suggested that the Diocese of Cincinnati be divided. Pope Gregory agreed and established the Diocese of Detroit that year.In 1835, Mazzuchelli helped establish a church in Dubuque, Iowa. Two years later, the Diocese of Dubuque was established. Over the following years, Mazzuchelli preached in southwestern Wisconsin, eastern Iowa, and northwestern Illinois to Indians as well as European immigrants. He built more than 20 churches in cities in the region. Five still exist today including St. Patrick's in Benton, Wisconsin and St. Mary of the Visitation (he may have also designed the Old Capitol Building in Iowa City).By the early 1840s, bouts of fever weakened Mazzuchelli's health and he returned to Milan, Italy in 1843 to try to recover. He had been gone for 22 years. During his time in Italy he wrote his memoirs and received permission to establish a Dominican province, a male college, and a community of Dominican sisters in what is now Sinsinawa, Wisconsin. He returned to Wisconsin in 1844 and established the college, which no longer exists, two years later (the Dominican sisters' community was founded in 1847).Mazzuchelli spent his last years in Benton, Wisconsin where he helped established the Santa Clara Academy for girls. He taught many subjects there including astronomy and oil painting. When he was 57, he caught pneumonia while visiting a parishioner and died on February 23, 1864. He was buried in the cemetery at St. Patrick's.

St. Mary of the Visitation Catholic Church was built in 1867 and is home to a congregation founded in 1841 by pioneer Dominican missionary Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli (1806-1864). It is a parish of the Dioceses of Davenport and a typical example of 19th century ecclesiastical architecture. Built of red brick and stone trim, the church features widespread use of round arches, a bell tower, buttresses, pilasters, and stained-glass windows. The bell tower houses a four-sided clock and is topped by an octagonal spire. St. Mary's was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

St. Mary of the Visitation Catholic Church 

Following years of significant cuts to the State Historical Society's budget, the Iowa City research library was in danger of being eliminated altogether. The archive's small staff and many volunteers worked to prevent the archive from closing but the future of the research library and the entire Department of Cultural&nbsp;Affairs remains uncertain. This archive holds over 160,000 books, 30,000 reels of microfilm, thousands of maps and oral histories, and about one million photographs. The reading room is no longer open throughout the week but volunteers continue to offer support to area historians and genealogists.&nbsp;

Established in 1857 at what is now the University of Iowa in Iowa City, the State Historical Society of Iowa preserves and interpretts the state's history. One of two research centers, the Centennial Building of Iowa City includes archivists and millions of documents and historic photographs that can assist researchers and archivists. The state also maintains an archive in Des Moines at the State Historical Building on Locust St. 

State Historical Society Research Center, Iowa City

<div>On February 24,
1859, John Brown passed through Iowa City with several former enslaved persons and abolitionists on their way to Springdale, Iowa. At the time, abolitionists were persecuted and Iowa City was divided over the issue of the growing political divide related to the extension of slavery. </div><div>

Brown and a companion held a covert meeting in Iowa City with local abolitionists Dr. Jesse Bowen and
William Penn Clark. Brown was seeking railroad car arrangements to move his group
further east. Word got out about Brown being in town and soon others were on
the lookout for this so-called anti-slavery “fanatic.” Dr. Bowen harbored Brown
at his house on 914 Iowa Avenue until, during early hours of the morning, Cololnel S. C. Trowbridge guided them out of town via back roads. 

Dr.
Jesse Bowen, a pioneer physician, early editor of a temperance newspaper and
later a state senator, actively opposed slavery and befriended those who took
direct action against it. He took delivery of revolvers from Massachusetts
shipped to Brown in care of Jesse Bowen. In March 1859, Brown also entrusted
Bowen with disposing of arms remaining in Tabor. 

W.
Penn Clarke, an active member of the Kansas national committee for Iowa, a
prominent man in Republican party circles, and an energetic successful lawyer,
applied his intensely partisan views to aiding men such as John Brown in
Underground Railroad efforts. Next Stop: Springdale, Iowa&nbsp;

&nbsp;

 </div>

This was the location of the home of Jesse Bowen, an influential physician and an outspoken opponent of slavery. Bowen was a leading member of the Whig Party in Indiana and came to Iowa in 1840. Bowen remained active in politics and was part of the vanguard who created the Republican Party in opposition to the disproportionate power of Southern planters and the extension of slavery in the West. Prior to the Civil War, Bowen served in the Iowa Senate and was appointed Adjutant General. At the age of 60, Bowen resigned his public office to serve as a civilian employee of the Union Army. Bowen was also a strong supporter of John Brown and met with Brown and his supporters clandestinely at this home while he was in Iowa City meeting with fellow anti-slavery men. Bowen's home was not preserved and the location is now home to a wood frame home that is private property. 

Former Home of Dr. Jesse Bowen (John Brown in Iowa City)

Thomas C. Carson, who arrived in Iowa City in 1855 on the first train that reached the town, became one of the leading local businessmen in the county for several decades. He first opened a hardware store and eventually began selling agricultural equipment as well. Carson helped organize the Johnson County Savings Bank in 1872 and later served as president for 28 years. He was a stockholder in a company that acquired an eastern Iowa newspaper in 1879, and had financial interests the city's utilities, including the gas and electric light companies, which he controlled with his sons. Carson was involved in community and civic affairs as well. He served as a city councilman and helped build the courthouse. In 1864 he served as secretary of the Johnson County Agricultural Society. He died in 1905.

The Thomas C. Carson House is one of the few homes designed in the Second Empire style remaining in Iowa. Its namesake, businessman Thomas C. Carson, built it in 1875. The structure is now a sorority house for the University of Iowa chapter of Alpha Phi. The house is three stories high and features a mansard roof with a diamond shingle pattern, decorative window headers, and an arched double-door at the main entrance. The house is was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and is a contributing property of the East College Street Historic District, which is also listed on the National Register.

Thomas C. Carson House

The house is named
after a local businessman, Lindsay (it is currently unclear of that was his
first or last name), who built and presumably lived in it. The River City
Housing Collective now runs the house. The collective is a non-profit that
offers low cost housing to students and community members.&nbsp;

The River City Housing Collective always welcomes new
members joining in one of their houses. They emphasize having a healthy social
environment as well as teaching management, cooking, maintenance, and
communication skills.

This Lindsay House, now called the Bloom County House, is one of the three houses belonging to the River City Housing Collective. Built in 1893, It was designed by architect George F. Barber and Company in the Queen Anne revival style. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. 

Lindsay House (Bloom County House)

Trinity Church traces its roots to the missionary activities of&nbsp;Reverend Jackson Kemper, a missionary, who first visited the area on July 10, 1841. He continued his visits until the parish was formed on August 7, 1853. The first rector&nbsp;of the church, the Rev. Willis H. Barris, came to Trinity on October 15, 1855. The parish had no regular meeting place until 1862 when it purchased the Athenaeum, which was used by the congregation&nbsp;until the present church was completed on October 1, 1871. [2]&nbsp;The Athenaeum building was later sold to St. Patrick's Catholic Church in 1873. [3]The present church building was built on property purchased from Samuel and Sarah Ballard in 1868. The design for the church is attributed to Richard Upjohn, but there is some evidence that it resembles a drawing by Bishop Randall of Colorado that was published in&nbsp;The Spirit of Missions&nbsp;in May 1867. [2]&nbsp;The church is a wood structure in the Gothic Revival style. While the sanctuary remains similar to the day it was built, additions for educational facilities and a parish hall have been added over the years.

Trinity Episcopal Church dates back to the establishment of a congregation by missionaries in 1841. The church building was completed in 1871 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Trinity Episcopal Church

Chalmer D. Close was born in 1832 in Genoa, New York arrived in Iowa City in 1854 to join Manley who had already been living here for several months. They opened a candle, soap and lard factory on Gilbert Street that became profitable. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the supply of cotton seeds decreased, which prompted Iowa farmers to grow flax seeds instead. A number of products are made from flax seeds including linseed oil and flax straw, which is used to make linen and high-quality paper. The Close brothers recognized this shift in the market and opened the linseed oil mill, called the M.T. Close &amp; Company, in 1861.A few years later, Manley established a paper mill in the town of Coralville using the flax straw produced at the oil mill. At its peak the mill produced six tons of paper every day. Tragically, an explosion in 1875 killed six workers and the mill was never rebuilt. The linseed oil mill was acquired by the National Linseed Oil Company in the late 1880s. Close continued to oversee operations of the mill until he died of pneumonia in 1890. The mill eventually closed in 1898.Close built the house kitty corner from the linseed oil mill. It cost $15,000 to build, which in today's dollars would be $360,000. In addition to its elegant Italianate design, the house boasted steam heat (the steam was supplied to the house via pipes connected to the mill), eight fireplaces, a library, a billiards and chess room, and a walnut staircase. In all, the house had 14 rooms and three bathrooms.Close was married and had three daughters and one son. After he died, his wife Helen donated $10,000 to help build a YMCA/YWCA building on the University of Iowa campus. It was named Close Hall in his honor. One of the Close' daughters, Emma, got married in the house in 1892 to the son of another prominent local family. Helen lived in the house until she died in 1920. Three years later the family sold it to a fraternity but the Close' reacquired it again in 1930 when the fraternity got into financial trouble. The family sold it to the county in 1941 and it became the Johnson County Department of Social Services. Over the following few decades, the house was significantly altered. The cupola, widow's walk, balcony, and main entrance columns were removed. Fortunately, the owners who bought the house in 1981 it began to restore it. They ran their interior design studio and furniture showroom in the house until 2019 when they moved to a new location.

This Iowa City landmark was built by industrialist Chalmer D. Close in 1874. A fine example of Italianate architecture, the Close House was once the center of a small but prosperous industrial hub that Close and his brother, Manley, developed during and after the Civil War. Close operated a number of businesses including a linseed oil company and a glove factory, both of which were located nearby. In terms of design, the mansion is a fine example of Italianate architecture. It is three stories tall and features arched windows with decorative molded sandstone caps, a three-sided projecting pavilion topped with a balcony, a main entrance portico, an elaborate cornice, and a cupola with small glass windows. The house is now home to a non-profit arts organization called Public Space One. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Close House

Construction lasted from 1899-1901. It was the fourth county courthouse built and was&nbsp;referred to as the "Temple of Justice", given the semi-religious symbolism of its interior and exterior&nbsp;architecture. The tower is modeled after the tower at Trinity Church in Boston. The courthouse is one of the best examples of Richardsonian Romanesque buildings in Iowa.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Johnson County Courthouse was built in 1901 and houses Iowa City's county government offices including the City Attorney and Clerk of Court's offices. It was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style by architect A.W. Rush. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in December, 1974.

Iowa City Walking Tour

Englert Theater

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information